Advertising on Facebook: Tips For Expanding Your Audience

facebook ads expand audienceWe have to be creative in order to expand our audience.

They don’t just come knocking on your door asking for awesome content.

Sure, you can beg for more views from Google, or try to get more tweets on Twitter.

But sometimes that is just not enough.

In this post I am going to show you, how for a small amount of money, you how to advertise on Facebook and get more visitors to your site and more subscribers.

These Facebook ads tips will help you get a quick understanding of what is involved, and what can be achieved.

Let’s take a look…

 

 

Reasons for Using Paid Traffic

One of the fundamental things we are taught as online marketers is to improve SEO and get organic traffic from Google.

This of course is not a bad strategy, but you do not have complete control over this process. And ultimately,  you are at the whim of Google:

your website traffic could suddenly get sat on by an overweight Panda and disappear overnight!

It has happened to many a website owner before, so don’t put all your eggs in Google’s basket.

Another thing you probably do, is promote your content through social media.

The problem with this is that once the post goes stale, the traffic dies down and the post is put to rest in your archives. And this usually happens after just one week.

Then you fall back on old faithful – Google, to drive traffic. Or perhaps a little internal linking.

You could try influencer marketing, the latest craze in the online marketing space, but for most people this is not something they are ready to try.

So what are the other options for getting consistent, targeted traffic to your site?

Paid Traffic That Loves Your Content

As some of you may know, I am starting a business on the back of my blog to develop WordPress websites and help bloggers online.

The problem with starting any business is getting customers.

Sure, I have quite a few fans on Social Media (hey guys!) and subscribers to my blog, but they are not necessarily all looking to use my services right now.

If you are, then let me know!

So I decided to start exploring other options like paid traffic.  AKA: advertising.

Specifically, I started looking at Facebook advertising after listening to this podcast from the online marketing pro  – James Schramko.

His discussion with Perry Marshall, an online advertising expert, opened my eyes to the opportunities available with Facebook advertising.

Why Facebook Ads? You Might Ask

I am not a big fan of Facebook as some of you may have read in my Facebook is Dead post last year.

But Facebook is not going away anytime soon, despite me and my friends ignoring it. In fact, many of you probably still enjoy using it.

What is really exciting is the data that Facebook has on all of it’s users. This provides us with an astoundingly easy way to target people based on:

  • what they like
  • what they do
  • where they live
  • who they are
  • and almost anything else you can think of

Facebook knows more about the world’s population then most of us want to acknowledge.

Imagine what Facebook knows about you? Then imagine they have this data on over a billion people!

The Result: Facebook Advertising is Highly Targeted

Given what they know about the these billion people, it is very easy to specifically target people with your Facebook ads.

People who have interests (likes) in closely related areas to what you want to sell are quite easy to find.

And the Facebook advertising system, although not the most feature-rich in the world, is very easy to use.

This means have a simple and powerful tool to get our message in front of a targeted audience.

Advertising on Facebook

I am currently experimenting with driving traffic to my website and Facebook page using Facebook Advertising.

Not only that, but I am using that traffic to capture leads (email addresses) for potential future customers.

Sounds great, right?

But you are probably wondering what the possibilities are with Facebook Ads?

What Kinds of Facebook Ads Can you Run?

There are a number of ad types you can run on Facebook depending on what your goal is. Here is the list:

  • Sponsored Stories
  • Page Likes
  • Clicks to Website
  • Website Conversions
  • App Installations and Engagement
  • Event Responses
  • Offer Claims

The ones that you are probably most interested in are Clicks to Website, Website Conversions and Page Likes.

traffic website

Getting Traffic to Your Site

I am not going to give you a Facebook tutorial here, as that would take too long

But if you are serious about getting into Facebook ads, I recommend picking up the Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising from Perry Marshall, which I am currently reading. It is extremely in-depth and practical. The guy knows his stuff.

It goes into great detail on

  • how to use Facebook Ads
  • how to create and test ads
  • how to target your audience
  • how to reduce the price you pay
  • how to build landing pages
  • and much much more

By the end of it you will be a guru yourself. (I am halfway there!)

Facebook Advertising Tips: Website Clicks

The main type of Facebook ad you probably want to use is Website Clicks.

You can get people to click on your ad and then land on a specific page on your website.

The idea here is to have a stunning landing page (which is one of the reasons I use Leadpages) with an optin to your email list.

The ad entices the person on Facebook to click on an ad offering them something they can’t resist (like a giveaway that solves their problem).

Then the landing page convinces them to give their email address. They then receive the guide, and you start a relationship with them as a new potential

  • customer
  • reader
  • subscriber

It is similar to enticing people to subscribe via your posts, but more targeted. After all, how many subscribers do you get a day?

With Facebook Ads, you can accelerate that process.

Other Facebook Ad Types You Can Use

The website conversions type is quite similar, but additionally you can ad a tracking pixel to your site, which will then track who clicks on your optin button.

This way you can specifically track your ad campaign from Facebook and see how you are doing.

Another one I have tried is getting Page Likes and optins. You can do this with Leadpages, where a optin form is presented as a Facebook tab on your business page.

It is generally cheaper than website clicks because Facebook keeps the user on their site. And if the person does not optin, they often like your page instead. So you win either way.

The Costs of Facebook Ads

The beauty of the Facebook advertising system is that you can completely control how much you want to spend.

You can set both a cost per click limit and a daily limit for your ad campaign. So you are never spending more than you can afford.

For example I tried running an ad for $5 a day, with clicks costing up to 50c and got a few people to my site.

Another time I forgot to set the cost per click limit and paid over $1.50 for each click, so be careful to do that before you OK the ad.

But today, just as I was revising this post for publishing I got a lot more clicks for under 30 cents.

If you take it to the next level. If you ad is enticing enough. You can even get that price down to under 10 cents a click!

You will need Perry’s Guide for that though.

Final Words

I will be posting more on this experiment as the data comes through. I have only been using it for a few weeks with Leadpages specifically.

The combination is awesome because you can try new pages and ads in a very short space of time and learn quickly from your mistakes.

It also allows you to set and forget, with minimal time investment. So you can accelerate your optins while you do other work (or sleep!).

I have also used it to great effect, to get 1000 likes on a niche site for around $20. So the possibilities are endless.

And when you are advertising (as Perry Marshall says in his book) if you are not trying and failing, then you will never learn to make the ultimate ad!

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe in the blue box below and I will keep you up to date with my experiments in driving traffic to my site.

photo credit: Lotus Carroll via photopin cc

micadew via photopin cc

About the Author Ashley Faulkes

Ashley is obsessed with SEO and WordPress. He is also the founder of Mad Lemmings. When he is not busy helping clients get higher on Google he can be found doing crazy sports in the Swiss Alps (or eating too much chocolate - a habit he is trying to break).

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