We have talked about some of the biggest ways that big data has influenced the field of marketing. One of the biggest changes big data has created in recent years is in the realm of Facebook advertising.
Facebook has been one of the pioneers in big data technology for years. However, many brands haven’t figured out how to use the site’s data to their own advantage.
It is no secret that Facebook uses big data in impressive ways. SimpliLearn talked about some big data applications the social media giant has rolled out in recent years. However, one of the biggest changes data technology has caused pertains to Facebook advertising.
How Data Technology is Changing the Future of Facebook Advertising
The Facebook advertising platform is highly dependent on big data. Before we can delve into the role of data in Facebook marketing, it is important to get an understanding of how the platform works in the first place.
There is no doubt to the fact that a business can become a success only by a strong online presence today. This presence encompasses not just an active website but also its marketing and promotion. Facebook, with billions of users and millions of pages, is one of the key platforms to realize this power of advertisement and marketing. Big data has made it possible for the social media giant to keep track of all of these pages, which enables advertisers to reach potential customers more easily. No wonder, more and more businesses are inclined towards the platform to understand how Facebook ads work.
But before understanding how Facebook ads work, we need to understand why it is important. The harsh truth is that good content alone cannot ensure your success, especially monetary. A successful Facebook page that posts regularly draws audiences and directs them to advertisements is, therefore, more likely to make high financial gains. This is why Facebook ads are crucial to understand and use. It also illustrates the need for big data, because you need to use data analytics to identify your target customers and reach them.
Now, let us try to understand in some detail how Facebook ads work:
What is a Facebook ad?
A Facebook ad is essentially a piece of an advertisement on the platform that has been curated by a business page. The aim of the Facebook ad could be to serve to the Facebook audience a piece of information about the business, to direct them to either its website or its business page on Facebook itself. These Facebook ads vary in terms of design, intent and impact. Besides, the role of personalization and customization in terms of Facebook ad designing cannot be neglected.
Primarily, most Facebook ads are directed towards intercepting higher engagement in the form of likes, comments and following. Some use this tool to garner more traffic and hence activity on their websites. This works especially well for businesses with online stores, blogs and vlogs. In a nutshell, we can say that a Facebook ad ensures greater success for your campaign, whatever platform it is directed towards.
What makes up a Facebook ad?
The basic parts that make up a Facebook ad are simple. Firstly, there is an image or graphic that attracts the audiences viewing the advertisement post. Secondly, there is the component of the description of the target audience pool the ad is intended toward. Then, you have to be specific about the place you want your ad to be posted at, apart from your bid and budget details.
Lastly, the schedule of posting of the ad and the period for which it will be running form essential components too. But worry not; it does seem like too many things to take care of at first. However, Facebook ads are very guided in terms of creation and approach. A basic understanding of the goals and components of the Facebook advertisement is enough to help you set sail.
What are the goals of a Facebook ad campaign?
This is something you need to ask yourself. A Facebook ad campaign can have multiple goals and it is exclusive to your business or idea. Some would want their ad to direct visitors to their website to generate more traffic. Some would want an ad to simply create awareness and traffic for their business page on Facebook.
The only thing you need to keep in mind that whatever goals you set must be realistic. This will drive you towards leveraging the opportunity and also keep track of your successes. Having said that, Facebook ads are a wonderful opportunity for better reach and promotional activity. Let’s how do Facebook ads work in terms of audience targeting.
How and whom do Facebook ads target?
This is the part of the process where big data becomes so vital. You cannot target users reliably without a detailed understanding of data analytics. You must know what demographic converts the best and use Facebook’s intricate big data platform to get visibility from those prospective customers.
Facebook ads work like you want them to. Every business page on Facebook has a certain kind of audience, or a specific audience pool, that they want to direct their goals toward. You also need to be specific about these target audiences and the demographics surrounding them. It is based on these demographic data that Facebook ads work for reaching out.
So, what are these demographic factors to take into account? First and foremost is the location. Once you have set a target for yourself in terms of the geographical location where you intend your ad to reach, you are shortlisting your audience pool geographically. You can mark this reach based on a city, a state or province or even a country or countries.
Next, the age and gender of your target audience need to be mentioned. Besides, what are the other factors that you are looking for in your audience pool? It could be an affinity for or proficiency in a certain language or profession. It could be certain behaviours and tendencies or activities. It could be based on connections and similarities between other targets of yours.
All these varied demographic data help form a basis for the Facebook ad to work. The ad you create will campaign to reach and impact a pool based on these data and stats. Therefore, this is one of the key fundamentals in understanding how Facebook ads work.
How to evaluate Facebook ad results?
This is the next part of the process that requires big data. You need to use data analytics to assess the overall performance of your campaign.
Facebook ads work in ways that can help you assess your reach and impact. This can help you ascertain whether or not your ideas are doing well. If they are, which of them are the best performing? These factors can help you streamline future content strategy and promotions as well.
You can put to use different statistics provided by Facebook for the purpose. From the clicks and clicks through rate data you can analyse how many clicks and impressions you have successfully made. Besides, you can check out your reach in the audience and how prevalent it is. There are stats on cost per 1000 impressions (CPM) and cost per link click (CPC) if you wish to assess the monetary angle of your ads
Besides, the Facebook ad results can also help you evaluate easily the conversions and attributions based on your performance. This is how Facebook ads help you analyse your business page’s performance and growth over time. It contributes vastly to your growth potential and future business opportunities.
What are the positive impacts of a Facebook ad?
The first positive impact that is quite obvious is the generation of traffic and interest in your content. It depends completely on you whether you want to direct the audience to your Facebook page or your personal or professional website. The idea is to create awareness and generate visitors using a catchy headline, an attractive image and a one-click destination.
At the same time, it can increase your popularity on Facebook. When you direct people to your page on Facebook and they see your profile, it is bound to create an impression. You can get Facebook followers to gain a huge following in a short period and create an impression on the incoming visitor. This works well if you have just started but do not want the visitor to think of you as a novice.
Another idea would be to post content frequently and make your page look quite active and engaged. This way, even if you direct the visitor to your page, they won’t be disappointed. Using these simple tricks, to buy Facebook followers and likes and generating lots of content frequently can act like bonuses to your ad campaign.
Big Data is Critical to the Success of Your Facebook Ad Campaigns
Facebook ads are a wonderful feature to connect, reach and impact a larger audience pool on social media. You couldn’t use them without big data technology. Using Facebook ads, one can promote their content as well as business through Facebook, where people are certainly more active and engaged. It also gives you ample opportunity to create a buzz about any special offer you have or any important announcement. This works well because Facebook is the place where people spend many hours on, compared to surfing individual websites.
Therefore, if you want to make the most out of your business page on Facebook, it would be best to invest some time, energy and money in creating an efficient ads campaign. It will not only help you accentuate your presence on the social media biggie but also act as a means to direct traffic to your website. We hope we have been able to answer your query about how Facebook ads work. If you still want to know more, you can always ask us in the comments below!