More in depth on Facebook advertising- Advertising on a budget.

    Lets start with the simple clicks vs. impressions.  An impression is your ad actually being showed, while a click is when someone actually clicks on your ad and is brought to your page.  Clicks cost more and have far steeper competition then impressions.  For instance a click may cost .75 cents while an impression is .10 for that .75 cents you could have 7,500 impressions and 10 clicks. This is because traditionally clicks are thought to bring more sales.  However in my experience this is not always true and since clicks cost more your ad budget can go way to fast. I have used multiple advertising platforms as stated in my previous post and have found that the best way to start is small.
     Step 1:
           Figure out a realistic advertising budget.
     Step 2:
            Write 2-3 ads using different pictures for each. Be honest and make it simple with an action word like "click here" or "buy now"
     Step 3:
             Set a low budget for the first week have each ad run for 7 days only with a budget of $1 a day. Set the ad on impressions not click through. (If you cant afford this then do $1 a day and run 1 ad for a week, then the next, and the next. This is going to save you money in the long run.)  Make sure to have it set to end in a week so you do not have to worry about remember to close it.
    Step 4:
             After the ads have run for a week look at your end stats. Look at your Ctr or click through ratio which ad had the highest click through. 

           Now if you only got one click in all three of your ads it is time to rewrite them.  It also helps to have a picture that grabs attention maybe an item you have received lots of compliments on.

    Step 5: Once you find an ad that seems to be working it is time to try targeting. Using the same group of 3 ads running for 1 week on impressions and auto stop. First thing to do is to think about what age group has your item appealed to? Do you only want to sell locally or abroad? These questions will help you target your ad to meet the customer type your looking for.  I typically set my ad to multiple age groups. (Please note that you should only target adults ie 18+ do to laws) See which demographic group had the best response to your ad. This gives you the base information you will need to run a successful ad campaign.

     This system has been successful for me personally. I have found that whether I paid by click or the much cheaper impressions I received similar click through once I got a well written ad. Remember when your ready to go to monthly advertising to set a realistic budget that you can afford. Do the math. If your ad is running daily with a max budget of $2 then that is $60 a month. 

Facebook positive or negative..

      Facebook has changed the world in more ways then one, for businesses is the most important.  We all have seen what facebook can do whether positive or negative it has effectively change the global marketing arena for good.  Even driving through town you can see signs up stating, "find us on facebook."  With a facebook fan page you can reach hundreds of people easily and effectively and most importantly for free. As a small business free or cheap advertising is a necessity. 
      So I imagine you have seen things on the news about peoples lives being ruined on facebook and you will notice it is always facebook that is to blame. Well I hate to say the obvious but the truth is; it is the people involved fault not facebook.  Facebook is a tool nothing more nothing less. For example if you hit someone in the head with a shovel you cant blame the shovel. Used correctly facebook offers businesses a far greater reach then they could attain with mere marketing.  For example in 2010 I had a total of 92 facebook fans largely family and personal friends and made a total of 3 sales online.  Granted this was partly do to lack of effort on my part.  Since the beginning of this year I have gone from 92 to 710 fans on my facebook fan page.  How I did this was by promoting my business by sharing new items on craft supplier walls, entering jewelry competitions, doing giveaways and sponsoring giveaways, and having people share it.  So far this year I have made 28 sales (13 for a shop in another city with the possibility of more to come) through facebook just from word of mouth. This is the beauty of social networking. 
      Now you can also pay per click on facebook and I highly recommend it, if you already are planning on doing pay per click advertising. Facebooks advertising has the most effective targeting system I have ever dealt with.  You can choose to market to only people with in your city, by age, relationship, employment status, birthdate, sex, and more. This means if you have done your homework and know your target demographic you can affordable advertise only to that specified group. I have been selling my jewelry for 2 years and during that time period I have tried pay per click advertising with google, yahoo, and facebook.  I can honestly say facebook gave me the most bang for my buck.  I use facebooks wonderful pay per thousand for .20 I can advertise to a thousand people and it can even go cheaper then that. I choose pay per thousand because it is a lower cost method and it had the most clicks.  I spent quite awhile doing market research on this medium. The one huge con with facebook advertising is they randomly charge for the costs.  You could have a monthly budget of $30 (I highly recommend starting with just a week long campaign. They will email it when your advertising ends so you can see what you need to improve on.) during that month facebook may charge multiple times with only part of your costs.  For this reason alone I suggest you either tie it to your paypal debit card or a prepaid visa and not to your personal bank account.