You know what’s fun? Spending your marketing budget on ads that don’t make a difference.
I kid.
American marketing pioneer, John Wanamaker, once remarked, “Half the money I spend on advertisements is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” [Tweet This]
Most small business owners have no trouble relating to this sentiment, so you’re definitely not alone.
The good great news is modern ad targeting techniques have ushered in a vastly-improved approach to understanding ad performance and managing ad spending, especially for small businesses.
While there are plenty of reliable options for online pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, Facebook video advertisements are one of the best ways to track down that high ROI.
Below is a general description of what makes Facebook a strong ad platform, along with an infographic from Memory Tree Productions outlining why your business can’t afford to ignore Facebook video ads.
Talk to Your Specific Audience
Facebook’s robust data collection allows you to target virtually any demographic, and, within these groups, further select for a whole host of interests and attributes.
(Psst…if you don’t know who your target audience is, you need to jump on these lessons)
More importantly, when you set up your video ad campaign, you have the option to select Video Views as the campaign objective, which means Facebook will show your ad more frequently to people who have a history of watching and engaging with videos.
Translation: you’re more likely to have your ad served to the people who are receptive to your message and to the video ad format, so you’ll waste less dollars advertising to people who aren’t likely to be interested.
Retarget People Who Are Receptive to Your Message
Retargeting, in the simplest terms, is serving ads to individuals based on their past behavior with your brand.
So, for example, if someone visited your website and viewed a specific product page, you could retarget them on Facebook to show an ad specific to the product they viewed. This ad could pitch them a bit more information and encourage them to inquire or make a purchase.
Or maybe you have a blog on your website and want to build a larger email list. You could retarget people who read your blog posts with specific ads encouraging them to subscribe for email updates.
The overall goal of retargeting is, you guessed it, to recapture people who have interacted with your business before, and increase the lifetime value of the customer by extending the relationship. This is preferable to having a bunch of one-off transactions or driving people to your website only to never see them again.
More topical for this post, if a user views your Facebook video ad in whole or in part, they will be tracked based on their engagement and can be served another ad later.
For example, if you have a local bakery, you can run video ads sharing a recipe for how to make your latest cupcake creations, and then retarget people who watched 50% of the video with an incentive, like a special coupon, to visit the store.
Since watching a Facebook video is a voluntary act, you can select these people who have shown interest in the message and can be persuaded to buy with repeat exposures. Retargeting maximizes the effectiveness of ads, delivering better return on investment.
And tell me…who doesn’t like a higher ROI?
(Maybe your crazy uncle doesn’t like a higher ROI. But that’s why he’s the crazy uncle.)
Spend As Much (or As Little) As You Want
As as small business owner, you’re not exactly swimming in cash. With maybe 10-12% of your budget going to marketing (on a good day), you can’t afford to to throw millions at advertising like the big boys.
That doesn’t mean you’re out of the game, though.
As you can see from the examples above, Facebook advertising allows you to target with precision, primarily reaching only those most interested in what you’re selling.
Plainly, that means your cost of advertising goes down, because you’re not wasting money on “curiosity clicks” — those people who may click your ad out of curiosity, but have no intention to buy.
MORE: Get three free practical lessons teaching you how to pinpoint your target customer and create a winning social media strategy for your business. Join for instant access here.
This also differs from spending on traditional advertising, because you have literally minute-by-minute control of your Facebook campaigns.
Consider in the past that you might buy a three-month print placement in a trade publication. At a month and a half of the placement running, you conclude the placement is under-performing.
Well, too bad. The likelihood that media vendor is going to void your contract and return your money is pretty low. Even if they do, it’s probably going to be a hassle.
With Facebook, the minute you conclude your ad is under-performing, pause it. Done.
Or, better yet, test and improve it by easily changing the headline, uploading new creative, or altering the targeting. You have full control over ad spend, and if a campaign doesn’t work, you can pull the plug on it instantly.
That’s not to imply traditional advertising is a bad option. It has its place, but the increased control and ability to continuously see how well your ad is performing is a major strength of Facebook.
Be Less Intrusive With Your Ads
Compared to banner ads or YouTube pre-roll (pre-video) ads, which are often ignored or considered annoying, Facebook video ads are much less intrusive and often looked at for their entertainment value.
As you scroll down your Facebook feed, videos autoplay with the sound off. If your content strikes a chord, users will continue watching and un-mute the video. Most people are accustomed to seeing autoplay videos in their feeds, and are not annoyed by it at all, which works to your advantage.
Rather than forcing an irritating ad on people who couldn’t care less, distracting them, or trying to hold them captive by gating the content they’re actually after, Facebook video ads put your audience in the driver’s seat from the moment the video begins to play.
7 Reasons Why Your Business Can’t Ignore Facebook Video Ads
Check out the infographic below for a visual outline of why your small business is making a mistake by ignoring opportunities with Facebook video ads.
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