As readers of this blog know, I am a skeptic when it comes to the value of Facebook (and other social media) when it comes to promoting local, small businesses. That’s not to say I don’t believe it can or will work. I just prioritize it lower than other methods proven to effectively increase sales and market share.
That said, I recently ran across an online survey that honestly evaluated my potential return for investing time on a Facebook with 10 short questions. It’s at www.isfacebookforme.com. I recommend you take 30 seconds and give it a try. My score was just 4.8, supporting my decision to invest my time in this website rather than Facebook’s. But that may not be the case for you.
If you have not tried PPC advertising, it is truly the most logical type of advertising to do for businesses that need to make every penny count. And next to Google’s search network placement, Facebook is the best place to do it, according to several studies. In a post on the ROI Revolution blog, Ben Ronnenberg gave us insights into the results of one of his anonymous clients that can be instructive. He called this company “Client A.”
“The following story is about a lead generation client (Client A, for anonymity), but Facebook would certainly be worth testing if you’re in an e-commerce space too.
We created Client A’s Facebook account back on January 26. He’s a local advertiser, only seeking clients within a close radius of a heavily populated metro, so we set the Facebook geo-targeting to just 10 miles around his city.
Within 18 days his campaign spent just over $500, generating almost 600 clicks, but these numbers don’t tell the whole story yet:
When we dig into our Google Analytics reporting for Client A’s Facebook PPC traffic, we can see that his $500 in spend produced 11 highly valuable customer leads:
By highly valuable, I mean that Client A knows his customer lifetime value and has been able to determine that each new customer lead is worth $600 to him.
So for a ~$500 cost, with 11 new customer leads worth $6,600 (11 x $600), we’re talking about a superior ROI from Facebook in just 18 days!
It’s important to note here that Facebook is only producing 5.5% of the overall leads from our top 5 traffic sources, so it’s not going to replace Google AdWords anytime soon. Facebook is however, turning out to be a solid supplemental lead source for Client A.
Tips for setting up a Facebook campaign1. Track your conversions with a reporting service like Google Analytics.
2. Utilize Facebook’s demo/geographic targeting to focus on a niche audience.
3. Set your bid price within Facebook’s suggested CPC bid range.
4. Use a captivating image in your ad (you can combine an image with text).
5. If you generate a strong impression share initially, but then it trends downward over time, you should rotate new ad creatives to keep a fresh message in front of your audience’s eyes.6. If you are unable to generate any substantial impression share at all, then try experimenting with different or fewer demographic segments. You can also try targeting a larger geographic area to boost your ads’ reach.”
