Facebook is the largest and most popular social network site in the world, with 1.18 billion daily active users. With such an incredible reach, local businesses would be missing a trick by not using Facebook for marketing purposes. And posting on Facebook alone doesn’t cut the mustard, especially for businesses just starting out and wanting to create brand awareness.
SMBs are always looking for more cost-effective ways than print ads to promote their local business and the best way to do that is through optimized Facebook advertising. The main advantage that Facebook Ads offer is its ability to get granular on the audience. It allows targeting the right potential customers based on variables like location, age, gender, interests, marital status, and more. You no longer need to throw away your money to drive people to your Facebook Page and send them to your website. You can be smart with your money as Facebook Ads help customers find you. It is possible to run inexpensive Facebook advertising to drive new customers into the shop and see a positive return on your investment. Moreover, with Facebook you also get visual ad options instead of just text-based ads
Most local business owners have very specific targeting in mind as they are working within a small area for wider reach and maybe an interest in retargeting. So the most important goals of online ad campaign for local businesses are often better aligned with Facebook. Understanding the right Facebook advertising strategies to use for your local business can help you avoid costly mistakes during execution.
Why Are Facebook Ads Just Right For Local Business?
- Reach Your Ideal Customer
Facebook is a social platform with an enormous reach. Moreover, it allows you to target the right people in your local area with online ads to drive in-store sales. Facebook advertising allows you to hyper-target the audience that sees your ad to closely match your ideal customer. For instance, if you are running a yoga program in your gym, you can target your Facebook ads to show up to young women between 19 to 30 who attend the university near your studio. This can save you from wasting money on showing ads to people that are not interested in your business.
- Target People Within The Geographical Area Of Your Business
Facebook Ads gives you options to target and display your Ads to people as finitely as a single town or city close to your business so that they can walk or drive to your store. For instance, if you own a men’s clothing store, you can target your Facebook ads for men between the ages of 40 and 50 that live within 10 miles of your store.
- Target Previous Customers
You can use Facebook’s Custom Audience and Look-A-Like Audience targeting option to reach out specific people with Ads on Facebook. You may have collected email addresses or phone numbers from people who have purchased from you in the past. If your business runs any loyalty program, then you will have this information. All you have to do is upload a list of email addresses to Facebook so that it can match them to their associated Facebook account
- Promote Coupons And Offers
Facebook Ads require you to provide an incentive to get people to click. People on Facebook are not actively searching for something to buy when they see your Ad on Facebook. Therefore you need to give people something to intrigue or arouse their interest, something that gives your audience value. Your ad must provide an incentive for your audience to click and also get clicks from people who are interested in buying from you. The best way to do that is through coupons and offers! Even something as small as 25% off, can prompt a click from someone, especially if it’s from a local business near them. You can use third-party Facebook coupon app, or Facebook’s Offers app, to easily advertise your coupons and get people to claim them on Facebook.
Final Thoughts
Good ad copy, visuals, and CTA, all work together to present a compelling message to your target audience in every successful Facebook Ad campaign. Advertising on Facebook is a fantastic marketing tool for local business owners, as long as it eases people through a sales funnel by first making them aware of your business, then establishing your business as reliable and finally making the pitch for conversion. Lastly, keep optimizing your Facebook Ads and tweaking them to get the best ROI out of them by A/B testing them.
We at DirectiveGroup can help you create engaging Facebook Ad campaigns and set it up to get the most views and clicks so that you pay less per click on your ad!
