There is no disputing the fact that in the world of social networks, Facebook is the leader at this point. Sure, we have Linkedin for professionals, Myspace for the younger crowd, and a growing number of interest-specific networks for industries, sports and general interest, but with 200 million users worldwide in 70 different languages, it is Facebook that has the greatest reach today.
If you are a Facebook user then you have probably seen the advertising that is displayed throughout your profile page and group pages. Advertising on this billboard to such a massive audience is available to anyone regardless of their organizational size and advertising budget.
Facebook in New Zealand is well entrenched with a current user base of close to 900,000 (around 20% of the population) and to give you an idea of some of the people who make up this group:
- The average Facebook user has 120 friends connected to their profile.
- There are more female (482,700) Facebook users than male (364,080) in New Zealand.
- The largest group of New Zealand users is in the 21-30 age group, followed by those between 31-40 years of age (see below)
Facebook advertising works in much the same way as that of Google Adwords, where you can either choose to bid on the CPC (cost per click) or the CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions of your advert). In much the same way you can also set a daily budget so that you never spend more than you can afford; once your daily budget is reached, your ads will stop appearing until the following day.
Facebook also allows you to target your advertising spend to where it is most likely to be of interest. You can target specific users by age, gender, workplace, organisation/club membership, relationship status (single, married, divorced, etc.) and language. Additionally, you can also target by keywords that appear on a users profile (although these keywords have to exist somewhere already on Facebook).
Here is an example of how this targeting can be a real benefit:
A bar owner in Dunedin wants to run a promotion where students at Otago University can bring in the front cover of their exam paper and get a free beer or wine. She wants to run it during the mid-year examination period which she knows is from the 16-24 June. Based on this she can choose to target her advertising campaign in the following way:
1. Run the campaign only between the 16-24 June.
2. Target only those who belong to the Otago University Facebook Network.
3. Target both males and females over the legal drinking age of 18.
Targeting your advertising in this way is cost effective as the people who may have an interest in it are the only ones seeing it. Although the target population on Facebook based on this criteria is only 4,000 people, they are 4,000 pre-qualified people with an interest in your offer and are therefore more likely to click on your advert, visit your website, find out more, etc. And, on average they also have 120 friends, so word spreads quickly.
If you’re interested in running a Facebook campaign, but would like to avoid the hassle of doing so, we can help. To find out more, give us a ring to see how we can help target your Facebook advertising so that it’s most effective.
Phil
The Web Company
Phone: 09 834 6646
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