If you’ve ever used Facebook Ads before, you know that your target options are plenty. You can refine your market to be incredibly niche and target less than 1000 users or have a huge audience of millions of people. But, both of these options may be too extreme for the average business. You want the most exposure; however, you also want to make sure the right people are interacting with your message, and that you’re not just wasting away your ad budget.Before you sit down and dive into your targeting options, think about your online goals as a business / advertiser. Are you just trying to increase brand awareness? Are you aiming for users to download your app? Are you trying to attract locals to your location? Is there a goal you want users to complete on your website? Here, we’ll break down how to determine your goals and align them with your advertising efforts.

Driving Engagement

Getting engagement on your social posts is an excellent way to interact with the community. It can also work to both increase brand awareness and website clicks. If this sounds like what you want to accomplish, boosting your posts may be the best solution for you as a business. If you’re already getting decent engagement organically on your Facebook page, you’ll want to select an audience similar to them. If not, analyze who your post content would be useful to. That’s who you’ll want to go after.

Getting More Page Likes

If your business is just starting out on Facebook and could use the immediate exposure, creating a campaign centered around increasing your page likes will give you that boost you need. Numbers talk and “3 people like this” doesn’t say much when you’re trying to position your brand name as an established business. Do you have an existing customer base? Understand who they are and what they like. This will lead you to your ideal Facebook audience.

Increasing Website Traffic

These ads may be more sales driven than if you were boosting a post already on your page. Understand why you want users to get to your site in order to determine the best audience. If your goal is for users to complete a certain action, keep reading.

Increasing Website Conversions

If you don’t want users to just get to your website, and instead want them to do something like fill out a form or complete a purchase, you’ll first need to set up a conversion pixel on your website. This is helpful so that you eventually know which ads are working and Facebook knows how to optimize them to get the best results. If you already have a list of previous conversion from quality leads, you’ll want to use this to your advantage to determine which Facebook audience is more likely to convert.

Getting App Installs

If your business revolves around a mobile app, don’t waste money and effort trying to get them to your site – lead them directly to where they can download your app. You’ll want to make sure that who you’re advertising to has the technical compatibility to actually download it. So, if your app requires a certain software version, make sure to only serve ads to those who meet that requirement.

Increasing App Engagement

So you already have a user base on your app, but you want them to keep coming back. This is simple to target if your app has some sort of login, whether email or Facebook connect, as you already have key information about your market, like their email address or Facebook ID.

Gaining Local Traffic

Increasing foot traffic is a major goal for businesses that require customers to come to them. Whether you’re a retail store, restaurant, or service-based shop, it’s important that customers nearby are aware that you’re in the area. You can target these users by how close they are to your business in order to boost exposure to the right people.

Increasing Event Attendance

Events can be a strong way to drive revenue. Some businesses, like non-profits, highly depend on them to flourish and get funds necessary for other efforts. That’s why letting the right people know about your event on Facebook could make a big difference in turnout. At the very least, your followers and email list of former attendees should be reminded to RSVP via Facebook ads before any ticket purchasing deadline. Additionally, users who attend similar events should also be targeted.

Promoting Discounts

Despite customers paying less money for your product / service, discounts are a surefire way to bring in people that wouldn’t have purchased otherwise. Discount incentives are strong and practically sell themselves to customers who are already interested. Target users who have already shown interest in similar products or may be in the market for your service. For example, someone who just got engaged would highly benefit from 15% off at a bridal store.

Increasing Video Views

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a whole lot more. Video marketing is highly engaging, especially to the correct audience. Targeting is not only dependent on your brand, but also on the video content being shown. If it’s a product demonstration, it may not be of use to existing customers; but it would be a visually appealing sales pitch for consumers who buy similar items. Facebook allows for a maximum time of 60 seconds in your promoted video, so keep it short and sweet.Once you’ve figured out your objective and have an idea of who you’re after, you’re still faced with exactly how best to define who these users are through Facebook’s targeting options. See how to do so on our article on Targeting the Right Audience Through Facebook Ads.Need some help from our marketing experts? Get in touch with us here to learn how we can help set your business up for success on Facebook and through other important networks.