Simple Steps to Facebook Advertising | Establish Your Goals

Facebook is used by millions of people around the world. In fact, it has more than 750 million active users. The opportunity to get your company in front of such a large audience is a marketers dream. It can also spell disaster for anyone that starts a Facebook advertising campaign without a plan or defined goals.

Knowing where to begin with Facebook ads and choosing your best strategy can be overwhelming. Terms like split testing, pay-per-click, impressions and click through rate can stop many of us before we ever get started.

My five part series will walk you through the steps required to not only plan your advertising strategy, but profit from Facebook Advertising.

The steps include:

Step #1: Establish Your Goals

Step #2: How to Hit Your Target Audience

Step #3: Create You’re Stellar Ad

Step #4: Don’t Break the Bank: Know Your Budget!

Step #5: Track Your Results

Step 1 in my 5 part series on how to get your Facebook Advertising campaign up and running in just a few simple steps will help you determine what your goals are and what outcome you are interested in receiving. The goal is to allow you to leap beyond your fears and into a cost effective marketing solution!

Facebook Advertising Goals

Who among us hasn’t bought into the latest, shiniest, most attractive new marketing “solution” to find the only outcome was a drained savings account? As a small business owner, there’s nothing more frustrating than putting dollars and hours into the setup of an advertising campaign that falls flat on its face.

So how can we avoid marketing suicide? Define your plan and create your strategic road map.  Below are a few ideas to get you started!

Where are you driving traffic?

• Your website
• Blog,
• Squeeze or landing page
• Facebook

What is your goal once they are there?

• Create brand awareness
• Opt-ins to grow database
• Give away a free report
• Share insider secrets
• Gain blog readership
• Sign up for newsletter
• Grow your Facebook Fan Page

What are your main advertising keywords?

As bloggers we research keywords for specific article content. Facebook also allows us to use keywords within our ads. You will want to use your main keywords directly within your ad copy. For example, the ad below is targeted at veteran homebuyers in Colorado. My goal is to increase followers of my new Facebook Fan Page VA Loan Insider Tips.

What is Your Call to Action?

Any marketing campaign should include a strong call to action that inspires viewers to not only click on your ad, but take the next step. Ask yourself:

• What are you asking viewers of your ad to do?
• Is it compelling enough and does it offer enough value to urge them to action?

Other important questions that we will answer in my upcoming series:

• How many ads will you run?
• Who will design your ads?
• How will you track their effectiveness?

Designing a profitable Facebook advertising campaign can be a very cost effective method to increasing business!

Once you determine your goals, your next step is to understand How to Hit Your Target Audience. Join me next week as we discuss why determining your niche and knowing your target audience is the driving force behind a successful Facebook ad campaign!