A study executed by Social Bakers shows that 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook are photos. Their data shows that only 2% of the most engaging content on Facebook is generated by links, another 2% by videos, and 3% by status updates. Images are more engaging than ever, so get your fans engaged with strong visual content including quotes (dont forget to insert your brand), pictures from events, and of course infographics. Get visually enticing or be ignored!
With small and local businesses gaining main stream attention, particularly through Facebook Ads, every one with a product is eager to jump on the band wagon and make a quick sale. But a lot of people who want to try it out get trapped in the technical terms which sometimes prove to be hard to wrap your head around. With this article we will try to put an end to this dilemma of yours.
There are many terms used in Internet marketing or online advertising industry such as CPM, CTR, PPC and CPI. Let us try to take these terms one by one so that after you have understood them, you will end up with a better mindset regarding budgeting of your marketing campaign.
CPM stands for Cost per mile, it is also known as CPT (Cost per thousand). The term is relevant and used in almost all of the advertising mediums like Radio, Television, Magazines etc. But it has come in public domain with the growth of internet marketing. CPM is calculated by dividing the total cost or Budget for running the ad campaign by the total number of estimated viewers and then multiplying the result by 1000. For example if the total Budget is $20,000 and total estimated viewership is 2,000,000 then CPM would turn out to be $10. The main objective of calculating CPM is to compare the expenditure for your campaign across different advertising Medias.
Calculating CPM can be a very useful metric to decide whether you should take your campaign to internet or not, alternatively it may also be used to decide which service provider you should side with.
CTR stands for Click through rate. It is considered as an ultimate metric for measuring the success of an internet marketing campaign. CTR is obtained by taking the number of times an advertisement is clicked by total number of times the advertisement was displayed. The result is multiplied by 100 as it is expressed in terms of percentage.
A point that demands attention is that higher click through rates with low purchases can mean loss.
The main objective of CTR is to make an assessment of customer’s initial response to the ad displayed. If you have an unusually low CTR then it can very well be an indication of the fact that your ad is not interesting enough and you need to make some updates to it.
PPC stands for pay per click. As discussed above, clicks are informative of the customer’s opinion. A high click rate shows high interest and a low shows otherwise. For the same reason PPC is a preferred option for such an assessment compared to CPI( Cost per impression).
PPC may be easily calculated by dividing the total budget for online marketing campaign by the total number of clicks generated by concerned web impressions (Displayed ads).
When it comes to PPC, there are two models that are widely followed:
Now that you understand these terms more accurately, you can plan your budget accordingly for your online marketing campaign.
The author of this article is an expert in online marketing campaigns and works as a consultant in an advertising firm. Matthew has written and published several articles on conceiving and optimizing Facebook Ads.
As Facebook continues to expand both its commercial services and its global influence, it becomes an ever more powerful resource for businesses. Yet because paid advertising through social media is a relatively new marketing outlet, many companies are still struggling to craft effective campaigns that make the most of its vast potential. There are countless nuances and considerations to take into account when forming a strategy, and businesses that overlook important factors ultimately squander their resources. So to help you get the most out of Facebook’s marketing services, here’s how to succeed with paid advertising on social media.
Clarify Your Goals
Before launching your campaign, start by setting clear goals. Are you trying to drive traffic to a company site? Are you promoting a company event on your fan page? Or do you want to boost exposure for exciting new content your business recently released? The more specific your plan, the better. Just keep in mind that your advertisement is ultimately little more than a link. So give careful consideration to the best place to direct consumers, and focus on providing a clear call to action.
Choose the Right Ad
The two main types of Facebook advertising are traditional ads and Sponsored Stories. The ads show up in the right-hand column of users’ pages. The stories, however, are a recent innovation in Facebook’s advertising platform. They highlight Fan Page activity by providing newsfeed updates to your friends each time someone comments or likes your post. As a less obvious and more active type of marketing, Sponsored Stories are incredibly effective for those who have healthy conversations and a high engagement level with their friend community.
Thoughtful Targeting
The biggest strength of Facebook marketing is its ability to reach targeted audiences. Each ad on the social site is targeted based upon location, demographics, likes, and interests. So before you launch the campaign, spend time conducting consumer research and narrowing down your ideal audience. The more effectively you are able to target, the more results your ads will ultimately generate.
Diversification
The most effective Facebook ad campaigns are diverse. So rather than sending out a single ad at a time, send out a group of them. Closely monitor the results you get from each using Facebook’s metrics and Google Analytics, and build upon the successes while learning from the failures. A long-term marketing investment will allow you to improve your campaign with each post.
Aesthetics
It is also important to understand that aesthetics have a tremendous impact on the success of Facebook ads. So remember to utilize visuals as much as possible, and communicate the style and quality you want users to associate with your brand. A sloppy ad is a poor reflection on your company image, and can even hurt your business. So make your ad beautiful, stylish, and evocative. When your marketing stands out as unique, it inspires more engagement from the community and communicates a wealth of information about your brand. Something as simple as a single image can register in the memory of consumers, and forever become associated in their minds with your company. So never underestimate aesthetics.
It is estimated that Facebook’s advertising revenue will increase 31% in 2013, and that about 64% of advertisers will increase spending on their social marketing campaigns in the coming year. So as this unique marketing platform continues to expand and evolve, it pays to get a leg up on the competition by investing time and attention in your social campaigns. The faster you learn to harness the potential of social marketing platforms, the faster your company will be able to grow.
Out guest blogger, Kirsten, works for vouchercloud within the social media marketing team. She is responsible for launching new voucher deals and marketing them through Vouchercloud’s social media networks.
Written by our guest blogger Sarmista Aun
Facebook PPC ads are a great tool for brand promotion but Facebook advertising management is not easy. You have to be a Facebook deciphering expert to effectively utilize PPC ads.
Social media is a great place for business promotion and there is no doubt that Facebook is the best platform of them all. In fact, it’s one of the three biggest PPC players in the world. It’s true that social media analytics tools don’t provide enough data but once you examine the paid Facebook ads, you can learn a lot of valuable things.
To understand the various aspects of Facebook PPC and its analysis, I am going to use SEMrush Facebook statistics and other resources.
Domains Vs. Apps Vs. Groups – Instead of consumer products and services, advertisers like to endorse groups and apps on the world’s biggest social media. Out of 100%, 58% of ads are about domains, 39% are about groups and 3% are about apps. That means 42% of total ads don’t even let you leave Facebook. The PPC publishers consider it as a semi closed platform and prefer to give ads that have the ability to keep users inside the social media site. In fact, though the group ads are only 39%, they receive 56% of total clicks. So, if you want to provide Facebook advertising management as a service, tell your clients that they must create a fan page before starting the ad campaign.
Countries – 50% of the total pay per click ads are given by ten countries. USA, UK and Germany are ranked at number 1, 2 and 3 which is quite predictable but the surprising thing is that Indonesia and Philippines also figure in top 10.
However, according to Alexa stats, India is the second country, not UK. Other ad data experts say that UK consumes 6.1% of the total ad market and the reason is the difference between financial conditions. India may have a population of one billion but UK has a far better economy and steady growth. Therefore, more and more marketers in UK are focusing on Facebook PPC ads.
Top advertisers by domains – Some of the top advertisement agencies are Adobe AdLens and Kenshoo. On the other hand, the biggest independent advertiser is Samsung as they maintain 5.8 percent of the top 20 expenditure for ads. It’s a sensible move considering their current battle with Apple. The last member of the top advertiser list is AirBnB.
Top Advertising Apps – Facebook users are primarily Gen-Y audience and they don’t want serious content. They are mainly gamers and gamblers. That is why, you will find that the top 20 advertisement apps are games and the only exception is the app. The most popular games belong to either poker or casino segment. If US government ever decides to legalize online gambling, the social media giant will make millions of dollars every day.
How some brands accommodate PPC – Let’s take a look at some of the major retail brands. Walmart is highly active on the world’s biggest social media network and they have given more or less 6500 ads in the last 3 months.
On the other hand, Amazon doesn’t spend a single penny for FB PPC. It seems that they don’t consider the gamers and gamblers as their potential customers. Besides, the brand is so popular all over the world that they don’t need to tell people what they sell.
EBay follows a completely different strategy. Their Facebook ad management team targets India, Thailand and Russia based customers and gives ad for consumers in those countries but they seldom spend anything to attract USA customers.
The aforementioned data proves one thing. Facebook may offer Pay per Click and Pay Per View ad options but it’s not a core ad service as AdWords. It’s not a sales tool. Marketers use it for branding and general recognition but not for increasing sales.
Trends – When the world’s leading social media site launched its share in the US stock exchange, the outcome was dissatisfactory. Some investors even thought that the social media giant cheated them as the stock price hit rock bottom soon after the launch. The bad effect of share prices also affected the number of ads and mainly USA based advertisers stayed away from the social media giant.
Facebook is here to stay no matter how their share performs in the stock exchange. The company is ruling the PPC market and when it comes to brand enhancement, they have no competition.
Author: Sarmista Aun is a pay per click campaign specialist. She provides expert guidance on social media advertising and each metric of a PPC campaign. She is a professional blogger and has written numerous articles on internet marketing, social media and web design.