Why Start PPC on Facebook?
Updated: Jan 8
Facebook advertising is a simple, cost-effective way to spread the word about your brand. Thanks to the platform's enormous reach and a glut of free digital tools, each Facebook campaign has the potential to dramatically improve your reach and generate a generous ROI.
But before you jump into this brand of online advertising, it's useful to understand a bit more about the underlying mechanism: specifically PPC ads. This style of budgeting is part of what makes advertising to your Facebook audience so affordable and efficient.
If you're not sure what a PPC ad is - let alone the benefits of running one - here's a great place to start.
What Does Facebook PPC Mean?
Pay-per-click or PPC ads (also called cost-per-click ads) are just what they sound like. Under a PPC schedule, you – the business – design an ad for a marketing platform. Then, you pay the marketing platform only when a user clicks on your ad.
PPC advertising is an affordable way to help marketers spread brand awareness. You put your ads into the world, and only pay when it generates active interest. Due to their simplicity and cost-effectiveness – not to mention the targeting and analytics potential – PPC ads have soared in popularity in recent years.
Facebook PPC Value Propositions
Dozens – even hundreds – of platforms offer some kind of paid search or PPC advertising. But PPC Facebook ads are no ordinary ads.
Facebook Advertising is one of the most data- and feature-rich social media marketing tools in the world. This uniquely powerful site lets you build Facebook ads right in-house in a variety of formats and with varying targeting. Once created, your PPC ads can be placed in over a half-dozen locations, depending on the specific nature of the ad.
That’s a lot of power in a simple ad. And thanks to PPC Facebook advertising, you don’t have to pay through the nose for the privilege.
But for those who aren't sold yet, let's look at several value propositions that Facebook ad campaigns bring to the marketing table.
Huge, Active Audience
Today, Facebook boasts nearly three billion active users. That’s nearly half of the planet’s population, all crowded on the same virtual town square. While your brand likely won’t appeal to all of them, it’s a great place to connect with existing online customers. (And even encourage a
few new ones to hop aboard.)
Multiple Facebook Ad Formats
One way Facebook boosts your paid advertising potential is by offering a variety of ad formats to achieve your various goals. These include single image and single video ads, scrollable carousel ads, slideshows, and collections. Each eye-catching ad is designed to blend ad visuals and copy to keep your customers engaged.
Facebook Ads "Blend In" As Facebook Posts
On many platforms, users have learned to simply scroll past online advertising. But Facebook’s visual tools help you stand apart from the crowd to promote clicks. One way they do this, ironically, is by making your ads "blend in" by looking like regular Facebook posts.
With each new "Facebook post" you launch, you stand to improve the integrity (and ranking) of your business page. Beyond that, each content marketing opportunity is a chance to interact with your existing customers - and maybe earn a few new ones in the process.
Highly Segmented Targeting
When it comes to audience segments, no platform or service allows so many specifications like Facebook PPC campaigns.
The social media site lets you narrow your audience as much or little as you want, from custom audiences to algorithm-generated alternatives.
Stick to simple location and gender demographics, or squeeze your PPC campaigns into smaller boxes based on interests, behaviors, and employment data. Or opt into Facebook’s “lookalike audiences” to reach people with similar characteristics as your current customer base.
No matter how wide or narrow your preferences, Facebook PPC advertising campaigns deliver. And once your ad launches, Facebook’s algorithms put the site’s billions of research dollars to work, ensuring your content makes it onto the right screens at the right time.
Access Three Platforms from One Dashboard
Part of Facebook’s long-term growth strategy has included snapping up potential competitors that strengthen its portfolio. But the company doesn’t just own apps like Facebook Messenger and Instagram – it offers unprecedented interoperability between them.
As an advertiser, the implications are vast: when you put out a Facebook ad, you’re not just advertising on Facebook. You also have the opportunity to be seen cross-platform, even though you’re launching from a single dashboard.
That’s up to three layers of engaged users just waiting to view your ad.
Budgeting Flexibility
Though Facebook PPC campaigns operate on a per-click basis, that doesn’t mean your finances are at the mercy of Facebook users. Instead, you can set your own budget per campaign or ad set. This cost control tool means you’re always in control of how much you spend on your advertisements.
But setting your budget doesn’t mean that you buy a specific amount of ads or targeted exposure. Rather, you’re informing Facebook of how much you can afford to spend overall.
You start by setting a lifetime budget, which is the budget for the entire duration of the ad set – be it a day, a week, or a month. From there, you allocate your daily budget, or the average you’d like to spend per day. This provides Facebook with the wiggle room to spend more on higher-traffic days and less on days with fewer potential opportunities.
Scheduling Freedoms
Your ads schedule determines when and how long your Facebook PPC campaigns run. As with your budget, you can choose to run your ad continuously from a selected date or for particular periods of time.
If you opt for a lifetime budget, Facebook can pace your ads delivery across the lifetime of your ad spend. On the other hand, if you set a daily budget only, you don’t need an end date. Instead, you can keep going until you reach your spending limit or halt the campaign.
Facebook Ad Remarketing
Remarketing campaigns let you retarget website visitors or Facebook users who engage with your ad. The main benefit of remarketing is that you can target consumers who have already expressed an interest in your brand and are, therefore, more likely to spend.
Facebook ads let you select who your paid search ads retarget, including people who:
Visit your website
Visit a specific landing page
Visit one landing page but not another
Haven’t visited your website for a set amount of time
To reach your remarking audience, the social media site offers built-in tools like Facebook Pixel, among others. These advanced features come built into the PPC platform, so you can add them to your Facebook PPC strategy with ease.
Split Testing Available
Facebook ads split testing offers the chance to test different visuals, calls-to-action, text, and other ad components to measure which version works best. The power of Facebook’s algorithms ensures that your tested ads don’t overlap audiences, so you can test each variable independently.
Over time, you can use these tools to build a large, retestable database of information to optimize future ads. (As you might imagine, Facebook ads analytics come in handy here!)
Facebook Analytics
Facebook collects tons of data to help marketers see what went right (and wrong) in their ad campaigns. You can use this information not only to quantify your Facebook ads’ success, but to improve future campaigns.
All the information that Facebook collects is available real-time via the Facebook Ads Manager. Some of the most important metrics Facebook tracks include:
Engagement: The number of times a user clicks, likes, comments on, or shares your ad
Reach: The number of paid and organic views your ad receives
Impressions: The number of times your post(s) is/are seen
Ad frequency: The number of times your target audience views your ads
Click-through rates (CTRs): The percentage of people who click your ad to land on the other side
Cost per action: The cost of your campaign measured according to a specific user action (such as an app download or product purchase)
Together, these metrics help you discern which ads do and don’t work. From there, you can incorporate these insights into future Facebook ads campaigns to improve your performance next time.
Measurable ROI for Each Facebook PPC Strategy
Facebook’s algorithms are, quite simply, legendary. Thanks to rampant data collection and analysis, their algorithms – alongside marketer inputs – have seen average conversion rates reach 6.6% for retail alone. That level of customer engagement is nothing to sneeze at!
When it comes to your Facebook ads ROI, or return on investment, the numbers are a lot more variable. Some marketers see ROI around 200%, or $2 returned for every $1 spent. Some claim that their ROI reaches 400-500% or higher.
It all depends on your ad or target audience. But the proof is there: Facebook ads have strong profit potential.
Better yet, these benefits accumulate. The more you spend per ad campaign, the higher returns Facebook can generate per ad. (To a point, of course.)
Why Should You Add Facebook PPC to Your Traffic Mix?
Among other benefits, Facebook advertising offers:
The power to create or choose your custom audience
Multiple ad objectives to meet your goals
Nearly a dozen ad formats
Top-notch precision remarketing
Data-backed, algorithm-operated ad placements and budgeting
And with its enormous targeting and retargeting potential, paid campaigns on Facebook are practically a no-brainer.
But if that’s not enough data for you, consider the following reasons to add Facebook PPC to your digital marketing strategy.
#1: Facebook PPC Boosts Ad Campaign Results
As a marketer, you’re probably familiar with the idea of having multiple traffic channels to boost eyeballs on your brand. Adding Facebook PPC campaigns to your digital marketing strategy is one way to boost your overall marketing results.
For instance, this study found that businesses that run both PPC Facebook ads and Google-based paid search campaigns:
Spent less per click
Saw more clicks per combined spend
Enjoyed higher PPC clickthrough rates
Not to mention, you can drastically decrease your cost per lead by combining PPC ads and search in your strategy.
#2: Your Facebook Ad Campaign Can Improve Audience Targeting
Between Facebook’s microtargeting tools and decades of consumer research, it’s hard to imagine a better platform to seek your ideal audience.
Not only will Facebook’s algorithms optimize ad placement for you, but you can use insights from Facebook Analytics to improve your targeting internally. The quantifiable results in your dashboard will help you narrow your actual target audience beyond a theoretical buyer persona.
From there, you can capitalize on this information to specifically target your preferred audience. Or, perhaps, cast your net a little wider and hope to draw in a new category of customers.
#3: Facebook Campaigns Help You Set Unique Goals
When you create your Facebook ads, one of the first steps is to set a campaign objective.
Effectively, this tells Facebook what you want your ad to accomplish, such as increasing app downloads or product conversions. Setting objectives helps you establish a goal for each ad and tells Facebook how best to optimize structure and placement.
By setting these goals on Facebook in conjunction with your paid search goals elsewhere, you can focus on different objectives across a variety of platforms. (Or even multiple goals right in Facebook.)
While the ultimate end remains the same (improving sales), this level of micro-targeting lets you nurture customers down the marketing funnel from multiple directions.
Is Facebook PPC Worth It?
No matter your business, if your audience is active on Facebook, you’re missing a fantastic opportunity if you don’t take advantage of PPC ads. In fact, as organic reach continues to decline, it’s perhaps your best bet to engage with potential buyers on the platform.
Plus, Facebook has billions of dollars of research under its belt and all the tools you need to optimize your ideal Facebook PPC campaign.
In other words: yes, Facebook PPC ads are worth the cost – assuming, of course, that’s where your buyers lurk.
Key Takeaways: Your PPC Facebook Ad Strategy
PPC ads let businesses make cost-effective marketing choices by paying for every click their ads receive, rather than a fixed price for unguaranteed results
With nearly three billion active users, Facebook offers one of the largest PPC ads markets in the world.
Facebook advertising isn’t just advertising on Facebook – your PPC ads can end up on Messenger and in your target audiences' Instagram feed, too
Each Facebook PPC campaign offers benefits like a controlled budget and schedule, remarketing audience potential, split testing, and stellar analytical insights.
While the ROI on Facebook PPC ads varies widely, the social media’s ad structure offers an impressive 6.6% conversion rate in retail.