Facebook PPC Marketing: The Next eBay?

Facebook PPC marketing
Facebook‘s new pay-per-click (PPC) advertising program through Facebook Flyers Pro looks like it could be a strong rival to Google’s Adsense program. It’s really easy to use, as I discovered tonight. You might want to try it, too.

I think it might be the next eBay, creating broad-based marketing opportunities, especially for home-based businesses.

Think about what kinds of people are most likely to appreciate your company’s products or services. Then go to the Flyers Pro page and enter those demographics in the search fields, and you’ll get a feel for how many potential customers you can reach through Facebook PPC.

For example, I decided to check out how many married Canadian men ages 39-41 are in Facebook, and here’s what I found:

Canadian Men

I have no idea what kind of product someone might want to try to sell to that demographic.

But with Facebook, you could.

So then I got to thinking, “What if I was promoting a concert in Minneapolis for, say, Lionel Richie? How many people could I reach?”

Lionel Richie

Maybe in this case, promoting through an all-80s radio station would be a better approach. But if I were marketing Lionel Richie memorabilia nationally, I could advertise via PPC Facebook flyers to about 6,640 of his fans.

I think for some products and services, Facebook Flyers could enable a version of what David’s Bridal calls, “Lifestage marketing.” The idea is to understand what services people might be needing based on where they are in life, and putting information in their path that they might find valuable.

So I’m giving it a try with the fledgling wedding photography and video service my brother Mark and I are exploring. It started with my daughter Rachel’s wedding (She met her husband, Kyle, on Facebook. He says they actually met at Caribou Coffee, but that was only after they had arranged the meeting through Facebook.)

Anyway, Mark is a photography buff, and I enjoy making videos, so for Rachel and Kyle’s wedding Mark took lots of candid shots and I worked with a friend to get several video angles on the ceremony and reception. I did a 10-minute highlight video of the vows, and we got prints of Mark’s several hundred photos. Given the cost of most professional photography, and the reprint restrictions most photographers place on the photos, we thought there might be some couples that would appreciate being able to pay a flat rate and then own all of the photos and footage.

Since then, I’ve shot video at a couple more weddings (although I still have to edit the second, and I still owe Rachel and Kyle their full-length Director’s Cut version). Mark has a great job, and so do I, but we’re thinking this might make some nice weekend work. And maybe we can train our sons to do this, too, which would be a good way for them to work their way through college.

So I created an Aase Wedding Photography and Video Facebook group (go ahead and click that link: it’s not costing me anything!), where I uploaded a sample video and some photos. And then I created the Facebook flyer you see above. But instead of paying for how many times it is displayed, now I can pay per click. I’m targeting about 960 engaged women over age 19 in Rochester, MN. Maybe later we could expand the flyer run to elsewhere in Minnesota, Iowa or Wisconsin, but we wouldn’t want to travel beyond those states.

Facebook PPC
I just created the ad tonight, so I don’t know how well it will work. I may need to raise my bid level to get it shown. But the fun part is that I can experiment, and it isn’t make-or-break for my livelihood. Mark and I don’t need the wedding work. But it might make a nice family business.

I’ll let you know what I learn through this experiment.

Do you have a story to tell of your experience with advertising through Facebook Flyers? I’d love to hear it.

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Author: Lee Aase

Husband of one, father of six, grandfather of 15. Chancellor Emeritus, SMUG. Emeritus staff of Mayo Clinic. Founder of HELPcare and Administrator for HELPcare Clinic.

12 thoughts on “Facebook PPC Marketing: The Next eBay?”

  1. Excellent post, Lee! I think you’re on to something huge here! 🙂

    I have to say it blows me away when I read/hear people saying they don’t “get” Facebook for business use. With these kinds of demographics, we can do extremely targetted advertising to a captive audience. (Granted, we may have to ignore a bit of “visual noise” with the frivolous apps, but it’s sure worth the results!)

    Cheers,
    Mari

  2. I’m so impressed with what you’ve been able to do…both with your wedding video business and leveraging the power of Facebook Flyers. I will definitely have to look into this…

  3. It does make a lot of sense but if the quality of the clicks are anythign like as poor as on mysapce via Google then it wont get far….perhaps the targetting options will help….

  4. The power of Facebook is continuing to grow. Very effective targeted marketing but also other forms. My friend started her business via Facebook, just starting a group page and advertising goods. It has now become a very successful online business with a new website and a shop will be opening in teh Spring.

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