Can anyone advise me on Facebook Ads?

We have been advised that facebook ads might be a good marketing tool for us but I don't really know very much about them - can anyone gve me some pointers or their experiences good or bad?

Ta folks

x

Hi Sam,

I've been running facebook ad campaigns for a number of years now, sometimes handling budgets that average in excess of £100k p/a.

I'll drop you a PM with my contact detials, I'm sure I can help out.

Liam

Social Media is a great tool to get the word out there - but I wouldn't recommend paid for facebook adverts

Thinks when was the last time you clicked on one

Have to disagree, people do click on them if the image and copy are good.

You need to have a good funnel, so link to your FB landing page tab and offer something very cool (worth paying for) for free for an optin and/or like

then you can get back to people, build an email relationship then sell your services.

Also getting the likes is great social proof when people hit your page.

Like in Sam's case you could have a free webinar or mini-video course or report on your Facebookj landing page (tab) and target people you want to reach to get them straight to your landing page.

The skill is knowing where your prospects are on facebook and what they like and figuring out how to show the ads only to them.

It's worth a go for sure.

I did a very good online FB ads training course recently so pm if you'd like a link.

Hi Sam,

Just chipping in with my 2 pence.

I tried some free advertising with Facebook and LinkedIn and found them both to be disapointing. Although if you are targeting businesses I would say LinkedIn advertising is the better option.

Also a little handy trick for you which works with Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Ads is to go through the process as though your going to set up your advert (very simple, click next, fill in details, click next etc) and get all the way to point where you going to pay then stop.  Sometime within the next 30 days you will get a  free £50 voucher to use to on advertising, so you can then run a test.

As said our trials were disapointing, but we are not experts in the advertising field, so it could just be bad adverts, however with both Facebook and LinkedIn you can create multiple adverts with different text in the same campaign, so try a few and see what happens.

*waves* 

I think it really depends what kind of business is being advertised on what platform, all businesses can be advertised or optamised but wont have same results. I tried for my online IT biz in past got only  clicks.

As Darren said  " LinkedIn advertising is the better option" for you

I'd be really interested in hearing from anyone who has had success with Facebook ads for a B2B business.

Can be very effective for lifestyle/leisure businesses but I'm yet to be convinced it's the best way to go for service providers like you, Sam. But I'm open to being persuaded by hard evidence!

It depends on your ultimate goals I think. If you are just trying to build up a B2B related communtiy on Facebook its very much possible, using ads to connect with business owners or people in business using the targeting options, you could share relevant content, stories etc. If that community fits in the the rest of your marketing strategy then great. There are plent of business orientated fan pages out there with large numbers of followers and I'm sure having a wide community does those bands a great deal of good, how thats moentised and the value of that following will be dependant on the individual brand.

From a pure B2B lead gen point of view, I've never come across any examples of success. There are many other avenues I would explore first.

I used facebook ads, pay per click for a very short time...they didn't really work for me.  I have always found it better to do my own PR and get features in media..takes a bit of time but well worth it as ou will get a lot more credibility that way...always better when a 3rd party eg journalist is writing about you...

Hi Sam,

Ive just had a look at your Facebook Page.

Please do NOT spend a penny on FB Ads until you have ALL the basics including apps for capturing visitors enabled on your Page.  FB Ads WILL work, but you need all the pieces of the jigsaw in place FIRST.  People will not currently be impressed (sorry but just being constructive!) when they land on the Page.

I have a video on the Best practices tab of my page here  https://www.facebook.com/FanPagesAreUs  which will help you.

I can help Sam, its what we do.  Please contact me for a constructive chat if you are interested.

Regards Rhys

Rhys thanks for the feedback - we are well aware we need to spend some effort on our page and you'll notice our new website is not yet up & running either - the curse & joy of being delightfully busy meeting client needs has pushed these things to the bottom of the to do list!

We are very lucky to have met, liked, got to know and trust the delectable Neil Humphrey such that I am confident he is going to help us and before anyone asks - we also have a wonderful web designer - it is us at vivoHR delaying the process not the great people we choose to work with!

As I said - I was just after opinions & general advice on the success or otherwise of using FB ads.

Cheers Gareth

I think that might be for us to explore as I am definitely getting the feeling that whilst we should get our FB page looking better & be making better use of it that the FB Ads may not be the best investment for us.

We have never really done much marketing beyond networking and referrals until this year and that has always stood us in good stead, but we recognse there are so many other options that we can make use of at relatively low costs and effort (by comparison to networking costs & time) that altho networking will always be a big part of the mix for us, we want to do other things too & need to work out what will work best.

4N is so great for getting the advice, ideas & info as well as findign the people to work with to help us with all that