Decades have passed and Facebook has drastically transformed from a simple social website where friends and families can communicate into a global platform that is meshed into everyone’s daily lives.

It’s the biggest social network worldwide that recorded 2.45 billion monthly active users and 16.89 billion U.S. dollars in revenues just in its second quarter of 2019.

Most of the company’s revenues were generated through advertising so there’s no denying that a lot of businesses are using Facebook to also generate income for themselves.

In the first quarter of 2019 alone, the company released a statement that it has more than 7 million active advertisers on its platform.

Number of Active Users Who Use Facebook Advertising (1st quarter 2016 – 1st quarter 2019)

This number is both composed of big brands and small businesses so if you’re one of those businesses who isn’t into Facebook advertising, it’s not too late to start now – even if your competitors are already on it.

Facebook Users Statistics

 You might not be convinced at this point how this can help boost your business, probably because these statistics aren’t that convincing.

Don’t worry, we’ve also came up with other statistics that might get you to jump off the fence of uncertainty and take a leap of faith into Facebook advertising.

• Facebook has an average of 63 billion daily active users worldwide as of September 2019.
• In 2018, there were 5 million people who use Facebook in the United States which was a 0.9% increase from the previous year.
• Facebook stories has reached 500 million daily users.
• Outside of the U.S and Canada, there’s about 80% of active Facebook daily users.
• The average Facebook users spends around 37 minutes on the platform daily.
• 1 billion Facebook users come from Asia and 385 million users come from Europe.
• The platform has 57% male users and 43% female users.
• In the US, 78% of consumers bought goods and services that they found on Facebook.
• In 2018, there were 26% of Facebook users who clicked and purchased through a Facebook Ad.
• There were1 million users from the U.S and 2.9 million users from the U.K. who are using Facebook in January 2018.

What Makes Up A Good Facebook Ad?

1.Good Strategy : Facebook advertising isn’t just about boosting a post, putting your money into it, and expect that our dear old friend Marc Zuckerberg and his team will bring you a good ROI.

If you want your customers to actually buy what you are selling on your ads, here are some things that you should consider:

•  What is my goal for this ad? Is it sales, downloads, engagement or traffic?
• Who is my target market?
• How is my product going to benefit them?
• What are their pain points?
• Are they a cold audience or a warm audience?

Ask yourself these questions first because these are the building blocks on how you will put your ideas into action. These questions will also determine what you are going to put on your videos, photos, and captions on your ad.

2. Relevant and Trendy

 Take note that you aren’t just competing with your competitors, but you are also competing against other brands that aren’t even in your niche.

Consumers are bombarded with content and ads on a daily basis so it’s a must that you get their attention by staying relevant in this fast paced world of social media.

Take this ad for example. Who would have thought that you can put Halloween and Coke together all in one photo?

You might think that it’s just a simple and funny photo, but these are the ads that drive engagement. Engagement is very important in Facebook because it makes the algorithm think that your content is relevant so it’s shown more on people’s feeds.

So how do you keep up with trends? Make a list of all the holidays and events that are relevant to your target market. For example, if you own a coffee business, you might want to come up with campaigns on International Coffee Day.

Aside from events, you can also make use of viral trends and incorporate them to your ads.

Do you remember the #KiKiChallenge that went viral back in 2018? It was a popular dance craze that a lot of people got into, but for business owners, it was a marketing opportunity.

Take this shoe brand called Veldskoen as an example who took advantage of the trend by showcasing their products through dancers wearing their shoes (click to see the full video here).

3.Simple and Straight to the Point

Craft your ads that even a fifth grader can understand it. You really need to KISS or “Keep It Simple Stupid” for your customers. You are competing for their attention and if you create complicated ads that takes so much of your consumer’s time, they won’t end up buying.

Here’s an ad from Hootsuite, a social media scheduler. You would notice that there’s not a lot of words on their ad.

The whole point is that their product can do everything for you when it comes to organizing, scheduling, planning, and executing your social media plans and they were able to put this together in just one sentence

You would also observe that the offer, which is a 60-day trial, and the call-to-action, which is to sign up, are very defined. As you scroll through your feeds, you would immediately know what they want you to do.

Is Facebook Advertising For Me?

This is the question that’s hard to answer because how would you know if you have no idea how it works? There are two ways on how to figure this platform our and it’s either you do it by trial-and-error or you let experts do it for you.

If you have any questions on how Facebook Ads work, you can always contact us or email us at info@smithmarketing.com.

Let’s face it, Instagram marketing is undeniably an integral part of promoting your business these days. All the top brands out there are on this platform so if you’re a business owner, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be on it.
In 2018, Instagram was able to hit 1 billion monthly active users wordwide and it will only keep on growing as years go by. This platform is all about visual presentation so it’s the perfect place to showcase your products and services in a way that will capture your target market’s attention.
The result? SALES of course. Statistics show that 72% of Instagram users have purchased products that they’ve seen on Instagram. However, having an Instagram account doesn’t automatically translate to sales. You need to have the right strategic plan to properly execute your social media campaigns so here are 5 key principles that you need to take note of.

1. Content Is King

As cliche as it may sound, this principle will always be relevant because customers slowly develop loyalty to a brand through the content that they consume from you. There are different categories of content that you can provide for your audience but the three basic categories are educational, entertainment, and inspirational content.
Educational content are those that provide valuable information for people that they can use in their daily lives. Some examples of these are “how-to” and “do-it-yourself” videos that you will see on IGTV.

For entertainment content, the best examples would be memes, funny videos or any content that puts a smile on your audience’s faces. On the other hand, inspirational content are those that motivate your audience to do something and the perfect example would be podcasts or those short clips coming from inspirational speakers such as Gary Vaynerchuk.

The kind of content category you use will always depend on your niche. Just make sure that you are consistent when creating your content by using color schemes, filters, and feed patterns so your audience can easily remember your brand.

2. Create A Posting Plan

Once you’ve figured out the kind of content that you will craft, it’s now time to create a content calendar. What this means is that you need to determine when to post your content on specific days and times of the week. You can do this by using Instagram insights to know when your followers are online.

It ‘s also important that you are consistent with your schedule. A good example would be Taco Bell UK posting its #TacoTuesday campaign on Instagram every Tuesday. The human mind is wired to recognize patterns and it’s best if you take advantage of that. Come up with at least one weekly content that’s relevant to your business.

3.Make Use of Geotags and Hashtags

You don’t have to be a social media expert to know what hashtags are but if you are a total newbie, then let’s break it down for you.

A hashtag can be any word the has a “#” before it. For example, if you go on Instagram and type the hashtag #food on the search bar, this is what you will see:

What the platform does is that it categorizes all content with that same hashtag and ranks it according to popularity (top posts) and chronology (recent posts). The proper way of using hashtags is by using relevant tags on your posts to make them more visible. It wouldn’t make sense putting #shoes on a photo that’s all about food, would it?

Another way of maximizing the use of hashtags is to create branded tags that are unique to your business. A perfect example would be Nike’s #JustDoIt campaign. Obviously, that is there slogan but they utilized it well and turned it into a branded hashtag so when you type it on the search bar, most of the posts you would see are related to Nike.

Meanwhile, geotags are basically locations that are added to your posts. It will look like this:

You might be asking what this does to your business. Well, just like hashtags, it makes your business more visible. A lot of consumers these days are turning to Instagram as well to search for stores in their local areas.

For example, if someone wants to find restaurants in this local city of Murray Bridge, South Australia, all they need to do is go to “places” and type this:

This would then give you a list of all the restaurants and their addresses in the locality. You can tap each one them and have a look at their photos or photos from other people who have visited them.

There have been lots of success stories that were a result of geotagging so don’t miss out on it.

 4.Dive Into Instagram Stories

There are more than 400 million active users on Instagram that are posting stories on their accounts. If you think that stories are only for personal accounts, then that’s where you’re wrong.

Statistics show that one-third of the most viewed stories on Instagram are coming from business accounts. What stories do to your business is that it makes your brand more authentic. For example, a restaurant can take behind-the-scenes footage of what they do in the kitchen or what they did during their team building event.

Giving your consumers an inside look to what you do is a good way to create brand loyalty.

 5.Videos Are Important Too

We all know that Instagram started out as a photo-sharing app but videos have been taking over the world of content marketing lately. Not to mention, videos are comment magnets so they can definitely boost post engagement.

Instagram limits videos up to 1 minute only so make sure that you craft your videos well that you’re able to deliver your message across your audience properly.

However, if there is a need for longer videos, you can always post on IGTV. Whenever you post on IGTV, you will also have the option of posting a preview on your feed. You can basically give your consumers a teaser of the video content that you have in store for them.

If your business is not on Instagram, you’re definitely way behind your competitors now, unless they’re not on Instagram too. Kickstart your business by building that page and applying these five core principles