With seemingly limitless tools available, choosing suitable advertising platforms can be overwhelming. From Google Ads to the various social networks and from Bing to Outbrain and Adroll, it’s enough to put you off marketing altogether. And that’s before you’ve even started to create the advertising content itself.
Our advice – start with Facebook.
You see, Facebook has an extraordinarily broad audience. Everyone is on there – your mum, the guy who makes your coffee in the morning, and the hipster you saw on the train yesterday. Statistically, your target audience is on Facebook.
Also, people use it. It’s nice to have a large number of users, but if they aren’t on the platform then what’s the point? Monthly active users (MAU’s) is a business indicator used by social businesses to determine how often each user accesses the platform. Facebook currently has around 2.7 billion monthly active users, with around 65% of those users logging in daily. Perhaps a more impressive statistic is that 59% of the world’s active Internet users access Facebook every month.
That’s not the only reason to start with Facebook advertising. The real power of Facebook lies in segmentation. As retail clinics, our goal is principally to target those in our local geographical area and this is something Facebook does very well. On top of that, it will allow you to target males or females of a specific age group. There are loads of other ways to break down the audience, but as clinics, this should be enough to start with.
Finally, Facebook advertising doesn’t need to be unnecessarily expensive. We suggest you start off low, with a figure you are comfortable with and build based on results. You’re better off spending $20 a week and attracting one customer than you are spending $200 for the same result. Test, measure and increase your spend when you feel confident.
Here’s how to do it.
Head to your business Facebook page. In the left-hand column, you’ll see the item “Ads”, click on it.
Now, in the top right-hand corner, you’ll see a blue button that says “Create Ad.” Again, give it a click.
Now, you need to choose a goal. There is an opportunity here to integrate your online store with Facebook and use Messenger as an interaction tool, but let’s start with a simple campaign. Click on “Get More People to Contact You.”
Now you can create your ad. Most likely, Facebook has used your header image, business name and business description to create a generic advertisement. Statistically, generic ads are far less successful than those that have some kind of promotion or specificity. A few ideas for you:
- Laser hair removal in X (insert suburb)
- 25% off HIFU treatments for March
- Purchase 4 treatments and get the 5th free
Keep it specific, relevant and of a high value to your target audience. Now, let’s segment –
Again, start by segmenting based on age, gender and location. Importantly, don’t worry about who could use your clinic, segment based on whoever already does. For example, if you have a men’s only clinic in Penrith and most of your clientele are aged between 30 and 45, make that your target.
Finally, your budget. Facebook will make a recommendation because it wants to make money. Don’t be afraid to start low and build up – the purpose of all advertising should be for every dollar you put in, to come back to you.
That’s it, you are ready to start your campaign. Doublecheck your spelling, make sure you are happy with the image you’ve used and send it out into the world.
If you would like any help with Facebook marketing, email enquiries@laseraid.com.au
