Is Facebook the Next Google?

Guest post by Roxanne Manning

Ok. I admit at first glance, this may seem like an absurd question. Except that it really is not. Facebook allows you to advertise to an extremely targeted market and you only pay for those people that click on your ads, much like Google. Obviously, you won’t be able to reach as many people as would when advertising on Google. However, the number of people that you can advertise to is pretty substantial. Millions of people visit the site every day and Facebook has 150 million members, making it one of the most visited websites on the planet.

Most internet marketers are already aware that Google can be a very effective way to advertise one’s products. It doesn’t matter if it is a physical product or a downloadable one. Many people use the Google search engine to look for things that they are looking to buy. If you can get your products in front of them, you have an opportunity to make a good deal of money.

However, in recent years, Google has gotten extremely competitive for advertisers. It is much harder to purchase cheap clicks, therefore, making it much more difficult to make a profit. Google has also instituted new rules and continue to do so which make it tougher for advertisers to achieve high quality scores and thus affordable advertising. For these reasons, it is important for internet marketers to find new, fresh and less expensive ways to advertise their businesses and products. Facebook is becoming one of those new ways.

Advertising on Facebook is very similar to purchasing ads on sites like Google, Yahoo and MSN. You create a short ad and then choose your target market. You can pick the gender, age and location of your ideal customer and your ads will only be shown to them. You also decide how much you want to spend on each click or can pay per impression.

Facebook allows you to get much more targeted visitors then you would from most pay-per-click companies. Typically, you can only choose who your ads are shown to based on the keywords that you have picked and the particular part of the country that they reside in.

Because Facebook receives so much more information about their members, they are better able to get your ads in front of the exact demographic that are likely to be most interested in what you are selling. This means that your advertising dollars are much better utilized and hopefully, your conversions are much higher.

To be successful, you must put in a lot of thought into who would be most interested in your offer. If you get this wrong, then you won’t get the results that you want. However, if you can figure out what type of people are most likely to purchase the products that you are promoting, then you have a great chance of making some sales.

Besides getting your target market right, you also need to work hard at creating a compelling ad. Your ad will determine whether or not people even make it to your website. Spend some time studying ads on Google. See which ones pique your interest and then copy their style.

Facebook can be a potential gold mine for the right types of product. Because they have a pay-per-click model, you can control your costs. Also because of Facebook’s ability to target a particular audience with laser like focus, using their website to sell your products can really be lucrative.