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Advertising your business on Facebook and Instagram

Charley Sixsmith Social Media

As the final stage of the buying process, Google Search and Shopping ads are a very powerful medium for marketing and boosting your sales, but social media is also a crucial tool in your campaign. Advertising your business on Facebook and Instagram allows you to market to a whole new audience. You can then turn this audience into followers, and continue marketing your business to them.

Facebook is a key example of the advantages that Social Media marketing can bring to you. According to Statista, Facebook has 2.89 billion monthly active users, making it the biggest social network worldwide, and one of the best places for you to advertise.

Facebook offers a variety of ad types for your business; you can choose from in-feed ads, story ads, image ads and many more.

Why should I advertise on Facebook?

Social Media advertisement, especially advertising your business on Facebook and Instagram, could mean reaching more customers than ever. More importantly, using Facebook to market your business could be one of the best ways to reach your marketing goals. On average, Facebook users spend 2 hours and 24 minutes each day on the app. This means that users spend a long time browsing Facebook and therefore seeing your ads.

Here are some more advantages of advertising on Facebook:

Facebook Ads are easy to set up

Facebook has simplified the process for businesses to set up ads, taking you through guided steps and giving you the ability to customise any aspect of your ad. You can choose any ad format, bidding option and delivery technique that suits you and your budget.

Your Facebook organic reach is not enough

For many years, Facebook has been scaling back the amount that they show your content to your organic audience. If you own a Facebook business page and are not using ads, likely, Facebook is only showing your business to around 5.2% of your followers – not nearly enough to sustain a campaign. Therefore, using Facebook ads could be the helping hand that you need.

Facebook uses Video ads

The most well-known algorithm hack is that videos perform the best on social media networks. Since 2016, Facebook has focused on becoming the biggest provider of video ads on the internet. Not only do video ads attract more customers than any other ad type, but they also convert more. Clear Pivot said that they have found videos drive clicks more than images, and 20 to 30% more conversions are made when using video ads.

To complete your personal marketing goals, video ads on Facebook are a key component in the process.

Ads on Facebook won’t break the bank

The price of advertising on Facebook is completely controlled by you. You can set your budget from the moment you create your first ad, and can completely stop showing your ads once you reach that limit. Complete control over your budget will help you and your business to keep track of your spending, goals and results.

The power of Targeting

As a social media platform, Facebook gathers information about their users such as location, demographics, interests, behaviour and connections. This means that your business can target users at a variety of stages in the purchasing journey. Your business can even target users based on their consumer behaviours such as past purchases and the devices they use. This allows for your business to understand and get the most out of your audience.

Trackable results, quickly

The ability to measure the performance of your ads is an invaluable tool in digital marketing. This is made possible by Facebook’s insights on your ad campaigns; they simplify the process by providing all of your results in one place. In real-time, you can track your ads’ likes, comments, shares, page likes and click-through rates, allowing you to make changes as and when they are needed to get the best results for your business.

What about Instagram?

With an impressive reach of over 1.2 billion users, Instagram could help you to advertise your brand to more customers than ever before. Owned by Facebook, Instagram is a sure way to guarantee new views when it comes to reaching for your business. Similar to Facebook, Instagram ads appear throughout the users’ feed, on their Stories, Posts, Explore and more.

Is Instagram advertising right for me?

Any business in 2021 should seriously consider advertising on Instagram. With a huge, diverse community, Instagram is the place where creative and visually pleasing content thrives. If you know that your business can create and promote eye-catching and impressive content, Instagram is the place for you. Though, if that isn’t convincing enough, here are some more reasons why Instagram advertising is for you:

The Engagement rate

Instagram’s engagement rate is one of the best in social media networks, especially for purchasing purposes. Depending on your marketing goals, your business could have the best chance of increasing conversions on Instagram alone. The minimally intrusive, seamless ads that Instagram offers allows your business to put your products in front of the right people at the right time.

Stories!

Instagram’s Stories are one of the best and easiest tools that you can use in your business to advertise your products and services. With over 250 million daily users, Stories are an impressive way to grow your brand awareness and audience.

Stories appear at the top of a user’s app and will only stick around for 24 hours. This allows you to create engaging content that only has a day-long lifespan, which will engage people and makes them curious.

IGTV and Reels

Guess what? More videos.

Instagram has developed its software to fit with the ever-growing need for longer and more engaging video content on Social Media. The option to create long-form videos on IGTV that can last up to sixty minutes allows your business to create content that appeals to a different kind of audience – one that has the time to engage with your ads for longer.

The development of IGTV is exciting and promising for businesses. There is the opportunity that ads could preview before the longer videos on a page, suggesting they might be able to run for a longer period of time and engage more viewers.

Reels are a great new way to promote your business even more. Much like TikTok, Instagram has taken advantage of the ease and convenience of short, multifunctional videos. Reels can allow you to advertise your business in a way that still looks and feels natural to your viewers. Your business can easily recruit influencers or other social media users to make short, engaging reels that promote your business and reach an even bigger audience.

Instagram works seamlessly with Facebook

In 2012, Instagram was acquired by Facebook for $1bn. Since then, both platforms have continued to merge to make advertising easy for businesses. It is now very easy to run ads on Instagram if you already have a business Facebook account up and running, by simply turning on Instagram as a placement for your ads in the Settings section.

This easy integration also allows you to get the most out of your advertising budget. Adding Instagram as an ad placement will decrease your cost-per-action (CPA) on Facebook. Placement Optimisation, a tool in Facebook’s advertising options, allows you to target your ads on Facebook and Instagram together. This means that Facebook will deliver your ads to the placements that have the lowest CPA throughout the day.

If this is your first time advertising your business on Facebook and Instagram, using Placement Optimisation might be a great idea for you. The ability to have the best ad placement at a low cost can help you measure where your ads are performing best, and if they are worth continuing with.

Summary – Advertising your business on Facebook and Instagram

Advertising your business on Facebook and Instagram is a must, no matter what stage of the journey you’re on. Unfortunately, using an organic social media strategy is becoming increasingly harder, and soon it may not be enough to sustain your business. Using ads on Facebook and Instagram is a great place to start, with easy set-up, great control and simple results.

If you’re struggling with advertising your business on social media, make sure to contact us for help. As an expert Digital Marketing Agency, we can give you the best advice on how to advertise on Facebook and Instagram for your specific needs.


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