Why do Facebook and Instagram ads Work?

If you’ve ever considered running Facebook or Instagram ads for your business, you might be curious to know whether they actually work. After all, the last thing you want is to spend money on a campaign that fails to deliver results.
The answer is simple: yes, Facebook and Instagram ads work — if you know how to use them properly.
For example, a recently hosted webinar talked about growing your email list with Facebook and Instagram ads. To promote this webinar, the company ran a Facebook ad campaign that allowed it to reach over 10,000 people and generate 131 new leads at the cost of only $0.30 per lead.
After reading this blog, you will have a bright idea of why Facebook and Instagram ads work and why you should choose either of those for your campaign.
Positive user experience.
96% of people who use Facebook daily are happy with the user experience, according to a study. This makes Facebook users more receptive to ads that appear on the site.
A huge audience.
It’s no secret that paid social media is becoming the dominant advertising channel. According to eMarketer, Facebook and Instagram have already surpassed other ad platforms like Google and are expected to continue growing at a rapid pace.
The total active monthly user base for Facebook is 1.59 billion, and it’s growing each month. Instagram has 400 million active users each month, adding 100 million alone in the last nine months. And 80% of users follow a business on Instagram.
Facebook has over 1 billion daily active users on average, worldwide. Instagram has over 500 million daily active users. These numbers are only growing every day, and so are the number of ads people see in their feeds.
Targeting options that actually work.
Another reason Facebook works for advertisers is because of its targeting
Facebook’s targeting options allow you to reach users based on various factors, including age, gender, location, interests, and other personal details. If you create the right ad for the right audience, it can yield a high return on investment for your business.
When choosing an audience for your Facebook ads, you can choose from either a broad audience or a narrow one. A broad audience is useful to showcase your business’ general offerings. For example, if you were advertising for a fashion brand that sells clothes for both men and women, a broad audience would be a good choice because it allows you to reach as many people as possible. However, if your ad is specifically aimed at females between the ages of 35-55 who live in Florida and love dogs, then you’d choose a narrow audience.
This would allow you to target only women in that age group who live in Florida and have ‘dog’ listed as an interest on their Facebook profile.
You can target your ads based on location, age, gender, interests, behaviors, and connections — online or offline. This approach is proven, and it just works.
Dynamic ads.
Dynamic ads automatically show the right products to people who have expressed interest on your website, in your app, or elsewhere on the Internet (like Amazon). They are great to retarget customers who have abandoned their shopping carts while browsing your e-commerce store.
Powerful lead generation tools.
Facebook’s lead ads allow you to collect leads without requiring prospects to leave Facebook and fill out lengthy forms. Just click — that’s all you need to do!
People love spending time on Facebook and Instagram
People use these apps because they enjoy spending time on them. They have a positive association with it.
For advertisers, this means when you serve an ad in someone’s feed; the user is not distracted by any other things going on in the background like on traditional media channels (TV, radio). They’re actively using the app for fun, so your ad will likely get more attention than other marketing channels.
For example, when you think about how people watch TV these days, they usually have laptops in front of them (and smartphones in their hands), so they’re not paying full attention to what’s being shown on TV anyway.
They use intelligent algorithms to bring relevant content to relevant people.
Facebook’s algorithm is designed to show users content that is relevant to them, i.e., that they want to see and will engage with. This means that when you advertise on Facebook, your ads will be shown to people who have demonstrated interest in the topics you cover through their likes, shares, and posts.
You can target a wide range of demographics on Facebook and Instagram, from age and location to interests and behaviors. You can also retarget visitors to your website who didn’t complete their purchase with a simple pixel placed on your site.
The best part is that you can create ads using the same resources as other companies: images and videos that you have at your disposal.
Also, Facebook’s Ad Auction is a system that lets brands bid for ad space on every post in a user’s feed. When you bid on ad space, Facebook shows your ad to the people who are most likely to buy from you. The better your targeting, the more times your ads will be shown, and the more times people see your ads, the more sales you’ll make.
Facebook and Instagram ads work because they are friendly.
Friendly ads are just good advertisements, and not many other ads are good ones. This is what makes them so friendly.
Facebook and Instagram ads are friendly because they don’t make you feel deceived. They don’t even pretend to deceive you. The messages they send to your Facebook or Instagram feed are honest: “This is a product you might like.”
Think about it: the message Facebook or Instagram sends to your feed is the same one a friend would send if she was shopping for something and asked you whether you wanted it. Not something you might like, but a thing you could almost be certain would be something you’d like. You would have to be a very strange person not to say yes.
They are friendlier than most other ads. Most ads are about selling stuff. They are like, “I have this great thing for you, which I can only sell if you buy my product.”
Whereas Facebook’s ad is like a party invitation: “Hey guys! Come to my party! It will be fun! Bring a friend!”
Facebook uses that friendly vibe as part of its algorithm that decides what will show up in users’ feeds. If a person isn’t happy to see an ad, it won’t pay to put one in front of them.
The ads have a huge reach.
If most people who see an ad click on it, the cost-per-click (CPC) paid for that click will be low. If there are too few clicks, it can cost a lot more. But if there are too many clicks on the ad, the CPC paid for those clicks will be very high – but only if Facebook can sell the extra inventory at a significant margin over what it pays for advertising elsewhere – say at least double or triple what it pays for advertising elsewhere.
Facebook and Instagram Advertising Go Together
Advertising on social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, is one of the most effective ways to reach your audience. In fact, Instagram actually has a higher engagement rate than Facebook.
This means that advertisers can use Facebook and Instagram together to reach their target audience. By creating a Facebook ad that directs users to your Instagram account, you can easily build up a following of people interested in what you have to offer. The more followers you have on Instagram, the more likely they will be to follow you on Facebook as well. This is a great way to increase your visibility and drive traffic back to your website or blog.
When advertising on Facebook, it is important to remember that it should be used only with other forms of advertising. You should not rely solely on Facebook ads to generate your business or blog sales. You should always use other forms of advertising, such as search engine marketing or pay-per-click advertising.
Ads that target not just people but social behavior
The reason why these ads work so well is that they’re based on people’s social behavior. They know if you like certain brands, they know if you’re in a relationship, they know how many kids you have, and so much more. This data allows advertisers to target specific population segments with hyper-relevant content. For example, if I’m someone who loves Starbucks and I see an ad for Starbucks coffee on Instagram, I’m more likely to click it than someone who doesn’t like Starbucks at all.
Placement-optimized campaigns
If you’re running ads on Facebook or Instagram, the biggest bang for your buck will come from placement-optimized campaigns, which are designed to show your ads in all of the places they’ll perform best across Facebook, Instagram, and the Audience Network. The placement-optimized campaign feature is now available for all advertisers using Ads Manager and Power Editor.
By default, when you create a new campaign, it’s optimized for News Feed on Facebook and Instagram. When you create an ad set or promote a post to reach more people, you can choose to optimize it for News Feed only or across News Feed and other placements on Facebook and Instagram like the right column or Marketplace.
You can also select automatic placements to optimize your ads automatically based on performance by selecting “Edit Placements” in Ads Manager or Power Editor.
Bottom Line
For most of the last decade, the conventional wisdom has been that ads are a waste of money. Ads are a distraction; no one wants them.
But that’s not true anymore. Ads now work and for pretty good reasons.
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