With over 1.4 billion users worldwide, Facebook is home to pretty much every marketer’s audience — including yours. So how can you leverage the massive audience on this social network to grow your brand and drive traffic to your local store?
As an Account Manager here at Bluewater, I work with franchisees on a daily basis, helping them add tactics like Facebook Ads to their local marketing strategies. Here are a few of my favorite ways to make your Facebook Ads work harder for you:
1. Localized Geo-targeting
Want to target specific neighborhoods, but not others? Facebook geo-targeting allows you to target specific cities or zip codes. Geo-targeting also allows you to prevent your ad from displaying to users living in an area. Geo-targeting is a great way to make sure your Facebook marketing efforts are reaching the right audience in your community.
2. Specific Interests
Facebook users tend to share a lot of personal information. Beyond demographics, they also share everyday interests like favorite movies, restaurants, music, and much more. Facebook collects this user interest information, then assigns users to groups based on this information, so it’s easy to create an audience that’s hyper-targeted!
3. Flexible Budget
The question of budget is typically very important for a franchisee or small business owner, which is another great thing about Facebook Ads. Using Facebook Ads for local franchise marketing means getting local, digital exposure that works with any size budget.
For example, you can use a large budget to do a big awareness blast, or you can stretch a small budget to continually drive local awareness. The budget for your Facebook Ads depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Two other important things to consider for your Facebook ad budget is the campaign duration and level of aggression. If a shorter campaign is more aggressive, ads are shown more times a day. A less aggressive campaign will show ads fewer times a day in a longer period of time.
As you plan your franchise marketing strategy, consider how Facebook Ads could help you connect with your local target audience. Localized geo-targeting, specific interests, and a budget flexibility make Facebook Advertising easier than ever.
Do you use Facebook Ads for as part of your local franchise marketing efforts? If so, did you feel that they worked? Why or why not? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.