For years, as online marketers have watched Facebook explode in popularity, we've been forced to advise a "soft sell" approach to working on the site. In other words, it was hard to promote your company or products outright, but what you could do was make important connections, describe enough about yourself or your business that people might want to work with you, and let prospective clients see behind the curtain a bit and build your brand in that way.
Now, with Facebook opening its virtual doors to advertisers earlier this year, the path to promotion and profits is being well-beaten... or is it?
Advertising on Facebook is far from a sure thing, if only because it's new. There isn't much of a track record of companies, big or small, making any money on the site through paid ads. What's more, as the most "social" of the social networking sites, it's a place that people go to in order to have fun and mix with friends and relatives – not necessarily find marketing messages.
So what does it all mean? Is Facebook advertising actually worth spending on? Here are a few questions to help you sort out the right answer for your company:
Do you sell directly to consumers? If so, you might be in luck. While Facebook is likely to remain a poor business-to-business advertising venue, it does seem to offer some hope for those who sell directly to consumers.
How specific do you need your audience to be? While new options are being added quickly, Facebook still lacks many of the customization tools you'd find on a more popular platforms, like Google Adwords. What that basically means is that you might have to settle for marketing to broad groups – like women or students, for example – as opposed to more targeted demographics, at least for now.
Do you have room in your budget to take the chance? Like other forms of pay per click advertising, it doesn't take much to get started on Facebook. But, as a new platform, it makes sense to test the system out and see whether the results will pan out in the bottom line. And as with any test, be prepared in case you get back less than expected... or even nothing at all.
As Facebook advertising grows, marketers will undoubtedly figure out which strategies, prices, and types of products can reliably succeed. For the time being, however, the concept is like a lot of things that have to do with social networking – fun, interesting, and a little unproven.
