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In the session “Facebook Ads: Reaching Prospects Earlier In The Decision Cycle,” Sarah Smith, Manager of Online Sales Operations, Facebook, offered tips on targeting your audience, creating compelling ads and getting a solid return on investment.

Coverage of the SES San Jose conference continues at WebProNews Videos.  Stay with WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.

Sarah Smith

Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open. Facebook has over 250 million users globally and has open registration.

Facebook allows you to target your exact audience. With other ad options you are not able to target your exact audience.

Targeting capabilities structured and unstructured. Structured includes: location, age/birthday, gender, education, workplace, relationship and language.

Unstructured (keywords): activities, interests, music, TV, movies, and books.

Keywords are generated because users actually put these words in their profile.

Tips to top ROI on Facebook ads:

- Experiment with multiple ads
- Target relevant audiences
- Design and refresh compelling creative
- Create and optimize socially enabled landing pages
- Use Facebook reporting
- Become a fan of Facebook Ad page

Users can decide what they think of Facebook ads by giving them thumbs up or thumbs down. This can help advertisers refine their approach.

Consumers can become fans of your page via Facebook ads using links to the page.

Best practices to boost CTR:

1. Keep ads short and simple
2. Ask questions in ad text
3. Avoid overcapitalization
4. Strong call to action “ACT NOW!”
5. Mention offers or discount code

Design ads that demand attention
-target the right people and find success

Refresh creative with simple changes
-color of the image…

Exploit pockets of opportunity
Adjust landing pages for engagement
Build a fan base to connect with customers
Optimize with Facebook ad manager
Dig into Facebook reports
Report type
Set up a test with Facebook ads
Use unique tracking links to measure ROI
Experiment
Mix targeting

Question & Answer:
Are ads currently being approved only in English?

Ad approval process is being built out in Facebook to cater to other languages.

How do we use CTR versus thumbs up/thumbs down? What’s the correlation?

Not sure. Both the CTR and thumbs up/thumbs down both weigh equally.

How do you know what clickthrough rate to expect?

Advised that you bid on the high end and adjust later on. Facebook doesn’t have any benchmark right now but says that you shouldn’t expect same CTR on Google AdWords on Facebook Ads. Seen ads with high ROI and be successful with a .04 CTR.

Why do I want to target those people who are already of my page?

May not necessarily be customers yet.

What is the definition of a fan in the sense of the sales funnel?

Example is Maria Smith (?) – you get more exposure by that free exposure. A fan is a potential customer or evangelist of your business. Can also be influencers. Companies can also use it as a CRM tool to get feedback on their products.

Will Facebook be implementing tracking codes to monitor conversions?

They are looking at it – it’s a huge value for advertisers but it’s difficult for Facebook right now.

Related posts:

1. Google Paid Local Listings – Coming Soon to a SERP Near You!
2. Google’s AdWords Policy Change
3. New Video Blog Post – How to Use AdWords Correctly

Watch the video to find out how you can run your own PPC campaign without spending an arm and a leg.  There are some very simple techniques that may very well improve your campaigns as soon as today.  If you don’t have a campaign, that’s fine.  This video will show you what you need to get started.

And if you’re so inclined, visit the link below to get more information.  And don’t forget about the bonus for the first 20 people!  If you missed it, it’s towards the end of the video.

>>> Click Here to Visit PPC Bully <<<

Related posts:

1. Video Advertising – AdWords At A Whole New Level
2. Google’s AdWords Policy Change
3. Free AdWords Tools

Your Display URL is the URL that individuals see on your ad when it’s displayed in Google AdWords.
Your Destination URL is the URL where visitors go when they click on your ad.

Google’s policy now states that these must be the same URL.

To make this clear since the direct explanation from Google can be a little obscure, this means that within the same Ad Group you cannot use two different root URLs.  This means that you cannot use:

• http://www.SomeSite.com and
• http://www.SomeOtherSite.com

within the same Ad Group.
But,  you can use subdomains within that same Ad Group.  So for example, you could display http://www.SomeSite.com and have the ad land on a page at http://info.SomeSite.com.  You could also use http://www.SomeSite.com/folder/.

Google will begin to deactivate those Ad Groups that are using more than one root domain.  Again, this will start to happen on April 1st, 2009 if it hasn’t already begun.  If you want to know more about how to fix your Ad Groups so that they comply with the new policies, visit the information provided by Google.

Related posts:

1. New Video Blog Post – How to Use AdWords Correctly
2. Advertising on Facebook

In a nutshell, Yahoo Cash 4 Idiots is the perfect extension to a section in Bonehead SEO about PPC or Pay-Per-Click marketing.

As an 8-year veteran in the SEO industry I always tell people who come to me for advice on their websites that while they wait for their site to move up in the natural search results listings, they should use PPC.  The downside to PPC is that it can cost a lot of money – especially if you’re using Google.

Yes, Google has the largest PPC network but they aren’t exactly known as the most “advertising friendly” PPC network available.  Oftentimes their rules change at the drop of a hat and oftentimes without warning – and worse yet, without viable explanations as to why it happened.

The bottom line is, Google, while large, has repeatedly become an advertiser’s “big brother”; slowly over the years telling you how to run your business while you end up spending horrendous amounts of money on clicks.  And, what you’ll learn in the Bonehead SEO course is that there are only a select few spots on a Google search results page where ads get attention – and not surprisingly, it’s these spots that typically cost you the most amount of money.

Is it still possible to get low-cost clicks with Google?  Yes but certainly not for a competitive keyword, or even a mildly competitive keyword; the bottom line is, it’s becoming harder and harder to get good rankings in Google’s PPC marketplace while still keeping your costs at a manageable level and make any money in the process to boot.

An alternative that most people don’t take a look at is Yahoo’s PPC program who isn’t nearly as stringent and best of all, most clicks cost far less than Google’s.

There is no doubt that while you wait for your site to slowly move up in the search engine rankings you need to advertise; but why put yourself into a position where the learning curve is horrendous and the costs are outrageous?  I highly suggest that you take a look at Yahoo Cash 4 Idiots and take a refreshing look at PPC without all of the stress that comes with it.

There’s plenty of video proof on the Yahoo Cash 4 Idiots page if you’re skeptical.

Related posts:

1. New Video Blog Post – How to Use AdWords Correctly