If you’re business owner you absolutely must investigate if Facebook Ads are right for you.

Do not get lured by the new “shiny objects of social networking.” Yes, I guess you can’t ignore Pintrest, even though chances are you’ve chosen to somewhat ignore “Google +” (and that’s OK because Google’s happy if all you did was register for an account).

Facebook has the most users and the most data.

And it’s that data that is sold to “Marketers” in the form of Facebook Ads.

Lately, I’ve been generating leads in a really specific vertical market using Facebook Ads. Trust me! If I can find this tiny market on Facebook you have no excuses for not being able to find your best prospects in your local area.

A few tips for Facebook Ads.

If you’re gonna make them “rock” for you – you’ll have to commit.

You must be willing to test and tweak a few different variables.

If you’re familiar with Google’s brand of “Pay Per Click,” Google Adwords, you can walk away for a while because it’s a little “Set it and forget it.”

But not Facebook Ads.

You need to get in their every couple of days. Sometimes you have to get in their daily. Sometimes once a day won’t work!

Changing images. Tweaking copy, adjusting budgets. You need to do all this.

So there’s more genius being demonstrated by Facebook.

And that… Even making their ads platform “Sticky” for Advertisers!

Before we take a quick dive into getting direct response marketing to work for Facebook Ads we have to remind you of what direct response marketing is.

Simple: With Direct Response you are focusing on a call to action to produce a tangible result first. You only care a little bit about making an impact for your “brand.”

One of the best forms of direct response is “Two-Step Direct Response.” It’s great to go for the sale and get it right away. But the reality is you are much better off creating a funnel and making it as deep as possible.

You create your funnel with some sort of information.

You can go explore direct marketing and there’s plenty of information out there for you.

But let’s get back to Facebook Ads.

For you to think you can whip out a Facebook Ad and drive traffic to an external link that either A- Goes for a sale or, B- Asks for an opt-in is crazy. Your results will be bad a best! But, you can get it to work.

The one Secret to getting Direct Response, Lead Generation Marketing to work on Facebook is to target the “Likes” of your page.

If you want some help with Facebook Ad Strategy – reach out.

Nielen does all kinds of research and ratings, etc.

Some really interesting recent stats revealed in most demographics smartphones are not a luxury anymore.

Nielsen’s “smartphone penetration by age” chart, which shows that 80% of those in both the 18-24 and the 25-34 age groups who acquired a phone in the last 3 months chose a smartphone.

Further stats show in the “recent acquisitions” area (Activated phones in the last 3 months) 69% of all phones activated across all demographics were smartphones.

80% of 25 to 34 year-olds who make 100k per year own smartphones.

75% of 35 to 44 year-olds who make 100k per year own smartphones.

Also notice how even folks with less income have smartphones. Interesting for sure!

As always – I like to give you the latest stats.

If you’re still not doing any mobile marketing you are falling behind.

To get your mobile website going visit…

Mobile Marketing CMS

Here’s a breakdown of 3 simple and effective Facebook Ad strategies…

Strategy 1-

“I want them to Like me”

This is when you set out to increase “Page Likes.”

Now some people complain because they feel they should not have to “buy likes.” Sorry – no way around it after you exhaust everyone in your circle. Unless your some famous celebrity people are just not searching to “like your business.” You have to interrupt them.

Be warned: Increasing page likes comes with the added duty of working your page.

Why would you want to do this? Don’t skip ahead but read Strategy 3 carefully when you get to it.

Strategy 2 -

“Mike Likes It” so should I

This is where you’ll leverage your likes. Think referrals but a lot less powerful for now. These folks are not gonna call you because their Facebook friend likes you. But they will be interested and possibly start following you.

What we do here is a social ad. This shows up on the user’s Facebook page and basically says…

“Mike Dolpies Likes ….”

What we are shooting are the friends of the likes. Chances are they’re similar.

Strategy 3 -

The Real Secret and The MAIN Reason You Are Building Your Likes

Facebook will NOT let you target the “likes” of another page directly. As great as it would be to target the women who like the big gym in your area – you can not get that narrow.

But you can target any set of people who like a page where you are the admin.

Really powerful for several reasons which I can not go into here. But the tip of the iceberg…

1- They are somewhat familiar with you. Call them a captive audience if you want.

2-This is one the only ads types that gives you the most slack for driving people to an external URL.

What I mean is Facebook frowns upon external links in ads. This makes perfect sense because once someone is your fan/like they’ll be more receptive to to going to a page off of Facebook, filling in a form and becoming a lead. After that, it’s up to you to move them down the funnel!

Make no mistake about it. This is NOT some start today and end up with a flood of new business tomorrow type thing. This takes commitment.

If you’d like a complimentary consultation to see if Facebook Ads are right for you visit:

Our Facebook Ads Service Page

Did you see the GoDaddy 2012 Superbowl Commercials?

GoDaddy’s marketing people are challenged to come up with an outrageous commercial or two every year.

2012 was no different.

What I noticed more than anything is their use of a QR Code.

Wow, am I that much of geek? That’s what I noticed? LOL!

It’s true! I am a Mobile Marketing junkie. What can I say.

GoDaddy reported an amazing record-breaking day.

Was it all the doing of the QR Code? Not sure and I doubt it.

A couple take-aways for you though…

1- I think they could’ve done a better job calling attention to the code.

Maybe an arrow or two? Words on the screen… “Scan this code and …”

So keep that in mind when you use QR Codes in your marketing. Give a clear call to action.

Take-away number 2…

Use of QR Codes. In 2009 scans of QR Codes were about 80,000 per month. End of 2011 that number jumped to 2,000,000!

And always – always be sure your codes go directly to a mobile web page that loads quickly and looks good on the small screen.

To create your mobile pages and generate your QR Codes under one roof go to…

MobileMarketingCMS

Did you know most online activities are very “task” oriented? Meaning.

People go online to find a restaurant or book a trip or search for a local service.

That’s why online lead generation works. Someone is looking for info. They find you. You make them an offer and they say “sure.” Over and done with. You call them and they come in. Or, if you’re selling online they hopefully buy.

But there’s one place on the net that’s not “task oriented.”

In fact it is totally about wandering. About getting lost. About 5 minutes turning into 25 minutes.

You know where that is?

Facebook. Yes – I sometime get lost wandering around and if you’re one of the 800 million Facebook users you know what I’m talking about.

I’ve been doing a lot of Facebook ads recently for both myself and clients.

Here’s what I like about it.

I’m old school!

Believe it or not Facebook ads remind me of direct mail marketing.

Meaning: One way to do direct mail is to a “cold list.” That’s a list you purchase. Done correctly you can get phone calls and generate business. You can also “warm up” the list via multiple steps.

You choose your cold list by demographics and geography. Or, if your pool of prospects are big enough you can get lists of magazine subscribers and many other “selects.”

But here’s what’s great about Facebook Ads…

Yes you can choose a radius around your business (like you would with direct mail). You can select certain demographics” (like you would with direct mail).

Where it gets better is you can dig deeper.

Say you knew that your best prospects were iPhone users. (Yes – you know know stuff like this). Well, you can target them on Facebook.

The message is you really should be exploring Facebook ads for your business. Remember your ad needs to interrupt them. And it’s OK, because they are wandering around. They are expecting to be interrupted.

Now go interrupt some prospects while they are wandering.