Facebook has revolutionized pay-per-click marketing by offering the most highly-targeted traffic available! This FREE report reveals the top tactics to getting cheap, laser targeted traffic through their incredible system!

Facebook is one of the most high-traffic websites in the world. Current estimates say that Facebook has more than 500,000,000 users. Yes, that’s five hundred million users! There’s no denying that Facebook has enormous potential for sending traffic to a website!

Of course, it can take an unbelievable amount of time to build a very large list of friends on Facebook. Facebook will temporary stop you from adding friends if you add too many too quickly, so building a huge list definitely takes time.

So how can you harness the power of this massive traffic source quickly? Is there a way to hop on Facebook and start grabbing your share of their massive traffic base right now? Yes!

Facebook has their own ad system where you can purchase very inexpensive ads that will be delivered on their site. Best of all, the traffic is extremely well-targeted, because you can pick and choose the demographics you wish to target!

Getting Started With Facebook Social Ads

The first thing you need to do is sign up for a Facebook account if you don’t have one, or log into your existing account. Once you’ve logged into your account, you need to go to the Facebook advertising page.

You should see something similar to this:

Click the “Create an Ad” button at the top right. This will take you to the page where you can set up your first ad.

You will be presenting with the following options on the first page:

• Destination URL – This is the URL where you want traffic sent.
• Suggest an Ad – If you click this button after entering a URL, the system will attempt to suggest an ad for your site based on the site’s content.
• Title – This is a short title that will appear above the image in your ad. It must be 25 characters or fewer. It will be a clickable link.
• Body Text – This is the text that appears below the image.
• Image – This is the image that will appear between the title and the body text.

Here is an example of an ad that is currently on Facebook:

As you can see, there is a short, clickable title at the top, followed by the site’s URL. After that is a small image. Finally, you see the body text, which is a short description of what the site is offering.

You have very little space in these ads, so it is crucial that you make your ad as appealing as possible. I’m going to go through each section of the ad in detail so I can help you set up the most attention-grabbing and profitable ad possible.

I will also help you make sense of demographics, so you can figure out exactly how to target the right group of people in order to get quality clicks that will convert!

Destination URL

The destination URL will show up underneath the title, and it is the URL people will be sent to when they click your ad. Ideally, this should be something short and catchy, and it should preferably be a root domain name rather than a subdirectory. This looks cleaner and more professional, and it will fit better in this area.

Title

The title is very important, because it is the clickable link that appears in the ad. The title must draw attention, it must let people know what they will get if they click the ad.

Don’t be dishonest or misleading. This will only make people angry and upset once they realize they’ve been misled. This will not result in conversions, although it may cost you a lot of money in useless clicks.

Don’t say something like, “Click here for free money!”

Just be open and honest, while also making to attract as much attention as possible. You want people to click your ad, of course, but you do not want to waste money on clicks from people who won’t be interested in what you have to offer.

Remember, you only have 25 characters to work with, so you need to make your title good!

Body Text

The body text goes under the image. It’s not typically as important as the title or the image, because it doesn’t attract as much attention. The text is small and gray, and it’s not really very noticeable unless someone is looking directly at the ad.

Of course, once someone IS looking at the ad, the body text is still important. This area is your spot to tell people more about your offer. You only get 135 characters in this spot, so of course it needs to be as effective as possible.

If you have trouble coming up with text, the “Suggest an Ad” button may help. You can also try looking at other ads for inspiration. Sometimes ads that aren’t targeted to your niche can even give you inspiration.

Images

One of the most critical parts of your ad is the image. The image must grab attention in order to get people to take interest in your ad. The job of the image is to draw attention to the ad, and also to let people know what your offer is about.

If you are trying to sell a weight loss guide, the image might be a thin, sexy stomach, perhaps with a tape measure wrapped around it. Both men and women respond well to seeing a nice body, and it would definitely draw the eye toward the ad.

Remember the example ad I showed you earlier?

As you can see, the colors in the image really pop! They draw the eye toward the ad. These are very attractive eyes that both men and women would be drawn to, and the colors are exciting and dynamic.

This is the type of image you need to use. You should select an image that your typical target demographic would be attracted to. Let me give you a few examples to help you brainstorm.

• Weight Loss – An attractive woman in a bikini, a tape measure around an apple, a young man with 6-pack abs
• Moneymaking Offers – Piles of cash, money coming out of a laptop screen
• Dating – A happy couple smiling, a bride and groom, a couple kissing, two hearts intertwined

The point is to find an image that really strikes a chord with your target demographic. Images should be colorful, and should look good and be discernable even at small sizes, since the images on Facebook ads are quite small.

You can find legal images at:

• Fotolia
• IstockPhoto
• BigStockPhoto

I would advise buying stock photos legally instead of trying to use “public domain” or “creative commons” images, because you can never be absolutely certain of the origin of a photo you download unless you buy it from a reputable stock agency.

Facebook Demographics

Demographics are confusing to some people. A lot of people wonder how they can figure out their target demographic without using an expensive survey agency or having a big email list to survey.

Well, most of the time it’s simply common sense. If you’re selling perfume, your target demographic will probably be women. Yes, men buy perfume for their significant others, but women are probably the main demographic you want to target.

If you truly have no idea which demographics to target, I suggest setting up several ads that target different demographics in order to see which one performs best. You don’t necessarily have to track which people buy, but you definitely need to figure out which ads get the most clicks. (Of course, tracking buyers is also extremely helpful, as one demographic might click more and buy less.)

Testing is always extremely important in any type of marketing. You may want to test ads with different images, different titles, and different body text, too.

However, testing ads to different demographic groups can help you figure out exactly the right group to target. It will really pay off if you can refine your ad in order to target the right market.

You can target by these basic demographics:

• Location – Target by country, city, state/province, and even city
• Age – An age range or even an exact match
• Gender – Target to men, women, or both
• Interest – Target by interest, such as golf, knitting, or NASCAR

There are also some advanced demographics available:

• Birthday – You can target people only on their birthday
• Dating Preference – Target people by whether they want to date men or women
• Relationship Status – Target by whether they are single, married, engaged, or in a relationship
• Languages – Target by the language they speak
• Education – You can choose people who are college graduates, are in college, or are in high school
• Workplace – You can even target people who work for a specific company or have an affiliation with a particular organization

As you can see, there are many different demographic groups you could potentially target. I suggest starting with a few variations and refining from there. This will let you drill down to the best demographic to go after.

Unless you have a product that truly has wide appeal, I suggest targeting your demographic carefully. If you don’t, you may end up getting a lot of clicks that you have to pay for without actually making any money to show for it.

However, if you are careful to target the right people, you will probably be rewarded with very profitable traffic!

Related articles

• A Start-Up Offers Help With Advertising on Facebook (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Facebook AND Google (Let’s Move On) (converstations.com)

Tags: facebook, facebook ads, social ads, social marketing