With the overwhelming number of people on social media, and the percentages growing every year, it is no longer an option for businesses to be absent from certain platforms. In order to grow as an industry or company and stay relevant to the appropriate audience, social media interaction is key. Learning which sites to be a part of and how to utilize their features to your advantage is the first step to creating a successful online marketing presence.

The social media platform with the biggest following and most features for businesses to utilize to promote their products or services is Facebook. This revolutionary site has not only changed the way we do business, but also made it easy to advertise to a specific audience, grow in reach and facilitate engagement through Facebook Advertising.

Why use Facebook Advertising?

Numbers don’t lie. The massive amount of people on Facebook is reason enough to head online and start advertising, but what else? Take a look:

• 79% of Americans log into Facebook regularly
• 50% of Generation Z and 42% of Millennials agree social media is the most relevant advertising platform
• People spend an average of 135 minutes on social media per day
• Facebook is ranked second only behind Google for ROI
• Facebook is the highest social driver to websites

Not only is your market and potential clients on Facebook, but so are other businesses. Over 7 million businesses use paid advertising on Facebook. This means if you aren’t using paid Facebook advertising, there is a chance your competitors are.

What is Facebook Advertising?

Facebook advertising is an easy to use program that allows a business to put money behind their posts. With multiple campaign options to choose from, Facebook helps businesses to create the correct advertisements based on a number of goals including, engagement, website clicks, reach, page likes and more.

For each ad set up on Facebook advertisements, businesses have the option to tailor their ad based on location, demographics and interests. This ensures each advertisement is homed in on only the most relevant audience.

What to Include in Facebook Ads

The key to using Facebook advertisements successfully is to stand out while also blending in. Potential clients have learned to recognize and ignore “in your face” advertising. Facebook works so well because it is discreetly integrated into the social media feed. When creating posts for ads, remember to stay on brand and relevant to the audience you are trying to reach.

Another thing to consider when creating posts for Facebook advertising is the type of content. Always use a visual when possible. Posting a picture is far more likely to make a user stop and take in the information than a long piece of text. Even better is video! Facebook users are three times more likely to watch a video than read a post. To maximize the effects of a Facebook advertisement, try and incorporate videos or moving images.

Facebook Special Ad Categories

A Facebook advertisement category that all home builders, developers, real estate companies, mortgages companies, etc. need to know about is the special ad category. This category applies to any campaign featuring credit, employment or housing. For business that operates in one of these verticals, certain factors need to be considered regarding targeting. This category was created to keep Facebook compliant with Equal Housing laws, so although it might seem to make targeting a bit more difficult, this category will keep your company compliant.

Lookalike audiences can no longer be used. This means anyone accustomed to using saved audiences for every campaign needs to add in an extra step to select the right audience. Fortunately, tools like pixel custom audience can be utilized to help this process. This development is used when Facebook chooses a new audience based on some of their stored features. This ensures the audience complies with all special ad standards.

The biggest change seen with special ad categories from an advertiser’s perspective is with targeting groups. When creating advertisements for special ad categories, audiences can no longer be targeted by:

• Age
• Gender
• Religion
• Race
• Income
• Financial Status

Instead, advertisers focus on locations targeted by country, region, station, or city with at least a 15-mile radius and by interests on Facebook.

Special Ad Categories Related to Housing

The special ad categories especially affect advertisements related to housing. Housing opportunity or related service ads promote or directly link to a housing opportunity or related service. These ads include but are not limited to listings for the sale or rental of a home or apartment, homeowner’s insurance, mortgage insurance, mortgage loans and home equity or appraisal services.

Although the strict nature of special ad categories created extra steps and considerations when working with advertising campaigns on Facebook, there are ways help ease the process. One recommendation is to use the Equal Housing Opportunity (EHO) logo in any housing advertisements. This helps differentiate these ads as non-discriminatory.

Carol Morgan, owner and president of Denim Marketing voiced her opinion on the new special ads category for housing. “In my opinion, the goal is to broaden your audience instead of restricting it. They go above and beyond what is required or protected by the EHO act.”

Facebook advertisement is the future. To make sure your business isn’t left behind, take advantage of Facebook paid advertisement. If the whole process is still confusing, don’t worry because there is a solution for that too! At Denim Marketing, we are not only experts in social media and Facebook advertisements, but we are also Facebook Marketing Partners! To learn more about the benefits of working with a Facebook Marketing Partner, read one of our past blogs here.

To get started on Facebook advertising today, visit www.denimmarketing.com today.