I think most business owners are excited about the idea of using the internet to do targeted marketing.
Search engines like Google have allowed us to do pay per click advertising to a certain demographic in terms of location and search terms for years. (Ex: target this ad text to people searching “internet marketing” in Maine.)
Yet, when we all think of social media sites like Facebook, we know much more demographic information is available from users that we can take advantage of:
- marital status
- interests
- location (specific to town)
- employer
- age
- and more…
So how would a small business use this? Here’s an example: one of my clients wanted to have a sale during the last snowstorm. He wanted to give a 25% discount to those who braved the weather. So in addition to the usual social media about it, I also took out a Facebook ad targeting his ideal customer within several miles of the Bar Harbor area (didn’t want too many people driving in a blizzard!), in total targeting about 200 people for the five hours he was open. It was economical and had around 400 impressions (and one click) so I know that people did see it.
Companies have begun taking advantage of this targeting particularly on Facebook. And a few of us have noticed some weird ads in the Facebook sidebar. Here’s one from my friend Renee that’s the funniest I’ve seen yet:
This actually prompted us to start a separate blog about it: http://badfacebook.tumblr.com/ (There is a ‘Submit’ button if you have your own fun ad you’d like to contribute.)
Based on what we’ve seen, a few tips to target your ad, on Facebook or other sites like it:
- Make sure the ad text/idea matches the target. If you’re advertising a wedding photography business, don’t make it show up for single people. Don’t talk about running after your toddler to 60 year olds. You’re just wasting money on people who see your ad and think “This doesn’t apply to me.”
- Don’t worry about targeting a very small group of people. That’s the idea. Wouldn’t you rather pay to target 100 people who might buy your product than 1,000 people who never will? Be as specific about your customer as you want.
- Do a little A/B testing. Experiment by running two different ads with different photos or slightly different wording and see which ads do better. Use these results in future advertisements.
- Use keyword research. You have a limited amount of space to display the text of an ad so put words in it that people are searching for. There are many keyword tools out there that can give you an idea of not only how often a keyword is searched but how valuable it is. For example, if you knew ‘maine rentals’ was more searched and higher valued than ‘maine vacation homes’, wouldn’t you want to use that? (This is true by the way, I do offer keyword research as one of my internet marketing services if you’re interested!)
- Pick a good photo, and one that you have permission to use. Try a Creative Commons search or use something you’ve created. In the example above, a photo from a horror movie probably isn’t the best way to promote your social worker education program. It makes you either look like you’re trying to be funny (which is weird) or that you’re completely out of touch (which means people won’t want to give you money to enter your program).
- Link to your Facebook page. People who are on Facebook want to stay there as a general rule. Your ad will be more successful linking to a Facebook page or event versus an external website.
Can this take the place of all your marketing efforts? No. Is this a tool that, if used properly, can help you out? Absolutely. And while Facebook is the popular targeted ad option, any website out there collecting this demographic information about users has potential for business use as well.
So rather than being annoyed by these ads, realize you can use them to promote your business… or at least have an occasional laugh.