Advertising on Facebook sounds like a good idea, right? Well, the real question is: Will it be effective?
It depends on how you use it. If you’re looking to get more eyes on your company, you need to start digging into Facebook’s different targeting options.
Facebook has a massive audience (1 billion active users a day), and there’s a ton of investors looking for their next offering. Even the people who see the ad that don’t go on to invest might interact with it, share it, or provide more information.
Think of this as a way to ensure you’re putting your message in front of the right people.
In today’s investor article, I am going to shed some light on the different types of audiences Facebook allows you to target.
Why Is Knowing My Audience Important?
Facebook is a powerful way to reach large audiences of people who have demonstrated interest in your product or niche.
You can do this through the use of targeting options, which allow you to pick interests or custom audiences that could lead to a lot more eyes on the offering through advertising.
Targeting allows you to advertise to users based on their likes, interests, age, location, and other information they may have listed on their profile. This will allow you to focus on people who are most likely to be interested in your offering.
You can also upload a list of custom audiences (people who have already visited your site or clicked on your offering), which will help you connect with people who are already aware of your brand.
3 Types of Audiences
When you’re deciding where you want to advertise on Facebook, there are three main target options:
Detail Targeting - You may have noticed that Facebook’s ads tend to be pretty specific. If you’re not a fan of a band, you don’t see ads for their concert. If you don’t have kids, you probably don’t see baby products too often.
Through their algorithm, Facebook determines the products and services that are relevant to each person based on the information they’ve shared with the platform. This can be: where they work and went to school, their likes and interests, favorite books and movies, relationships, or even their political affiliation.
Custom Audience - This allows you to specifically target people who have visited your website or clicked on your ads. We use these when we run a retargeting campaign to those who have already shown interest, and get them to convert.
Most people don’t convert the first time they see the ad. When they see the same brand again, they’re more likely to invest or purchase your product because they are already aware of your offering.
Lookalike Audiences - This will show you how closely related people are to your custom audience. Facebook allows you to look at the analytics of every ad set you’re running by age, gender, geo, and even device type.
You can duplicate that audience and go specifically at those pockets of performance that are working. You can target people who follow your competitors and even target some of the brands that have had the top-performing equity crowdfunding campaigns.
Want Success? Start With a Strategy
We all know the internet is full of an overwhelming number of things to read and watch. So how do you make sure your ads shine through the noise?
Start with strategy. You can begin by checking out our webinar on how to build an eight-point marketing plan - it will give an overview so you can start to figure out what your company’s strengths are, where your weaknesses lie, and who your audience is.
From there, you can get an industry overview and look at competitor audits. Start by developing a roadmap - you’ll get a better idea of where you stand compared to other companies in your industry so you can make strategic decisions based on data instead of just relying on gut feeling.
By doing this, you can even see what your competitors did for their advertising. If something’s worked for them, it may work for you.