Facebook started as a social network that helped you communicate with your friends and meet new people, but it has become so much more than that. Right now, it’s getting bigger than life, and Facebook ads have changed the direction of online advertising.
I spoke about The Evolution of Facebook Advertising in one of the previous articles, and how it has become relevant for advertisers and users.
Facebook Advertising has been showing artificial wonders now and then over the last decade. But there are benefits and drawbacks of Facebook Advertising, and I’m going to write about them in more depth.
The Benefits of Facebook Ads
There are a lot of benefits that advertisers can get from ads on Facebook.
It’s not just the large companies, but also the small companies that are reaping the rewards of using Facebook Advertising. It was an important part of sustaining customer interest and building awareness of the brand.
Facebook advertisements also support small companies by helping them attract potential customers. Let’s jump into the ocean to get to know the advantages of Facebook advertising.
The Largest Platform to Get The Consumers
If you ask marketers, especially small business owners about the biggest advantage of Facebook Ads, they will surely start with the number of users they can easily connect with through these ads.
This social network is the most targeted form of advertising.
There are millions of people who have different interests, and they behave differently. There are boomers and Gen Z who live in various locations. You can reach one-fifth of the world’s population.
It’s surprising, isn’t it? There are 1.49 billion people who are online monthly, about 300 million more active users than on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Is compelling enough? Let me tell you something else.
According to the survey, Facebook gets 1 TRILLION page viewing per month. The number of active users in South Asia and our country is much higher.
Whatever the consumer segmentation is, they’re using Facebook.
Cost-effective Advertising System
Some people may think investing $5 in Facebook Advertisements is a little pricey, but it’s not.
Generally, if you equate it with other types of advertisement, such as TV ads and banners, it is the cheapest form of advertising that will give you the biggest audience.
As a small business owner, you can hit 1,000 customers by investing just $5. With the support of Facebook Advertising, you can double your progress.
It is the most cost-effective promotional strategy possible.
Micro-Targeting Accurate Consumers
Facebook’s targeting ability is the biggest thing in the last decade. Facebook ad algorithms help you reach out to people based on their actions and interest.
The Facebook targeting choice also includes schooling, financial status, parental status, location, job, languages, ethnicity, and, most notably, links to numerous Facebook pages.
You can prefer consistency over quantities by deleting users that are not future customers.
Thanks to the algorithms, you can understand who is most likely to buy your products and who are only random visitors to your page.
Reaching More Than Organic Posts
Small business owners in our country can get some consumers by reaching them with organic posts, but that is not enough.
You should know that the number of followers you have on your page does not follow your posts.
Recently Facebook has decreased the visibility of your page’s post on users’ news feeds.
Mark Zuckerberg decided to update this frustrating algorithm for small business owners to make sure they spend a few bucks on Facebook ads.
It does not sound right.
But if you invest in Facebook Advertising, they will return more than your investment.
Like I said before, your post will reach a thousand people if you spend $5.
Robustness Analysis
This social network offers robust analytics to advertisers who invest in ads.
Marketers do not need to use their assumptions on the numbers and which strategy is clicking and which one isn’t.
If you use Facebook for promoting your products, then you’ll get unlimited analytics and reports from Facebook.
You will get many social metrics and conversion rates from Facebook. They will automatically do that for you.
The metrics you get from Facebook are page likes, weekly reach, post engagement, and many more. It measures the progress of your ads.
To Compete With Others
At this point, all the big and small businesses are investing in Facebook Ads to reach their audience and grow their business.
If you do not use or invest in this platform, you will make things less complicated for them.
Do the SWOT analysis! Forget the competitors. Your consumers use this platform most of their days.
If you don’t use this, you will not reach your consumers and grow your business.
Adding A CTA Button
Several online advertising platforms have this CTA (Call-To-Action) button, which takes the users to the wanted destination.
The advantage of this option is, that instead of telling users where to go, they will do that automatically.
It makes a big difference in the performance of marketers’ promotions. Also, consumers want to know more about the products before making up their minds.
Users on Facebook can easily go to the website of businesses, and there are other options as well.
Facebook has updated the CTA button, and there are options like Apply Now, Book Now, Contact Us, Download, and Sign Up.
Creating Facebook Ads According to Specific Objectives and Budget Friendly
Creating Facebook Ads is simple and flexible. It helps you through every step.
For example,
- Setting a time-frame
- What kind of ads
- Choosing the audience
If you want website clicks or post engagement or page likes. This platform allows marketers to customize the ads according to what they are trying to accomplish.
Advertising on this platform is also budget-friendly.
It is also customized based and You can fix a daily or long-term budget. Small business owners or anyone can decrease it anytime if they want.
Building Brand Image & Encouraging Consumer Loyalty
Lastly, Facebook Ads give the option to businesses to engage with users.
It helps businesses to interact with the users and knows how they are feeling and reply to their feedback. It also helps the consumers or followers of the business page feel like they belong to a group or community.
Facebook Ads help the business to grow its brand image and enhance consumer loyalty.
The ads may be less costly than other platforms, but the return is enormous if you value brand image and consumer loyalty.
You just have to be patient because it will not happen overnight.
Cons of Facebook Ads
Everything has some negative aspects, and so do Facebook Ads.
Business owners face several problems when spending money on Facebook Ads.
Let’s jump onto the cons of Facebook Advertising.
Incorrect Metrics
Metrics of Facebook Ads are a beneficial factor, but recently it has been giving a lot of misinformation.
Many marketers over the years complained about the reports of metrics, which are wrong. Few metrics are frequently misreported to marketers.
For example,
- Miscalculated metrics for app referrals, can cause problems for marketers who will take decisions based on this.
- Misreport of instant articles.
- Over-report of video play metric
- Last but mostly, there were several times, organic reach wasn’t reported accurately.
Facebook responded to this accusation and promised that they would bring a solution.
They said that they would launch a measurement council and clearer metrics. We will have to wait and see if this works.
Unable to Advertise Everything
It is one of the big problems of the Facebook Advertisement system.
There are products of some sectors that aren’t allowed to promote on Facebook. Even if you try to promote those products, they will go through a strict review process.
Sometimes it takes a day or more than that to review those advertisements.
Many supplement products aren’t allowed to promote on Facebook.
There are many rules and regulations for these health-related goods.
Some other products, like adult products and surveillance equipment, are prohibited to promote on Facebook.
Products that represent sensitive issues are also not allowed to advertise.
Lastly, guns and tobacco products are strictly prohibited to promote on Facebook.
The Increasing Number Of Your Competition
I said earlier that investing in Facebook Ads is a good thing as your competitors are doing it. But the increasing number of competitors who are promoting their products on Facebook is a bad thing.
It will be very difficult to get the users’ attention because of too many advertisements from other companies.
Sometimes, to go ahead of your competitors; you need to spend on creative ad sets, and that is an additional cost.
Declining Organic Reach
You will surely get more audience by spending on Facebook than with your organic posts. But some small businesses were doing well without spending on Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg noticed that, and he made sure that the organic post diminishes after the updates.
Facebook is forcing every small business to spend on Facebook Ads with this step, which is not a good impression at all.
Does it guarantee sales? No!
Facebook Ads help you to reach too many users, but you have to work hard on your content.
If you can’t represent good content, people won’t buy it.
You need good ideas and web designers who can make you good web content that is persuasive.
Mishandling Negative Feedback’s
As I said, if there is a blessing to this platform, then there will be a negative side to the same platform.
It is good that Facebook helps you to increase brand awareness by reaching out to a lot of consumers, but it only takes one negative comment from a consumer to create havoc.
You need to hire a Social Media Manager who can monitor these issues. In other words, you need to pay more and still may face backlash if your people cannot deal with it.
In my next article, I will write about how consumers feel about Facebook monitoring their personal information.
Stay tuned and stay safe.