Does Facebook Advertising Really Work?

There are more than 2.5 million brands running Facebook Ads in 2018, yet there still appears to be some doubt surrounding their effectiveness. 

Perhaps the level of customization provided makes Facebook Ads look complicated, and results in a lot of poor ads being published. Maybe this is because the doubters themselves aren’t clicking the ads.  

Whatever is spurring the naysayers, we’re here to explore the facts surrounding the effectiveness of Facebook advertising. 

How much do Facebook Ads cost?

As with any pay-per-click platform, it is not possible to estimate how much a Facebook ad will cost your business without first running it through the platform.  

Whether you’re paying via cost per click or per impression, the amount you pay will be based on the results of ad auctions. The more other advertisers want to reach your target audience, the more you’ll pay to do so. 

It’s a complicated system. Thankfully for advertising newbies, you can let Facebook automate the auction process for you. Tell it how much you want to spend on advertising, either on a per campaign or per account basis, and the algorithm will try to get as many results as possible for that amount. 

By setting your budget, you achieve maximum results, whether you’re spending $10 or $10,000 a week. 

What ROI can I expect from Facebook ads?

Your return on investment on Facebook Ads will depend highly on the quality of the words and image in your design, as well as the quality of the product you’re advertising.

Nevertheless, there has been plenty of research published on the average success for Facebook advertisers. In 2017, Wordstream suggested the average click-through rate was 0.9% and the average cost per click coming to $1.72. Impressively, the average conversion rate stood at just over 9%. This varies by industry, with the averages for many niches being reported by Wordstream within its report.   

The biggest mistake made by Facebook advertisers

Facebook provides huge levels of depth when it comes to altering your adverts and targeting specific demographics. This level of depth means that it’s always possible for advertisers to make improvements to their campaigns, but it’s also easy to make mistakes. 

Among the most common mistakes ruining advertisers’ conversion rates is not creating enough ads. Facebook allows you to split-test ads and run detailed analytics on each of them. Rather than sticking with one ad and hoping it works, a great Facebook advertiser will continue to tweak their ad until they achieve an optimum conversion rate. It’s possible to split-test your landing page too, and this is also highly recommended. 

Marketers have to go to the people, and the people are still on Facebook 

In the first quarter of 2018, there were more than two billion active users on Facebook, so your target audience is definitely there. It’s just a matter of targeting them to be best of your ability. 

As you can see, Facebook has done a lot to make that task a breeze for advertisers.