By: Pamela Nieto

Facebook is a great way to advertise your products or even your company. It is easy, fast, and cheap. You can monitor your ad campaigns and see how effective they are with your target market. But for those who have never advertised on Facebook, keep the following tips in mind, and remember – everything else you need to learn will come with experience.

1. Build your Strategy

Before beginning your ad campaign it is important to follow these steps:

• Set a goal: Either large or small
• Identify your audience: Who is your target audience?
• Create your messaging and content: Be enthusiastic and straight to the point
• Determine a call to action: Do you want to increase the traffic on your website or attract more people to your Facebook page?

2. Test different ads within the same campaign

It is advisable to test different ads to see which ones attract your audience more effectively. Target various demographics using different images, content, and URLs (e.g. you can direct one ad to your website and another to your Facebook page) to see which ones perform the best.

3. Monitor your ads closely

The only way to know if your ads are effective is to monitor them at least 3-4 times a week. It is imperative that you watch how your ‘click through rate’ performs over time. If it begins to decrease, you may want to change your target market or your advertisement (content, image, etc). Keep in mind that at some point, all ads lose their effectiveness, so it’s important that to keep it fresh and appealing.

4. Create and participate in dialogue with your audience

• Be upfront about your objective
• Be consistent in your conversations
• Share interesting information
• When you make a mistake apologize immediately