Do Facebook Ads Work For Small Business?

Facebook is a popular social media platform and a powerful marketing tool for small businesses. With about 2.8 million active users monthly, it is easy to see why Facebook is a huge advertising opportunity for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

The company has made this possible by establishing Facebook Ads. With a few dollars per day, small businesses can reach their target audience and easily expand their existing customer base. Put simply Facebook Ads can increase your conversion/sales and boost your overall results.

If you are wondering do Facebook Ads work for small business, then this post is for you.

In this article, we will discuss everything you need to know about Facebook ads for small businesses and how to make them work just right for you.

Things to Keep in Mind Before You Start Facebook Ads for Small Businesses

Do Facebook Ads work for small business? Yes, they do. But as its similar with Google Ads, it takes time to make it work – its not set and forget!

There is no denying that promoted Facebook posts are very effective at targeting a specific audience and reaching more people. As aforementioned, Facebook ads are a promotional tool for growing your business.

However, before you get started with Facebook marketing for small businesses, there are several things that you need to keep in mind.

1. Identify Your Audience

While Facebook ads are an effective advertising strategy, they won’t bear much fruit if you don’t understand your target audience. One of the benefits of Facebook is that it lets you reach your target audience.

You can filter your intended audience by location, language, age, interests, gender, and device used. Once you know your audience, it will be easier to deliver the right content to them, saving a considerable amount of your budget.

2. Determine Your Budget

As a small business, your Facebook business marketing budget cannot be compared to that of bigger businesses. You need to establish your daily budget and decide whether to run the Facebook ads over a fixed period or continuously.

Once you have a budget in mind, you will have an easier time choosing the appropriate format for your advertisement. Which visual format will you use? What text will you include?

3. Engage Your Followers

Do you want to have a wide following and get past Facebook’s new algorithm? If so, then you should look for ways to be more engaging with your posts than just being promotional. More often than not, posts that take an overly promotional approach are likely to fail than posts with an entertaining approach.

Your Facebook post and page should be friendly and conversational. You should also take it upon yourself to respond to the comments, questions, and concerns of your clients.

4. Utilize all Your Facebook Features

When talking about keeping your audience engaged, Facebook features are a good place to start. Consider embracing all the Facebook features like Facebook Live, Facebook Stories, and Facebook videos to maximize your reach and promote your business. In fact, research shows that 85% is a powerful marketing tool that is used by 85% of businesses.

5. Create a Facebook Page

Looking for a professional and solid way for your business to maintain Facebook Presence? Then you need to create a Facebook page. A well-crafted Facebook page will help you access your customers through their newsfeed, regardless of where they are.

6. Create a Facebook Group

This is an important marketing tip that will connect customers that have a special interest in your product or service. A Facebook page also provides a safe space for you to connect with your customers on a more personal level.

For instance, if your products are directed towards women, you can come up with informational content to share with them. When you share relevant content and allow useful discussions, the members will invite others and this will increase your audience. Just ensure to refrain from promotional content and calls to action.

Why Are Your Facebook Ads Not Converting Once You Scale Up?

Imagine this! You create a Facebook adand it starts converting at a high rate. However, the conversion stops immediately you start to scale up. Does this sound familiar? If so, then you are probably wondering why this is happening. Unfortunately, there may be no specific reason for your Facebook ads not to convert as this may be caused by several issues. Here are 4 of the major ones.

1. Targeting the Wrong Audience

Of course, your ads will not convert well if you target the wrong audience. Along with using Facebook ads to establish a custom audience, ensure to develop a buyer persona to identify your ideal customers.

2. Skipping Ad Testing

It cannot be stressed enough how important ad testing is. It helps you identify which features work best and you can compare two Facebook ads to know which performs better.

3. Scaling Your Ads Too Quickly

This is a common problem that causes Facebook ads not to convert. When advertising on Facebook it is highly recommended to increase the budget gradually, say at a rate of 10-20% per day.

4. Wrong Bidding Option

If you are using the wrong bidding strategy, your ads are more likely to get low impressions. You need to choose between the automatic and the specific bid amount per click.

What Factors Influence Facebook Advertising Costs?

Along with wanting to know how to run Facebook ads, many small business owners and marketing managers are also curious about how much the Facebook ad campaign costs.

Several factors can influence the cost of Facebook advertising. They include:

1. Ad Quality and Relevance

Ad quality is one of the most important factors that can influence the cost of Facebook ads. When you advertise on Facebook, the company monitors the relevance of the ad by determining how users perceive it when it appears on their newsfeed. If your ads have a high relevance score, then your ad costs are likely to be lower. Facebook will assign you a high relevance and engagement score if you have more positive feedback.

2. Audience

Surprisingly, certain audiences can be costly to target compared to others. AdEspresso, which is a Facebook marketing partner, did a study that showed the target audience can influence the cost of Facebook ads.

If your target audience is women, you are likely to pay $0.15 more than if it was aimed at men. You can also expect to pay higher ad costs if your ad campaign is targeted at older individuals within the age bracket of 55-65 years.

What’s more, your ad campaign is likely to suffer if you leverage the right targeting. This is especially true if you target cold traffic when you advertise on Facebook.

3. Ad Objective

Why do you want to create a Facebook ad? Is it for awareness, consideration, or conversion? If your objective is for conversion, Facebook will charge you for impressions. If your main objective is awareness, you need to decide whether the ad should focus on reach or brand awareness. Typically, the more valuable the goal for your business, the higher the ad costs.

4. Ad Bid

The bidding strategy you choose will affect the overall price of your Facebook ads. Facebook offers two types of bidding strategies. The first strategy is the target or manual cost bid strategy. You can use this method if you want to attain your desired cost per click. Most businesses use this strategy for lead generation, product catalogue sales campaigns, and conversion.

Alternatively, you can choose the lowest cost bid strategy to get the lowest possible cost per click. This method is great if you are working with a tight budget.

5. Ad Placement

Did you know that where you place the ad can also influence the cost per click (CPC) cost? This aspect is often underestimated when it comes to Facebook advertising costs. When it comes to advertising with Facebook, your ad can appear on

• Facebook desktop newsfeed, integrated videos, messenger, or right-hand column
• Instagram newsfeed and stories
• Facebook audience network

When considering where to place your ads, it is also advisable to consider which placement will generate the most clicks.

6. Time of the Year

The season has a significant impact on the prices you pay for your Facebook ads. For instance, if you want to create the ad during the peak seasons like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and New Year expect to pay more. This is because of the increased demand for ad space.

How Much Should a Small Business Spend on Facebook Advertising?

Before you invest In any paid platform like Facebook, it is only normal to wonder- do Facebook Ads work for small business and how much should I invest? For small businesses, dedicating dollars to marketing may be a leap of faith and often its a balance between investing in earned media/organic strategies such as those driven by SEO vs paid ad strategies such as facebook/instagram.

The best thing about Facebook ads is that you get to control how much you want to spend. Facebook gives you two options to run your campaign: the daily budget and the lifetime budget.

Small businesses do well with the daily budget because they can run the campaign based on their budget. This means paying as little as $1 per day to reach approximately 4000 people. Therefore, if you can afford to spend $30 per month, you will get a boost on your visibility, leads, and sales.

Small businesses should start small and increase their budget as they see results. You can also set aside about $1000 to do an initial ad test to optimize your Facebook ads cost.

How Do I Target My Business on Facebook?

A good way to target your business on Facebook is by using the Ad Test. If you want to create successful Facebook ads, then you must be willing to invest in testing. Testing will help you compare ads so you know which will perform better. This will save you a considerable amount of money in the long run because it prevents you from investing in ads that don’t work.

FAQs

How does Facebook Ad choose an audience?

Facebook has different customer segments that it uses to choose an audience for your ad. Ideally, Facebook lets you create a custom audience based on your website visitors, customer list, and engagements. You can get detailed information about these custom audiences with Facebook Audience Insight.

Should I use the Audience Network on Facebook ads?

Yes, you should the Audience Network on Facebook ads if you want to expand your reach beyond Facebook. It allows advertisers to take the Facebook ad campaign across the internet on high-quality apps. It is an excellent opportunity to lower the cost if you are running the Facebook ads on numerous placements.

Do Facebook ads work for b2b?

Yes, Facebook ads work for b2b if implemented correctly. If you want your B2B Facebook ad to have a high CTR, then you need to do the right targeting. Facebook is not only a popular social platform but also a winner when it comes to data collection of the target audience.

In the case of B2B, Facebook can collect data about the professional lives of people to help B2B marketers target their ideal clients. Facebook ads can help you target your B2B clients through ways like interest targeting, custom audiences, lookalike audiences, and retargeting.

Does Business Page Cost Money?

No, setting up a Facebook Business page is free regardless of the number of likes and followers you have. Facebook does not charge to create a Facebook page and all you need to do is to create a page and fill in the relevant details.

However, you should be aware of certain costs that can be incurred to effectively manage your Facebook business page. These costs include paid advertising costs, marketing consultant fees, and staff payroll.

Conclusion

Do we hope that this guide has answered your question on do Facebook Ads work for small business? Every small business should utilize social media, specifically Facebook, to grow their business. You should also not shy away from Facebook ads as they will help you reach more people organically and quickly. Know which Facebook marketing strategy to use and which ones to avoid, especially those that can sabotage your efforts.