Social Media can be an overwhelming realm for a small business, but these days it’s becoming more and more necessary. Facebook, in particular, has become a social network that is an absolute must for any and all companies. It’s a great way to attract and communicate with your customers, to increase awareness of your business, and to form long-lasting relationships. However, Facebook has become a tricky platform to navigate: from posts to pictures to ads, where does one begin?? Not to worry – we’re here to help… The following tips will have your brand rocking Facebook in no time!

1. Small & Sprightly:
How a Small Brand Can Rock Facebook

2. Table of Contents
(click to navigate)
Introduction ................................................................. 3
Grow Your Audience .................................................... 4
Contests ...................................................................... 5
Content, Content, Content! .......................................... 7
The Art of Facebook Ads ............................................. 0
1
The 5 Keys to Facebook Ads ...................................... 16

3. Intro
How a Small Brand Can Rock Facebook
Social Media can be an overwhelming realm for a small business,
but these days it’s becoming more and more necessary.
Facebook, in particular, has become a social network that is an
absolute must for any and all companies. It’s a great way to attract
and communicate with your customers, to increase awareness of
your business, and to form long-lasting relationships.
However, Facebook has become a tricky platform to navigate: from
posts to pictures to ads, where does one begin??
Not to worry – we’re here to help… The following tips will
have your brand rocking Facebook in no time!
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4. + Grow Your Audience
If you’re just getting your company onto Facebook, then the first
order of business is connecting with your current customers, as
well as attracting a bigger audience.
The first step will be to set up an attractive page (use the best
photos you have – now a larger cover photo (851 X 315 pixels)
and a smaller profile picture (180 X 180) are necessary; use the
Facebook timeline to tell your company’s story – perhaps using
older photos where possible). Then dig up any emails you have
collected over time to let your customers know that your business
is on Facebook – send them an email encouraging them to follow
you on Facebook, letting them know that fun content and special
offers will be available on your page.
The second step will be growing your audience. It’s hard to
generate valuable engagement when you only have a handful of
followers, so let’s increase that number! The best way we have
found for growing that initial audience is with contests backed by
ads (see more on Facebook ads on page 10).
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5. Contests
If your business is a restaurant, create a dinner contest (who
wouldn’t want to win a free dinner?!). People must ‘Like’ your page
and submit their email to enter, so you end up growing your email
list as well as your fan base.
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6. Contests
Other businesses
can run contests
that give people
special access to
events –
Any sort of freebie
or “special status”
works for a giveaway!
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7. Content, Content, Content!
With many recent Facebook changes, one thing has become clear:
visual stimulation is key for a successful Facebook page. Gorgeous
photos with brief, funny, light, and/or appealing captions do
tremendously well in stimulating engagement.
Take a look at this attractive Cappuccino pic – note how much
engagement it generated. Notice that the caption wasn’t pushy, but
rather light and appealing. Folks online (as in life) tend to respond better
to an interesting observation or a conversational tone, versus a sales
pitch. Of course, it’s ok to let your customers know what you have to
offer, but it’s best to do it in a fun way.
This Cappuccino photo did so well so quickly that we decided to
promote it even further with a page post ad – the trick to these ads
is also visual appeal. (see page 15 for more on page post ads)
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8. Content, Content, Content!
We had an inkling that the photo below would also get a lot of
positive feedback, so we promoted the post – just $15 spent
and look at the impact.
(For more on promoted posts, see page 14.)
The photo below, with its lively caption, generated numerous ‘Likes’ as well. So, remember:
Appealing
Photos
+
Fun Captions
=
High
Engagement!
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9. Content, Content, Content!
The content you post doesn’t always have to
be about your products, directly. Think about
what subject matter may be interesting, useful,
or just plain funny to your audience:
Videos, articles, photos – all are up for grabs if they appeal to your audience. Mix those in with photos
of your products/services, information about who you are, contests or promotions that engage your
fans. Be light, have fun as you do this – your audience will respond in kind!
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10. The Art of Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are essential for small businesses looking to build
greater social engagement. There are two types of ad formats that
can be used to reach your desired audience, CPC (cost per click)
and CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions).
The average CTR (click through rate) for an internet ad is generally
.1%, but Facebook’s average is much lower – about .05% – though
also much cheaper (a better investment for a limited budget). While
this average may seem very low, we have had great success with
ads getting CTR’s of .2% or higher on Facebook.
The most important part of any Facebook ad is the picture and
targeting. You can have great ad copy, but with a boring picture
and poor targeting, your ad is not going to get any traction.
Facebook is becoming increasingly more visual and an eye-
catching picture is imperative for a successful advertisement.
Facebook is an instantaneous medium: you’ll know within a couple
of hours (from the time your ad is approved) if your ad is successful
or not. Initially, you should always create a couple different ads to
figure out which combination of copy and visuals performs the best.
Facebook blasts out your ad once you’ve created it and if it doesn’t
perform, you will waste your ad budget. In order to prevent this, you
should always review your ads within 2 hours of creation. This initial
test period will tell you which ads to stop or to adjust.
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11. The Art of Facebook Ads
Facebook has been the subject of great debate due to the IPO
flop and GM’s public departure from using Facebook ads. If you
are a small business owner, it is best to ignore this debate. We
will tell you first hand, Facebook ads are extremely important for
small businesses. We have had great success with Facebook ads
and have packed events solely though Facebook promotion. If
your business does not use Facebook ads, your social marketing
campaign will never reach its full potential.
Remember, the whole point of Facebook marketing is to put a
personality behind your brand. Do the same with your ads!
Picture and Copy
Facebook gives you 90 characters to use when writing ad copy.
Ideally you want to create the best copy using the smallest amount
of text possible. Be short, get to the point, and don’t use too many
exclamation points or CAPS.
Ads with a ton of text generally do not perform well. To get around
this, try adding text into your picture, this way you can write less,
but still get the point across. Your picture is essentially the most
important part of your ad. Ads with pictures of people tend to
perform better than pictures with no people. Pictures of food, pets,
drinks, and beautiful scenery also perform well.
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12. The Art of Facebook Ads
Targeting
Targeting your ads correctly is just as important as having quality image and
copy. You could have a great ad, but with poor targeting, you’ll spend your
entire budget without reaching the right people.
How you should target your ad depends on your goal, as well as the type of
business you’re promoting.
The first step in ad targeting is picking a location. You can go as broad as
an entire country or as specific as a single zip code. For example, for a local
business in New York City, we find that targeting by zip code works best to
bring in foot traffic. If you’re a global or national brand, then targeting by city
will be optimal in order to generate brand awareness. Keep in mind: this all
depends on the goal of your ad.
Next up is age and gender, which are pretty self-explanatory.
Finally, we have precise interests and broad categories. The more precise
interests
you select, the larger your target audience will be. This helps push your ad to
people who will actually be interested in what you have to say. You should add
as many precise interests as possible to ensure you do not leave people out.
Broad categories allow you to get even more specific with your targeting. You
can target people who have recently married, recently moved; you can even
target specific races.
Facebook ad targeting is key for small businesses because it allows us to tap
into niche markets.
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13. The Art of Facebook Ads
CPC (Cost Per Click)
CPC
CPC ads work best when you want the target audience to click on
and look through your Facebook page or website. With these ads,
you’re bidding and paying for clicks. The more popular your ad, the
less you will pay for each click. For example, if you bid a maximum
of $1.50 for each click and you get a ton of clicks, your cost per
click is going to drop significantly (we’ve gotten it down to below
$0.10 a click). If you have a strong call-to-action, i.e., you want your
target audience to join a seminar, make a purchase, or attend an
event, CPC ads are going to give you the greatest ROI.
CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions)
CPM
CPM ads are more of a gamble compared to CPC ads. With these,
Facebook knows that they’re going to get paid no matter what, so
they blast your ad out to thousands of people, non-stop. If your ad
is successful, you will get a ton of clicks with a low CPM cost. Of
course, this works both ways… If your ad does not initially perform,
you will spend your entire ad budget on nothing. Like I said above,
it’s imperative that you check the status of your ads religiously
after creation (especially with CPM ads). The last thing you want
is to spend your budget with no results. For small business, this is
key because they are likely to have smaller budgets. We find that
CPMs are best for growing your page and building greater brand
awareness, as opposed to voicing a call to action. CPM ads tend to
get more people to become fans of your page, thus growing your
audience – and as mentioned earlier, that’s very important in the
beginning.
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14. The Art of Facebook Ads
Promoted Posts
Promoted Posts are Facebook’s newest type of ad and are most
effective for businesses/brands that have a large, active fan base
(1,000 plus fans). These ads are also the only type of Facebook
ads that show up on mobile devices (very important: 50% of
Facebook’s users use the service via mobile).
Facebook’s algorithm makes it so your fans see only 16% of your
content. All of your content is shown, but only 16% is delivered to
your fans. This may be a shock to some, but it prevents brands
from spamming. In order to frequently push content to more of
your fans, promoted posts are REQUIRED. They are also very
cost effective and affordable. You purchase these ads in small
increments – as little as $5 – depending on how many people you
want to reach. Posts can be promoted for a maximum of 3 days.
Promoted posts are set up like CPM ads and therefore you pay for
impressions. Facebook engagement is highest Monday through
Wednesday, so we like to use these ads to boost engagement
during the slower days of the week (though they’re also great
to promote specific timely promotions). These ads are ideal for
advertising in a subtle way, because you’re just making sure that
content from your Facebook page is seen. They allow you to
advertise without explicitly saying, “Buy my product!”
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15. The Art of Facebook Ads
Page Post Ads
You can also create ads for your Facebook page posts. These ads
are a good way to promote your posts to people who don’t already
like your page, without sacrificing your brand integrity. The pictures
used for page post ads are also 18% larger than on traditional ad
pictures. This is significant because it allows you to use a more
detailed image.
Page post ads also let you showcase videos that link directly to
your Facebook profile. This is the only way to advertise a video
without having it link to YouTube or Vimeo page (this is ideal, since
bringing people to your Facebook page is what helps you grow
your Facebook community).
We like to use this ad format to promote a post that garners high
engagement – we know the post is likely to get some interest and
attract new fans since it has already done well with the current
fans. Unlike promoted posts, these do not show up on mobile. But,
these can be targeted like any other ad and are only different in
that they originate from a page post (rather than being created from
scratch). Be careful – the character limit applies to these ads as
well. If it’s over 90 characters, it will be cut off at the last character.
This is why you see “…” at the end of some ads or in the middle of
a word. You might have to play around with your wording a bit so
that your text is not cut off, or is cut off in an appropriate place.
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16. The Art of Facebook Ads
THE 5 KEYS TO FACEBOOK ADS
1. Review your ads regularly
It is imperative that you check your ads multiple times daily.
2. Picture
A good ad must have a great picture.
3. Targeting
You must target your ad in a way that represents your overall goal.
4. Timing
Think about real world events when launching your ad campaign –
i.e., don’t launch an ad campaign during a holiday or on a Friday –
it’s a waste of time and money.
5. Budget
Money is tight for small businesses, but don’t cheap out on ads.
$100 a month in Facebook ads is not enough (we recommend at
least $250). GO ALL IN!
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17. We hope you find this paper helpful in building your
Facebook presence. If you’d like to take your digital
marketing strategy to the next level, we’re here to help!
To learn more about Able, visit our website or contact us directly: 212 873 1974 | info@ablesocial.com