Facebook Ads—The Smart Bombs of Local Search Marketing

On a recent plane trip to Florida, I sat next to a retire gentleman who describe his work at Litton Industries.  He developed the laser bombs that are currently being used by the US Armed Forces.  As a physicist on the team that developed these smart bombs, it was their goal to be within one meter of any target. Once the bomb is released, guidance systems in our own country take control of the bomb and guide it to its target. Today’s target bombing is a stark contrast to the blanket bombing done in World War II.

What do smart bombs have to do with local search marketing? Facebook ads now give you the same precision of smart bombing with your local search marketing efforts. In this post you will learn how to zero in on exactly the local customers you want for your local business.  With Facebook Ads, you can leave behind the wasted efforts involved in traditional blanket marketing. Enjoy and prosper.

The Power of Pay for Click Ads

Facebook ads are a part of the broad area of Pay for Click advertising system first developed by Google. Google forever changed the world of advertising with their Pay for Click Ad words. Pay for Click are the small ads you see on the right side of every Google search Page. This form of internet advertising has been successful for three reasons.

First, when someone clicks on the ads, the visitor is acting in a proactive way. They had interest in the product or service and are willing to click on it. Pay for Click visitors are more likely prospects than internet surfers.

Second, Google Pay for Click ads helps your business appear on the top page of the search engine ranking. It’s not easy to get on the first page of Google. Using Pay for Click you can bypass the normal organic ranking system of Google. When a person clicks on your ad, they are immediately taken to your website, ahead of other websites on the page listings.

Third, with Pay for Click, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Google helps you create a budget and monitors the budget based on how many clicks are made on your Ad.

Google Pay for Clicks has limitations. You get proactive views on your site but beyond their interest, you know nothing about the visitor to determine if they are a good candidate for your business. In highly competitive areas, Pay for Click is expensive. A Click can cost you 10-12 dollars per click. A $100 budget can be spent in less than one day with no guarantee of any sales!

Facebook Ads and Local Search Marketing

Facebook Ads have taken the Pay for Click process to an entirely new level of precision. What if you could target these Pay for Click ads so they only appears before certain prospects? Facebook ads allow you to do this. Take the example of the Woodbury Minnesota wedding Photographer.

He created a Facebook ad to appear only on the Facebook pages of women from the St.Paul/Minneapolis area, ages 22-30, whose status is engaged. Over a two year period he spent $300 in ads to generate $60,000 in business. How did this work?

When people join Facebook they complete a profile about their age, their sex, where they live, their interests, their hobbies, their family status, their political and religious preferences.

Facebook ads use the profile information as a screen. As an advertiser your ad appears only on the profile pages you determined, just as the wedding photographer did. The result is a precisely targeted ads. As the new kid on the block, Facebook ads are cheaper than Google ads. A $100 budget can last for days.

Facebook ads provides all the same features as Google ad words, daily budgets, measured results, pay based on clicks. In addition Facebook also allows consumers to interact with the ads in an entirely new way.

Conclusion

Facebook ads not only target keywords like Google, you can also target these words by location, age, sex, and a variety of personal attributes such as hobbies, favorite types of music, sports, food and many other preferences. Your ad is placed only on your targeted profiles.

Can you begin to see how you may use these Facebook Ads to your business advantage with local search marketing? Now your local search marketing can be as precise as a smart bomb targeting local customers for your business.

I would love to hear your experiences with Facebook ads and how they can assist in your local search marketing. Write a comment in the Reply Section below.