It’s finally coming! My Facebook Guide is being put together piece by piece and I’m here to share it with you. Now the first few posts will be aimed towards those that are newer to Facebook advertising, or those that have absolutely no experience on the platform whatsoever. By no means will my guide posts be 100% comprehensive, but I’ll be trying to get you to a point where you can understand and grow on your own.

Much of what I cover will relate to my experiences with paid traffic, so those looking for an introduction in to social branding or advertising through some of the free methods like Facebook Fan Pages or groups may be disappointed.

So first off, I’d like to start off with the question – Why advertise on Facebook?

First of all, it is easily accessible to anyone with a debit/credit card and an Internet connection. If you have both of those, you can create a Facebook account and start your advertising on Facebook Ads in a matter of moments. Log in and check out here to see how you can start advertising if you aren’t already. The simplicity of the registration makes it probably one of the most hassle free sign-ups you’ll get from any ad network.

We’ve also got a huge user base congregating all in one spot open to your ads. At the moment, there are around 600 million people with active Facebook accounts. Besides Google, no other website is visited more often than Facebook. It’s a great opportunity to nab some highly targeted and niche leads and sales for any business or individual affiliate marketer.

Facebook Advertising is also very cost effective. Quality clicks can start out high in some instances, however, as you learn to optimize ads (which will be covered in a later post), you can drag your CPC down to less than a cent. That’s no joke! I’ve been there and seen it happen. Imagine gaining quality leads for less than a dollar that could make you thousands down the road depending on your niche.

Unlike Google, there really is no quality score that determines your cost per click. It’s 80% based off your click-through rate, and 20% based on other factors such as niche (which seems to be the other most prominent factor in CPC). While rules can be thrown around here and there, and many would say their approval process is less than consistent, you can get away with much more on Facebook than you can with Google AdWords.

And to top it all off: Demographic targeting. You don’t have the ability to target people in buying mode, which in some instances, can make selling things directly very difficult. However, it is great for generating leads, either for yourself, your business, or through affiliate offers. You can target the people most likely to convert based off of their location, age, sex, relationship status, even their workplaces and places of study. Psychographic is also given access to by targeting through a users likes and interests.

It truly is a great and simple platform to work with. It can be difficult to get the hang of or make a profit if you run in blindly, but hopefully my guide and a bit of outside research can help you make the best of the system.

In the next guide post, I’ll talk about specific keywords you’ll need to know before you jump headlong into the Facebook Ads pool.

Ready to advertise on Facebook, but need a little help getting started? Try my consulting services. Click here for more info!