Facebook provides a lot of fantastic opportunities for online marketers, but there are also a lot of pitfalls. Here are some guidelines that can help you get started with Facebook PPC Advertising.

We can get clicks starting at 10 cents per click on Facebook. Those of you who were around in the early days of Google AdWords will understand just how profitable that can be.  To our great advantage there is very little competition now and we can get high quality traffic if we do some research.

Target keywords that people use to describe themselves

With Facebook PPC advertising, you can target very specific keywords. However, these are not the same kind of keywords you’d use in Google AdWords campaigns. With Facebook, you need to consider the words people use to describe themselves, their interests and their hobbies. Instead of targeting a search term, you’re going to be using descriptive terms. In my experience, people search Google to solve a problem. Whereas people browse Facebook to check out Facebook pages and to mingle with friends online. This is an important distinction and must be considered when choosing keywords to target for your campaigns.

To read more on this topic: Pre-Qualify Clicks on Facebook

A picture is worth a thousand words

Your image is everything with Facebook PPC advertising. Select 4 or 5 good images that grab your attention and are related (even vaguely) to your topic. Ensure there are people in your image if possible. Of course, you’ll need to test all different kinds of images to see what converts best for you, but one thing I can say is that I try to use people in my ads. More specifically, I’ve found images of smiling, happy women to be very successful for most campaigns I’ve run.

Understand the rules of the game

Be careful. Follow the rules. Understand the Facebook terms and conditions and follow them or your account will be banned. I’m not saying this just to scare you. I want you to know that Facebook are very serious about breaches of their terms. To be successful on Facebook we must follow the rules they have set and be very aware they are very different than Google.  The good news is that if you follow the rules, you can design great ads that will draw high quality customers to your offer/product/service.

Facebook’s advertising rules are different than Google’s. Facebook requires ads to be engaging but not too slick, sexy, or misleading. Your ad text cannot contain trademarked terms or be too shocking or offensive.  Facebook requires that we place an image on all ads, and you can use text in your image. So, get creative with Photoshop if you can.

Click-thru rate is king with Facebook PPC

CTR (Click thru rate) is king on Facebook PPC. They won’t allow an ad with a low CTR to run on their site for very long. It’s in our best interest to test many different versions of our ads, images, and headline till we find a few that convert like gangbusters.  If your CTR can stay high, you’re going to do well. If not, they will disable your ad without warning.

Facebook requires that the ads always remain relevant and interesting to their viewers. If your CTR is not as high as needed after 2 days look closely at the keywords used in your ad to determine if they are really relevant, compelling and not offensive in anyway. I suggest you get creative with your ad copy and your keywords. Think outside the box and come up with some unique combinations to get a killer ad. It’s fun once you get going!

Tips to profit with killer ad copy

Try writing your headlines in the form of a question. Perhaps you can make a bold statement. Whatever your headline, be sure it grabs the reader’s attention quickly so they read the rest of your ad copy and click through to your landing page.

Use an image that tells a story and grabs their attention. If you’re using a photo of someone, try using a smiling face or your image should represent your message and have text on it.

Avoid these mistakes & save time

You can’t use all capital letters or promise “free” stuff when there isn’t anything free. Be careful with email and zip submit offers – Facebook are now frowning on the promotion of these.  When you’re writing headlines and ad copy, remember to use upper and lower case letters and be careful with your spelling. Avoid using slang, abbreviations or code words. Facebook does not permit the use of irrelevant images, symbols or anything offensive.

Watch it or lose it

Facebook PPC is risky and you have the potential to lose all your money very quickly. Be smart and follow these tips carefully. Once you’ve got your ads all set up, you absolutely must watch your campaigns very closely. Set very low daily budgets and don’t leave your computer when you’re testing a new campaign. Traffic comes through extremely fast and before you know it, your budget has been spent.

Facebook PPC Advertising is a dangerous, but exciting game and you’ve got to take it seriously to make money. I got started with Facebook PPC by learning the step by step methods being taught right now at Affiliit – an excellent training forum. I recommend you go there if you want to learn more.

You can also read more Facebook PPC Advertising Tips here.

If you’re up for the Facebook PPC challenge, let me know by sharing your thoughts, ideas, questions in the comments section below!

As you know, traffic is the lifeblood of your website. Even if your site promotes the most amazing product in the Universe, no one will buy it if they don’t know about you.

Paul Colligan made this point on a recent episode of the “Internet Marketing This Week” podcast and it has really stuck with me. It’s important to remember that the best products are not always the most popular.

Facebook advertising makes a difference.

People need to know who you are and what you do.

One way to spread your message is to integrate social media into your marketing plan.  Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace can drive large amounts of targeted traffic to your website.

The key thing to remember – and a big mistake many marketers make – is that your WEBSITE is the center of your business. Not your Facebook Fan page.

Gather traffic from Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc and drive it all to your main “money site”. This means that you want to use Facebook to continually send people to your website. Don’t get confused and start thinking your Facebook Fan Page is the “be all” of your business. It’s not. Your “money site” is.

Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way….

Here are 7 ways to grab juicy Facebook traffic for yourself:

1. Add your business URL to your personal profile. Your profile is one of the easiest ways to generate traffic to your website or blog.

2. Find and add your friends. If you become friends with more people, your message can spread even further through the Facebook community. Remember, I am not talking about SPAMMING these people. I am taking about finding your old friends, networking within your niche, joining relevant groups, and contributing to the conversation.

3. Start or join a group related to your business. You can invite all your friends to join your group.

4. Create a Facebook Fan page for your website. A Facebook page is also indexed by the search engines and it’s available to people that are not in Facebook. This is where your “business activity” is focused. Not on your personal page. Read more of my thoughts about Facebook advertising here.

5. Events promotion. You can promote an event on your business and invite all your friends on Facebook. Events can include webinars and training events. This can be quite successful if used properly.

6. Get Involved. Comment on people’s pages, status updates, photos, etc. Engage with your friends and your community in a positive manner.

7. Advertise with PPC on Facebook. Follow the guidelines and advertise your business website with PPC ads on the Facebook Advertising platform. I learned how to do this by joining the training program at Affiliit.com. That forum is jam packed with useful strategies to make money with Facebook advertising.

These are 7 simple steps to generate free traffic with Facebook, spread your message, and engage with your community.

What Facebook advertising strategies have you tried?

What price do you pay?

I’m back again with another opinion post about sponsored tweets on Twitter. You know where I stand on this issue. My previous post  – Sponsored Posts and Tweets – generated a lot of comments and emails. No doubt about it, this is a hot topic.

The topic of sponsored tweets is not going to go away. My guess is this is here to stay. Therefore, it is wise for each of us to consider our position on the matter.  ShoeMoney has had a huge impact with his announcement that he earned $15,000 from sponsored ads on his Twitter account last month. Wow. $15k for a few tweets. That is incredible and made me stop and wonder…

Is this whole concept totally ridiculous?

Or is it worth a closer look?

I know that many internet marketers are going to take a serious look at this method of generating income. (If you haven’t already!) Before you decide to jump in the deep end, I think it is wise to do some research and weigh up the potential risks and possible benefits.

There is a great blog post by Media Shift @ PBS.org which covers the whole idea of sponsored Twitter accounts in great detail from a media and an advertiser’s perspective. I found it to be a very interesting read and want to say “Thanks” to one of our readers, Simon @ Bloggasm, for bringing it to my attention. Thanks! 

Here are 8 steps to make sponsored tweeting work for you:

(courtesy of the Media Shift blog post mentioned above)

1. Protect your reputation. (this is my main concern)
   
2. Beware of systems based on Pay Per Click.
3. Be transparent and clear that your tweet is an ad.
4. Ads perform better if you have fewer followers. (presumably because your followers have chosen to follow you and they trust you?)
   
5. Go beyond a simple product pitch.
   
6. Ads should be conversational to be effective.
7. Beware that the networks won’t allow fake twitter accounts.
8. Too many sponsored tweets will turn off your followers. (I wonder how many is too many?)

I am sure this topic will be discussed in great detail. Where do you stand? Please leave your comment below….

PPC Mom’s purpose here is to write, share, help, and discuss all things internet marketing. I am not here to make money off of you. I am a full time internet marketer. I will not push a whole lot of products on you and tell you that you “need” the latest guru crap. I write about what I do daily. If I find a new product that I love, chances are, I will write about it. If I come across something I hate, I will write about that too.

If I am writing something here in a post, these are my true feelings. I am not writing sponsored posts. You are going to read some very enthusiastic posts from me. Yes, they are full of excitement. That is just who I am. I get excited about stuff.  Especially when I am passionate about something! Some might say it’s pushy. Others might say I have a hidden agenda. Whatever. Deal with it. That is me.

The same thing goes for Twitter. My Twitter account is not for sale. No sponsored tweets from me. You can follow PPC Mom on Twitter here.

So, I thought it would be good to get this all out in the open. Yes – there are affiliate links here on this site. Yes – I get paid if you click on one of those links and make a purchase. So the choice is yours. If you think that the product/service will be of value to you- click on a link and I will get credit for referring you. If not, then don’t click on a link. That’s cool too.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way – Let’s get back to business! 

Facebook Advertising

I love Facebook advertising!

Of course, it is challenging, expensive, volatile, and short term. And I absolutely love the thrill of it!

The reason I am so excited about it today is because I have been testing a set of ads in a niche for over a week. FINALLY it’s working!! And once you find something that works on Facebook, it usually works in a big way. And I tend to get excited about stuff – that’s just how I am.

Great Offer + Unique Image + Headline = $$$$$$ = A Happy Jen

Now, before you get too excited, and run off to start your first advertising campaign on Facebook, there are several things you should know.

1. RESEARCH – It pays to learn strategies from someone who is experienced with FB ads. Several forums now have “facebook” areas specifically for this purpose. Get into these forums, and read everything you can get your hands on re: facebook advertising and how to create a killer ad. I have been working my tail off reading the forums at Affiliit and PPC Coach for every scrap of information I can find. If you are new to this, I highly recommend you do your research before spending a dime.
2. GET CASHED UP – You need money to test offers. It will take you some time and money to test your ads, images, and offers. So be prepared. Facebook will charge your credit card every day for your advertising spend. Be sure you are with a good CPA Network who can pay you quickly. Weekly wires are a must for me.
3. MARKETING - Think like your target audience and decide what kind of Headline/Image/Offer would grab their attention. You need to be creative on FB. If you do what everyone else is doing, you will fail.
4. DEMOGRAPHICS – Use keywords, age, gender, location, sexual preference, marital status, employer to pre-qualify your audience and target them specifically. Keywords here are not the same as they are in AdWords. You need to use kw that people might add to their profile to explain their interests.
5. BUDGET – Set a low budget for each campaign in the testing phase. Keep a very close eye on your campaigns. $$$ flies out the door with high CPCs and HUGE traffic volumes. Remember: Ads will still get approved if you pause them. So pause your campaigns once you create them. Then wait for approval (which can take 24 hours). Then unpause and watch carefully.
6. TRACK – Watch your conversions at the network (or tracking). Facebook have a very long delay. You want to be sure conversions are flying IN faster than the advertising spend is flying OUT.
7. THE BIG SECRET – Ha!  There is no big secret. You just have to work – test – fail – be creative – and test again. Every affiliate who banks on Facebook has followed this process. We are not holding out on you. There really is no secret. Hard work is my secret – if anything. Boring, I know, but it’s the truth.
8. BE PREPARED TO FIGHT – This is bloody hard work. You will lose money. Most of your ads won’t work. You will get frustrated. You might even want to give up. If you don’t have a fighting spirit, I don’t recommend Facebook advertising. It’s tough and you will have to fight. No one is going to hand you anything on a silver platter. You can here to make money online, and Facebook is a great tool for that.  So -  if you ARE a fighter – get in there and give it a go!

Keep reading: How To Pre-Qualify Your Clicks on Facebook

What I really want is a very eager target market who all want to follow through. (LOL! Who doesn’t?!) With an estimated 185 million users worldwide, Facebook is a massive audience. How in the world do you narrow that down?

The secret lies in weeding out the “curiosity clickers”. This is known as “pre-qualifying your clicks”. In short, it means to discourage unwanted clicks by telling viewers more about the offer in your ad. Yes – your CTR will drop. But your conversion rates will increase.

I have just read a fantastic blog post on this very topic and I thought you might benefit from it as well. Chad (CDF Networks) discusses the importance of pre-qualifying your clicks. In his post, Chad lists four excellent ideas to help us pre-qualify our clicks.

It really got me thinking that there must be even more we can do – especially on Facebook where the targeting options are unlimited! So here are a few more ideas to add to Chad’s list.

1. Target your audience by: gender, age, sexual preference, marital status, education, etc.
2. Use Keywords: tv shows, movies, books, authors, hobbies, games, applications, employers, schools, careers, etc.
3. Make Your Headline stand out: Use this valuable real estate to grab the attention of your target audience. A good headline can make all the difference.
4. Call to action: “click here” or “Limited Time” or even “Special offer” can encourage them to follow through.
5. Target by Workplace – Here is another great post from CDF Networks which examines this in more detail.

Facebook takes some creative thinking to be successful. I am sure there are thousands more ideas we can come up with to pre-qualify our clicks and save heaps of money on Facebook ads.  But I thought this was a pretty good start!

Want to learn more? Read Facebook Advertising in 8 Easy Steps.

Lately I have been working on facebook ads, and the month 1 from PPC Coach. I have to say it is going very well and I am happy to see the results I am getting. I just know things are going to break through soon and my campaign results and ROI will go through the roof.

I learned about facebook ads by checking out the Facebook folder on PPC Coach, there are some very knowledgable guys on there, so if you are a member check it out.