Facebook Advertising’s Secret Sauce
-
The growth of Facebook has been undeniable over the last few years. The website has become a juggernaut amongst the premier internet properties and recently passed Google for market share of traffic (http://weblogs.hitwise.com/heather-dougherty/2010/03/facebook_reaches_top_ranking_i.html).The true secret sauce behind Facebook advertising is the “Like” ecosystem that Facebook has developed.
It gives the user a perception of personal endorsement which is the most powerful form of advertising in any medium. Think about it, if a friend of yours told you how much they enjoyed a new restaurant wouldn’t you be more open to dining there? The examples are endless.
Facebook has started to carry this over into their advertising model in a subtle but effective manner. If a user’s Facebook friends “Like” a fan page, then their approval of the advertiser will show up at the bottom of the ad. The image below was a screen shot that was taken yesterday. It’s a political ad for a candidate who’s running for Governor of Texas. At the bottom of the ad it shows how two Facebook friends of the user like the candidate. There’s the secret sauce, the personal recommendation.
The amount of traffic alone is a good reason to consider advertising on Facebook. Put your ads where the eyeballs are. A national or global campaign can easily amass a ridiculous number of impressions in a very short period of time. This isn’t the secret sauce, but definitely a reason to explore advertising on the site.
Another feature of the Facebook advertising platform is the demographic targeting. Facebook users enter a lot of information about themselves that can lend a hand when trying to spend valuable advertising dollars wisely. Similar to Google AdWords, an advertiser can target specific keywords. Often these are keywords based on what the user has entered in their profile (i.e. their interests) or what they’ve posted within their status updates. Advertisers can filter for a large number of data points such as sex, age, location, relationship status, political views, religious views, all in addition to keywords. While the filtering capabilities alone are pretty powerful, this is not Facebook’s secret sauce.
Facebook’s secret sauce is the perception of personal endorsement that your Facebook Fans give by “Liking” your ad or FB Fan Page. In addition to personal endorsement, the sheer amount of traffic and the demographic targeting make Facebook a powerful advertising platform.
About The Author
