Facebook Advertising for New Marketers - Should You?

You've built a website or created a WordPress blog, and packed it with your best content. You've done solid market research, carefully optimizing your site for SEO with long-tailed keywords. And now you're busy networking that site by:

- Submitting articles to directories

- Including a clear "call-to-action" at the end of every post

- Networking on related forums and social media

But there's one other strategy you might want to consider - one that at first may seem premature for a new blog or website. And that is advertising on Facebook. It's not for everyone, of course - but if you fit a certain profile, it can be the fastest way to turn your site or blog into an authority site and increase it's page rank.

You could invest in a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign - if you're going to pay for advertising at all. But anyone who has tried to find a good keyword with competition that isn't overwhelming, then register a dot com domain for it, knows all too well that finding that keyword unregistered is akin to winning millions on the lottery.

The Hazards of Keyword Selection

And if you pick a keyword with heavy competition, no one's going to notice you. Especially if you're just using that long-tail for SEO purposes, rather than purchasing PPC. (And this is especially true for internet marketers - one group fully aware of and savvy to keyword SEO - unlike, for example, the majority of people in, say, knitting forums, where the main interest is knitting; not marketing.)

If you do have a clear niche, however, and a strong demographic that is narrow and precise, your fastest road to creating a profitable presence could be to invest in a Facebook ads. You can purchase one inexpensively, run it for a set amount of time - and have your site spread via the best route of all: The buzz created among your social network friends (all of whom are sitting there, right in your specific niche demographic).

Remember, this is an experiment. Set your daily allotment low, and track it. (Facebook does allow you to do that.)

Maximizing Your Ad

Make the most of Facebook ads' graphics ability, and add an appealing photo or image (just look at those Facebook ads down the right-hand side of your profile page, to see examples of visually strong ads).

And Facebook's ability to target by city, state and country is one of its best ad features. If your website or blog is dependent on location (i.e. "Niagara Falls Orchard Photography") and you've also created a Fan Page on Facebook, you may find you've got it made.

One caution, however: Do make sure that you actually do use strong, specific keywords for your niche in your ad headline and body text. Keep the focus narrow to that one single, specific group.

Remember that Facebook's participants are predominantly (but not exclusively limited to) the female 18-34 range. If you were running a site that wanted to sell to a strong male demographic in a different age range, you'd need to make sure there was a good sprinkling of active Facebook groups and fan pages in that field visibly populated with males, before you went ahead with your ad.

Remember - keep your daily costs low, your target specific - and good luck with your Facebook advertising!