Are you considering advertising your business on social media? Social media is a great way to target potential customers and get exposure for your business. Facebook and Instagram are arguably the most effective platforms to advertise with as they are globally the most popular social media sites. But are Facebook ads expensive? Many people think that advertising on Facebook can be confusing and costly. In this blog, we discuss ways in which you can save money when advertising on Facebook and compare it to other advertising methods.

Are Facebook ads expensive?

It all depends on how you use it. Facebook allow you to set your own ad budget – there’s no set price, so you can decide how much money you think is appropriate to spend on advertising your business. Facebook ads can be expensive if you’re not targeting the right people. If you know how to target people on Facebook properly, advertising on Facebook can actually be quite cost efficient! It is important before advertising on Facebook to understand how the platform works and how to use Business Manager on Facebook properly. Make sure you take the time to learn how it all works and who your target audience is!

Facebook advertising vs traditional advertising

Facebook ads are more cost efficient than some traditional forms of advertising. It can cost thousands of dollars to put an ad in a newspaper or on the radio, with no definite way of tracking your ROI. But on Facebook, you can decide how much you’re willing to spend and track how well your ad is performing. If it’s not receiving as many clicks as you’d like, you have the ability to change your ad whenever you see fit! This way you don’t waste all of your budget in one hit, like you might do if you pay for an ineffective newspaper ad. You can also see specific demographics of the people who are responding to your Facebook ad, which is valuable when you are deciding who to target in your future advertisements.

Targeting

Targeting is the most crucial part of Facebook advertising. If you get it wrong, it can in fact make Facebook ads expensive. But get it right and you can spend less and reach more of the right people!

The cost of showing your ad to your target audience can be affected by several things:

The size of your audience

When creating your ad on Facebook, you have the opportunity to narrow down your audience. It’s best to be as specific as you can be about the types of people you want your ad to reach. If your audience is too broad, you risk paying more for clicks and wasting money on showing your ad to people who don’t care about your business.

Competition

If the audience you’re targeting is being targeted by your competition, the price of showing your ad will increase. You are in a bidding war with your competition, so it’s best to be specific when creating your target audience to only reach who you think will buy your products.

The demographics of your audience

Some audiences are harder to reach than others, so Facebook increase the prices of showing your ad. Where your audience lives, how old they are, and how often they look at Facebook can increase your Cost Per Click (CPC).

The relevance of your ad to your audience

Facebook will assess how relevant your ad is to the audience you are trying to target and adjust the CPC accordingly. Your ad relevance is determined by whether it is similar to content that your audience already engages with, whether the audience has engaged with your business previously and how new and up to date your ad is.

Where your ad is placed

Facebook can place your ads across all of their platforms (such as Instagram and Messenger). You have the option to unselect platforms where your audience aren’t likely to be responsive to your ad. Figure out which platform your target audience use the most to make your Facebook ad less expensive!

Ad frequency

Getting the frequency of your ad showing on Facebook can also be great to make sure you get a good ROI. It’s important to not show your ad too much and annoy the audience, but also not often enough that people forget who you are. You are more likely to get clicks on your ad if the audience have seen it a few times first.

Another great way to make your Facebook ads more targeted is to install the Facebook Pixel into your website. The Facebook Pixel allows you to track specific people who have used your website and how they have used your website.

Still not sure how to make Facebook ads cost efficient and working within your budget? Contact Redsteps! We can create and manage your Facebook ads for you.