Audience targeting capabilities

Facebook ads allow marketers to pinpoint audiences that they believe will be interested in their ads by using various options such as, location, gender, interest or behaviour targeting to name just a few.

For example, if an online travel agency desired to target males that are travelling abroad for the Rugby World Cup, they could set their targeting criteria to males in South Africa who are interested in Rugby/World Cup Rugby and who are planning to travel.

Reach your mobile audience

The statistics speak for themselves, 1.25 billion mobile monthly active users as of 31 March 2015 and these numbers are growing.

Exposure for Products and Services

Facebook is the second most visited site in the world and thereby gives ads tons of exposure. With over 1.4 billion active users Facebook provides a massive amount of ad ‘reach’.

Rich content. Where traditional display ads lack in informative content in terms of visuals, Facebook ad creators capture the attention of their targeted audience(s) by producing punchy messaging that is combined with effective imagery.

For those interested in adding Facebook Advertising to their arsenal, here are some explanations that will take social media ad producers from zero to hero.

Campaign Level
This is where ad producers set the scene for the rest of their account.

At the campaign level, ad creators set overall campaign objectives, some of which include: Clicks to Website; Website Conversions; Page Post Engagement; Page Likes; App Installs; App Engagement; Offer Claims; Local Awareness; Event Responses; and Video Views.

Whatever the campaign objective might be, Rhodes recommends: “Constantly test your ads. You need to test them over and over again before you get an idea of the type of ads that work best with your target audience. Testing helps social media marketers understand what's happening and enables them to strategically act on the insights.” 

Targeting

Facebook offers an extensive range of targeting opportunities:

  • Location: The location of the audience being targeted.
  • Age: Ad creators can select the minimum and maximum age of the audience who will find their ad relevant.
  • Gender: Rhodes recommend selecting "All" unless ad creators only want ads to be shown to either men or women.
  • Connections: Reach people who have a specific kind of connection to the company’s Facebook Page, app or event. This will narrow the audience to include only people with that specific connection who also meet the other targeting categories selected.
  • Languages: Rhodes recommend that this section be left blank unless the audience targeted uses a language that is not common to the location selected.
  • Interests: Facebook can help marketers reach specific audiences by looking at their interests, activities, the pages they have liked and closely related topics. Marketers can combine interests to expand the reach of their ad(s).
  • Behaviours: Reach people based on purchase behaviours or intents, device usage and more.
  • More Categories: Find any Facebook or Partner Categories you've requested access to here. Some data is available for US audiences only.
  • Facebook targeting enables marketers to reach audiences with their ads before their target clients search for their products or services.

Some shocking statistics
As of the first quarter of 2015, Facebook had 1.44 billion monthly active users worldwide – that’s a lot of eyeballs! Moreover, the information available about these users is extensive, making marketers’ lives easier, enabling them to create a better experience for their audience.

Marketers benefit because their ads reach the audience most likely to respond to their advertisement and Facebook users benefit because they are only being shown ads that might interest them.

People are now spending more time on mobile apps, like Facebook

It is important to note that the way people shop has changed, and not just because they’re discovering goods online. People are now spending more time on mobile than on desktop, and of the time they spend on mobile phones, they’re spending most of it on mobile apps, like Facebook, not internet browsers.

As people change how they browse and discover products, advertisers need new ways to showcase goods in the places where people are discovering them. This is another one of the reasons why many marketers are turning to Facebook ads.

No matter what the campaign goals are, Facebook has come a long way as an advertising platform over the past several years and marketers would be wise to incorporate this advertising channel in their digital marketing strategies.

For more information, connect with Julia Rhodes on Facebook as well as on Twitter or LinkedIn.