I recently answered a question online for someone looking for an explanation of why Facebook ads are so popular. I thought the best way to explain this is with a small example. Below I have included my response to this person:

Facebook Ads are incredibly powerful for a variety of reasons. The most powerful feature of Facebook Ads is the ability to granularly target users. Simple demographic and location targeting is useful if you want to target a specific group, say 18-30 yr old middle class people who live in certain urban areas. This type of targeting isn’t that difficult with most ad platforms. What is extremely powerful about Facebook Ads is the ability to target people based on interests or behaviors.

Say for example, you are promoting a ski area to people in the 18-30 yr old middle class group. If you are trying to sell season passes or lift tickets, you can target people who are already connected to that ski area on Facebook, you can target people who enjoy skiing and live within the geographical area likely to attend the ski area, or you can target people who are engaged with other regional competitors or friends with people that frequent your area or local competitors. This helps you eliminate the waste you would have with other advertising mediums like TV or Radio where you spend money to reach people who have never, or will never, ski.

You can also use Facebook Ads to help explain an idea or reach a new market. Say you want to increase exposure for the same ski area. You can widen your net and run advertisements designed to help build the brand and create exposure, still geographically limited to help maximize the effectiveness of your budget.

You can also track all of these ads all the way down to the sale to determine how effective they are in terms of driving traffic and sales. You can then refine the campaign accordingly in real-time to help maximize your profit.

These are just a few of the handy characteristics of Facebook Ads. There is so much more possible with Facebook Ads. If you are looking for advice or help, feel free to comment below or contact me and I can guide you in the right direction.