This blog post won the SmallLaw Pick of the Week award, signifying its importance among the most noteworthy articles about small law firms published during that week.
As I’ve written about before, Facebook’s advertising platform is growing at an exponential rate, giving Google AdWords a run for its money. In fact, Facebook says over 1.8 billion people use its social media platform every month. But to the social media advertising novice, Facebook’s advertising platform may appear to be a little overwhelming. In this, the first of a two-part series, we will discuss the different types of Facebook ads and the corresponding metrics you should pay attention to as they are running.
CAMPAIGNS
Facebook’s advanced advertising platform is comprised of three main components: campaigns, ad sets, and ads. Campaigns are the highest tier and the most important in determining the success of your ads: the campaign is where you determine the objective of the advertisements. Are you trying to increase followers for your Company Page? Do you want more users to see a video about your law firm? Or are you seeking to increase contact form submissions for specific types of clients? Establishing your objective will determine which campaign type to utilize.
Facebook categorizes campaigns into three categories: awareness, consideration, and conversion. As indicated by their titles, each category has a specific purpose and should be used accordingly.
Awareness
Awareness ads do exactly that: they raise awareness about your law firm to targeted users. For newly established law firms, or law firms diving into the social media world for the first time, these ads are a great way to build your following and attract new “likes” for your Company Page. We recommend selecting the “Brand Awareness” objective, as it will ensure users who are the most likely to be interested in your Page see the ads. Conversely, the “Reach” objective focuses on serving the ad up to the maximum number of people, without concern for their interest levels.
Use for:
- Announcing a new law firm
- Generating followers for a new Company Page
- Increasing your followers periodically
Consideration
Consideration ads focus on the first step of lead generation: engaging with the follower by enticing them to perform an action of some sort. This could include visiting your website, commenting on the ad, watching a video, or providing an email address. Utilizing these types of ads can provide another layer of brand exposure by capitalizing on the “social” portion of social media. When individual Facebook users comment and interact with your ads, this allows your ads to reach all of their friends organically. Each of the different objectives is worthwhile, and you should select based on what you are looking to accomplish.
Use for:
- Driving traffic to your website
- Increasing views of your video content
- Capturing email addresses for an e-newsletter
- Obtaining responses to an event
Conversion
Conversion ads are the answer to, “How do I get more leads?” For law firm demand generation, we recommend using the “Conversions” objective. Conversion ads drive valuable actions on your website. They target Facebook users with specific criteria and entice them to convert. In the case of law firms, this generally means having them complete a contact form or click-to-call.
Use for:
- Targeting potential new clients
- Increasing contact form submissions and phone calls
Once you’ve selected your campaign objective, Facebook walks you through building out your ad sets and ads. This includes setting your targeting (who you want to see your ads), setting your budget, crafting the content, selecting images, and determining how long you want them to run.
Once your ads are launched, Facebook provides a variety of metrics. Next week, I’ll discuss what all of those numbers mean, and which ones you should pay attention to for a successful ad campaign.
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