Benefits Of Advertising Through Facebook

             I was going to start this post with, “if you haven’t heard of Facebook…” but you’ve heard of it and you use it everyday. Finding somebody new online is effortless. It’s quite amazing what you can find with just knowing a first name. When using the search bar to find people, the search’s rankings go by common location, education, and interests. The ability to stay in touch with old friends and make new friends are some of the basic benefits people have by using Facebook. The sharing of personal information fuels Facebook existence.

            Advertising agencies can spend thousands of dollars on market information and surveys to find out what their target audience’s interests are. Facebook significantly cuts these costs. “Control your budget” is a section on the main page of Facebook’s advertising segment. This explains the two ways to pay for advertising through Facebook: CPC (cost per click), which is when people click on an ad, or CPM (cost per mille), which is when people see your ad. The advertiser gets to choose the amount of money they would like to spend per day and can limit their lifetime budget.

            When users choose to create an ad they choose exactly who they want to see the ad by checking off what age range, location, and interests they have. Traditional advertising, such as television commercials, has a lot of wasted views because they do not know particularly who is watching that television. Each individual Facebook user has an account so there is a slim to no chance that someone else would be using his or her account.

            One of the leading features that businesses can’t get over is the “like” feature. This simple, one-click, button provides instant feedback on their brand or product. If someone does not have the time to write a complete review, they may just click “like.” Obviously, the more likes, the more they know they’re doing right. Comparing this to traditional advertising, where an agency may spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to shoot a commercial that isn’t successful. Instead, they may use a shorter and simple version of the commercial and see if it creates buzz.

            The major benefit to advertising on Facebook is creating the “buzz” of a brand or new product. Facebook allows people to take advantage of the first amendment of our constitution. If a product is awful, they can let friends know and leave a comment on the business’ fan page. If someone received a quality service they may join a fan page and tell friends about it.

            While walking to class, the majority of students are in their own world, either on an IPod or Smartphone. Social interaction is beginning to sway its way over to the Internet. Word of mouth is expressed more through text than verbal language.

            Facebook advertising is a dream world for advertisers, whether you are a corporation or a ma-and-pa shop right down the road. I close this comment with a video that shows a brief overview on creating an ad on Facebook.