The Learning Center

The great thing about the internet is that it is loaded with options for small businesses to advertise and attract new customers. The downside is that it is loaded with options for small businesses to advertise and attract new business. The point being is that as with most forms of advertising there can be too many options to choose from and for small business owners that don’t have a lot of time or money to invest in marketing advertising in the wrong place can quickly get expensive and if it is a failed effort then it can leave people frustrated and unwilling to try again.

So to help make things easier we’ll be discussing the different ways to market a business over the internet and main points about each particular avenue.

And the choice for today is Facebook Ads.

Just to be clear we are not talking about Facebook Business Pages. We’re talking about the ads you see on the right side of your screen when you are logged into your account. If you didn’t know it those little ads are the reason Facebook is worth so much money. Like Google, Facebook makes most of their money from advertising revenue. Literally billions of dollars are spent each year by advertisers that want to reach Facebook’s users and with hundreds of millions of people using Facebook it’s a pretty big audience that advertisers can reach.

The Question though is whether it’s a good way to advertise for small businesses? 

On the surface you might think so because it has such a large audience. But for most small businesses you would be wrong. Of course now you want to know why? It actually boils down to two main reasons.

1. Facebook Ads are Interruption Based

Consider this, even though you can target the ads to show to a particular audience using geographic targeting, demographics etc. the ads are still being shown to people that don’t necessarily need what you have to offer at that particular moment. It’s the internet equivalent of a billboard by the side of a highway. And most people have become accustomed to tuning them out because we see ads on so many websites. We don’t even pay attention anymore.

2. Geographic Targeting

Ok so Facebook has hundreds of millions of users. Let’s narrow that down. Say for example you own a plumbing business in Nashville, Tennessee and your company only does business in Nashville. Well your audience just went from the hundreds of millions to 600,000 which is the population of Nashville. Now narrow it down further by subtracting the people that don’t use Facebook, people that have accounts but aren’t active, and so on. Once you narrow it down your audience gets a lot smaller.

The internet provides a wealth of options but for small businesses with limited budgets many of them are a waste of money and using Facebook’s pay per click ads can be a big waste of money or at the least a big waste of time for small business owners.

If you are thinking about advertising on Facebook but would like a second opinion about whether it’s a good idea then call us at 615-890-3600 or email us. I can offer you a free consultation and an educated opinion that might end up saving you hundreds or even thousands of dollars.