Acorn Edge

Facebook is one of the fastest growing sites on the internet which makes it a logical place for advertisers to seek placement. Setting up an advertising account requires you have a regular facebook profile account but it only takes a few minutes to create one.

Ads can be purchased on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) or CPC (cost per click) basis. Each method has its own merits and it should be tested to see which is optimal for you. Every advertisers experience is different, but here are my pros and cons of using Facebook so far:

Pros
1. Great for targeting users based on sex, age, geographic location, relationship status and school. Example: if you are a wedding catering business looking to reach engaged females in San Diego, Facebook advertising could be a great fit for you.

2. You can add an image to your advertisement. This is one of the main differentiators between facebook and other advertisers like Google. The right image in your ad can really make it stand out to your audience.

3.  40,000,000+ user base means your audience is active and engaged.

Cons
1. There is currently no functionality for bulk adding or editing advertisements. This is an important feature for larger advertisers because it saves time. The process of creating ads is cumbersome, manual and time consuming. If you are only adding a handful of ads, it’s a breeze.

2. Targeting ads based on user interests can create false positives. For example, a hardware store targeting users who have an interest in “Home Improvement” seems logical, right? The catch here is that all those people might be interested in the TV show Home Improvement and not the act of improving ones home.

I highly recommend trying facebook as an advertising channel for your business. Start slow, and make sure you test to be sure you are getting the optimal return on your ad spend.