Facebook- the Goliath of social media.
With over 2.9 billion active users logging in monthly, Facebook continues to dominate the social media atmosphere. In terms of marketing, Social Media Examiner found that 89% of marketers use Facebook to reach their audience.
You’ll know it’s a huge opportunity, but in case you get it wrong, you could end up spending a fortune.
Like any advertising platform, Facebook has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to efficient marketing.
Want to know if Facebook advertising is for you? We’ve weighed up the pros and cons for you to find out if Facebook Ads are worth it.
Advantages of Facebook Advertising
Massive Audience
Like I mentioned in the beginning, Facebook has over 2.9 billion active monthly users who spend around 50-minutes on the site each day.
That’s a lot of people and a lot of scrolling.
Because of this, advertising on Facebook reaches a big audience, much wider than organic social media marketing and is a lot faster too. If you want your business to reach people further afield, even internationally, then Facebook is a great way to get it across.
Targeting
I know you’ll have heard this a million times but it’s true- finding your target audience is super duper important.
Facebook has thousands of targeting options to help you reach your audience and will guide you if your audience is too broad or too specific- you want to be somewhere in the middle. From there you can select where you want your Ads to run, not just on Facebook’s feed! There are 15 different places you can advertise including Marketplace, Instagram, Facebook Stories and Instagram’s newest feature Reels.
Facebook’s targeting tool helps you be more precise and reduces waste in resources.
Easy to Use
Facebook Ads is available to a wide variety of businesses and is recognised as one of the easiest ways to advertise on social media.
Ads can be created simply and easily through either the Business Manager on the admin menu, through the Ad Creation page or through the Ads Manager app.
If you need extra help, there are a plethora of courses in Facebook marketing, check out the ones we’ve saved here in our Facebook Ads Training: 10 Best Facebook Advertising Courses [2021]
Budget – set your Facebook ads budget
Facebook Ads don’t cost you an arm and a leg- if you don’t want it to. You can set a budget of as little as £1 per day! We usually recommend you budget a little higher than that, but hey, the option is there.
When creating your Facebook Ad you will be able to set up a budget. You can choose from a daily budget, which caps how much you want to spend each day or a lifetime budget, which sets a cap throughout the length of your campaign. The lifetime budget means you may spend a small amount one day and a larger the next, but you’ll be within your cap.
Facebook is great for tailoring around your goals and your budget to make the most of what you can afford.
Disadvantages of Facebook advertising
Not as “Trendy”
For the first time in its history, Facebook has seen a decrease in its login percentage.
Edison Research did a study in 2019 which found 62% of 12-34 years olds logged onto Facebook in the US, which was down from 79% in 2017. This represents about an 11 million overall decrease. It’s not just Millennials and Gen Z though, the 35-54 age group also saw a 3% decrease over those two years.
So with Facebook’s decline in popularity, who has taken its place?
TikTok.
Since the beginning of Covid times, the world has watched TikTok skyrocket! TikTok was the most downloaded app of 2021, and with that popularity came a surge of businesses and advertisers branching out to the platform.
It’s definitely worth staying on Facebook as it continues to be the champion in social media marketing. However, check out our top list for the best TikTok agencies and start learning those silly dances.
Skip, Skip, Skip – do people pay attention to Facebook ads anymore?
Let’s be honest, we all skip through ads on Facebook.
Out of the 10 ads that appear while you’re on a scrolling binge, you’ll probably click on one or two at most. Many Facebook users are doing the same thing.
Your content needs to be eye-catching and engaging enough to battle the power of the endless scroll. Apps like Instagram and Tik Tok take a visual approach whether that is images, videos and sketches or story reels. They are very engaging whilst being snappy and to the point.
If you’re going to use Facebook, keep your content fresh and exciting. Get inspired by other content creators and think about what is going to speak to your customers the most. If you need some help on creating great content, here are the 7 Principles of Creating Great Content – Yatter
Irrelevant Ads
Following on from the skipping, many users are being shown ads that have little to no relevance to them.
These are called Irrelevant Ads (makes sense).
Facebook use an algorithm so that your ad will pop on to the feed of a relevant user, determined by the targeting tool we spoke about earlier. However, ads are constantly appearing on the feed of people who have little to no interest in the product- there seems to be a flaw in the algorithm.
This is particularly problematic if you have a very specific target audience. If you’re trying to sell a product aimed at girls aged 16-21, it’s counterproductive and a waste of your money and time to have it randomly appear on a middle-aged man’s feed.
Sure, your engagement is going to look really high but that won’t translate into sales.
Spam Clicks
If you’re using Cost-Per-Click ads on Facebook, you’ll be jumping for joy at the number of clicks you’re going to get on Facebook.
But think again!
A major problem Facebook faces is the number of fake profiles and spam accounts. These fake profiles are clicking, liking, and/or sharing your page to make their profiles appear genuine.
Your engagement data is going to look fantastic, but these numbers are ghosts.
Spooky stuff.
Wrapping Up…
Facebook is one of the most profitable advertising channels.
You’re going to reach a vast amount of people. Yes, there are statistics showing the decline of Facebook’s popularity, but this just means there is an opportunity to branch out to other platforms and learn something new!
Their targeting tools are easy to use and super useful for reaching your target audience. Continue to review your data to make sure your audience is being reached and you’ve not fallen victim to the spooky ghost profiles!
Working with an agency is your best bet for using Facebook efficiently. Get started with Yatter today.
