Since the advent of social networks, the very nature of online interactions, and the internet as a whole has transformed. Every day, billions of individuals utilize social platforms like Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook to stay connected with their followers and friends on the go. So, the colossal number of daily page-views that ensue from such activity have led advertising professionals to realize the mushrooming potential of these networks in the arena of marketing.
Despite the popularity of other platforms though, none of them make online marketing as controllable and facile as Facebook, the largest social website on the web. Since the social media network launched its feature of targeted advertising at the end of 2011, it has completely revamped the way marketing is being done on the internet. This is partly because of the flexibility of the said program but mostly due to the incredible reach of Facebook. Nevertheless, since the inception of its advertising feature, close to 50% of the website’s revenue now originate from marketing-based endeavors.
Let us take a look at what favorable features make Facebook the marketing platform of the future:
Unparalleled reach
No other website on the Webosphere, with the exception of the mighty Google, can compare to Facebook in the realm of daily page-views. It has a mammoth active user base of approximately 1.28 billion individuals. These factors make Facebook ripe for online marketing, allowing you access to a wide cross section of potential customers in your niche. Also, you are going to get a great number of viable impressions on your advertisements, every day!
Light on the pocket
With Facebook Ads, you only pay on a per-click basis. That is, Facebook charges you only if you get clicks on your ad. Thus, creating a feasible Facebook brand/company page and getting your advertisements online is free, it doesn’t cost a penny. Furthermore, you can make a budget for your ad campaign whereby restricting the amount of money Facebook can withdraw from your linked payment account. With such user-friendly features, increasing demand generation for your product or service has never been easier or more cost-effective.
Targeting made easy
Facebook boasts of an unmatched control over targeting your marketing campaign. In other words, you can funnel your marketing program to a very specific viewership. For instance, you can initiate an advertisement for a French Language Academy in London with the target viewership of 18-22 year-olds who have shown an inclination for learning the language, either by adding competing schools to their list of educational institutions or by liking their pages on Facebook. Such amount of exactness allows for you get the most out of your marketing campaigns.
Facebook Blueprint
Facebook Blueprint, initiated a few months back, is an online learning management system for anyone planning to market via Facebook, including advertising agencies, marketing professionals and vendors. It gives free access to various learning modules related to using Facebook as an advertising tool. These include the likes of Purchasing Ads, Ad Management, Campaign Optimization, Measurement and Reporting etc. However, for many professionals Blueprint’s content may lack the depth they would expect from a course of this sort. Normally, each of the modules available on the online academy takes about 12-16 minutes to complete. However, appreciation should be given where it is due, as no other online marketing platform has an e-academy regime that rival’s Facebook, yet.
A plethora of third party tools
The acceptance of Facebook as a marketing website has led to the advent of numerous 3rd party platforms that are linked to it. Online tools like AdEspresso and Qwaya, offer designing and optimizing services that let you increase the profitability of your marketing campaign.
Conclusively, Facebook Ads are, without doubt, the future of marketing and it can be inferred from the massive rate of adoption they have witnessed. According to the social media research website, Social Bakers, 92% of social marketers have already migrated to Facebook as the main advertising platform they conduct business on. Things are only going to progress from here.