In this blog post I am going to examine the effectiveness of Facebook advertising as a means of promoting brand awareness and therefore increasing sales, using examples to support my suggestions.
Brand awareness is a fundamental marketing ‘must have’ for almost all products. For a consumer to buy a brand they must first be aware of it. Brand attitude cannot be formed and the intention to buy cannot be developed unless brand awareness has been achieved (Rossiter and Percy, 1987). Targeted consumer advertising is key driver to achieve such brand awareness.
Facebook has over 1.49 billion users, which accounts for over half of the online population (Buchanan, 2015). Their monthly user numbers are still growing, although there is current speculation that the company may be hitting saturation (in terms of monthly users). However, for now the market is still increasing, with 2.58% more users in Q4 2015 (Constine, 2016). With these figures in mind advertising on Facebook is seen by many Companies as a key part of the overall marketing mix in helping them to promote their products and services to the wide array of Facebook users.
However perhaps even more important than just the sheer volume of its users Facebook are able to offer to its advertisers a unique business tool through which the Company can tailor and target their advertising specifically to their target audience. By using this tool a business can appeal to customers in their chosen demographic and location (Facebook, 2016). This would prevent wasted advertisement costs, as the advert would be only relevant to the customer viewing it.
In addition to this audience targeting tool, Facebook have introduced a budget option for businesses through which advertisers state their maximum budget and the Facebook helps them use this maximum budget to ‘bid for’ adverts that target their specific audience. This is very useful for small businesses in particular who are keen to target their potential consumers whilst sticking within a limited budget (Facebook, 2016).
Facebook therefore offers very flexible yet targeted advertising opportunity but how successful is it in achieving the desired effects for its advertisers? The link directly below shows the extent to which an effective Facebook Advert can increase sales within a particular small business.
http://www.socialfresh.com/facebook-advertising-examples/
As shown in the link, 1-800Flowers.com doubled their Facebook fan’s increasing it to 120,000. They also had over 4000 transactions directly from their Facebook advert, which demonstrates how useful Facebook has been in increasing their awareness and sales.
In addition to its budgeting and consumer targeted advertising tools Facebook also offers a sophisticated advert reporting tool, enabling its advertisers to see how many potential customers have viewed and engaged with the advert (Facebook, 2016).
An advertising model put forward by Strong in 1925 called ‘AIDA’ seeks to explain how advertising raises our awareness, then stimulates interest, which eventually leads to the actions of purchasing or paying for a service (Wijaya, 2011).
The model suggests that an effective advertisement is one that:
1.Commands Attention: In the context of a Facebook advert, this could be having a powerful visual advert that would catch the user’s attention. Facebook remains a ‘cool’ and dynamic medium and whilst Facebook adverts are not large in size and therefore unable to carry much formation in words, there is the opportunity for an advertiser to create dynamic visual messaging to attract the attention of the user over an informative one would be more effective. Eysenck (1977) suggested that pictures have a well-known superiority over words when it comes to learning (in the context of advertising). The picture below is the actual size of a Facebook advert; which shows how little space there is for an informative advert.
- Leads to Interest in the product: If a small business chose to use the target audience tool offered by Facebook to only show to their demographic they wish to appeal to, it is likely that by creating an appealing Facebook advert would increase the sales for the business.
3.Desire to own or use the product: the visual impact of the advertisement will enhance the desire to own the product and be cool in doing so.
4.Leads to Action: and the desire to own manifests itself in the wish to buy !
With its huge number of users and its ability to specifically and economically target end users though its sophisticated marketing and budgeting tools its no surprise to understand why Facebook has become such an important part of many companies’ (large and small) advertising and promotional activity.
References
Buchanan, R. (2015). More than half of all internet users are on Facebook. [online] The Independent. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/facebook-used-by-half-the-worlds-internet-users-10426003.html [Accessed 1 Feb. 2016].
Constine, J Facebook Climbs To 1.59 Billion Users And Crushes Q4 Estimates With $5.8B Revenue | TechCrunch. 2016. Facebook Climbs To 1.59 Billion Users And Crushes Q4 Estimates With $5.8B Revenue | TechCrunch. [ONLINE] Available at: http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/27/facebook-earnings-q4-2015/#.uqp5si1:Hq6r. [Accessed 31 January 2016].
Eysenck, M. W. (1977), Human Memory: Theory, Research and Individual Differences (Oxford: Pergamon)
Facebook. 2016. . [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/business/products/ads. [Accessed 31 January 2016].
Rossiter JR & Percy L (1987). Advertising and Promotion Management. Singapore: McGraw-Hill.
Wijaya, B. (2011). The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising. International Research Journal of Business Studies. 5 (1), p74-85.