How Much Should I Budget for Facebook Ads?

By Heather Truitt

We recently discussed top tips to keep in mind when considering whether and how to advertise on Facebook. One of the most important factors, however, deserved a whole post of its own – setting the budget.

If time and money were unlimited resources, there would be no need to set a budget for anything, much less advertising. But, of course, those resources are not unlimited, so determining a budget for your Facebook advertising campaign is crucial. As with many things in life, spending too little will hamstring your campaign before it even begins, while spending a great deal may be overkill.

Here are some basics to keep in mind when deciding how much to spend on Facebook ads.

Setting the Budget

Facebook advertising works on a budget. You can set the budget to spend a certain amount per day or a “lifetime” budget of the amount to spend for the entire campaign. If you choose a budget per day, after the daily budget is exceeded, Facebook will stop delivering the ad to viewers until the next day. If you choose a lifetime budget, the advertisement will continue until your budget has been spent down to $0.

As far as how much Facebook advertising really costs, if you are setting your budget per day, the minimum budget fluctuates from $1 to $40 a day depending on the way by which you select your ads to be charged. Below are the tiers Facebook has set up showing daily minimums:

• If the ad set gets charged for impressions, its daily budget must be at least $1 a day.
• If the ad set gets charged for clicks, likes, video views, or post engagement, its daily budget must be at least $5 a day.
• If the ad set gets charged for low frequency events like offer claims or app installs, its budget must be at least $40 a day.

Some examples: If you set up a “per day” budget at $5 per day, and set your duration for 30 days, your overall ad budget for the month is $150. If you set up a “lifetime” budget at $200, and set your duration for 30 days, Facebook will try to evenly distribute the budget (about $6 a day).

Click here to read more about advertising budgets and how they work on Facebook.

Tracking Results

When first beginning a Facebook ad campaign, you can set your budget relatively low and track the results to see what works best for your organization.

You can also test out different images and text and see which works best. You can create several ads with variations and track which advertisements drive better traffic and click-through rates.

Boosted Posts

If you don’t want to invest in an entire Facebook ad campaign, “boosted” posts are another option Boosted posts appear more frequently in people’s news feeds, increasing the chances that your audience will see the posts. Similar to Facebook ads, you also can set a budget and duration for boosted posts, and you will be able to see how many people have viewed the post. Click here to learn more about boosted posts.

Top Tips for Advertising on Facebook

By Heather Truitt 

When integrated marketing and PR agencies such as Furia Rubel create advertising campaigns for clients, one channel we often consider is Facebook. Different social media platforms are appropriate for different kinds of businesses, but Facebook is one that is often appropriate for our professional services clients.

By now, it should be no surprise that social media platforms enable companies to target advertising to very specific audiences, and Facebook certainly offers that ability. More than 1.4 billion people use Facebook, and more than 900 million of them visit the platform every day, according to statistics from the company.

To get the most out of your investment in Facebook advertising, here are some tips to keep in mind.

Advertising Goals 

Make sure to set a goal before you start to spend money. What do you want to accomplish? More Facebook likes? More website visits? More completed forms on the website? Setting a goal first is necessary in order to effectively measure the success of the campaign.

Images and Text for Your Advertisements 

When you start to design your ad, one of the decisions you will have to make is which text and which images to include – and how much of each. If you have overlaid text on your image, Facebook has a set of guidelines, which you can view here to see if you have too much text on your image.

Facebook prefers 20 percent or less of your image to contain text. Facebook ads that have little or no text will cost less money, and they will achieve better delivery rates than images that contain text. See below for different examples of image-to-text ratios.

Facebook also has a helpful automated system that you can check to see whether your image falls within Facebook guidelines.

Ad Targeting 

Ad targeting is a way of setting the parameters to determine the audience for your Facebook advertisement. You can set the targeting using the following criteria:

• Location – by country, state, city, and/or zip code. This can be as targeted as you would like. If you want your ad to be seen only in Chicago and the surrounding areas, set the City to Chicago and then add a 10- or 20-mile radius surrounding Chicago. 
• Age – settings range between the ages of 13 to 65+. 
• Gender – female or male, or all. 
• Language – reach people who have set their Facebook preferences to a specific language.
• More Demographics – provides a listing of other items including relationship status, education, work, financial, home, ethnic affinity, generation, parents, politics (US), and life events. 
• Interests – search for specific interests, or pre-select from Facebook’s list. Facebook will show you interest levels for various topics. 
• Behaviors – reach people based on interests such as how they shop, what kind of device they use when checking Facebook, specific job roles, if they are a homeowner, etc. 
• Connections – add people who like certain pages, or exclude people who like certain pages. This is helpful if you want to reach new customers that aren’t already connected to your Facebook page.

While you are setting your ad targeting, watch the “Audience Definition” meter to the right of the page. As you start to narrow down your target market, the numbers will diminish for your audience selection. If you target too specifically, the daily reach could be less than 100, which would not be ideal.

How to Measure Success 

Facebook offers robust tracking systems. If you are tracking people who go to your website to fill out a specific form, or purchase an item, you would install a small snippet of code, and then Facebook will know if the action was completed. If you were driving traffic to your website to have a form filled out, you would place the tracking code snippet on the “Thank you for filling out this form” page. By adding tracking code, Facebook will track the “completed” actions for the advertisement.

If you are considering whether a Facebook advertising campaign is right for your marketing strategy, contact the experienced marketing and PR team at Furia Rubel Communications.

Five Key Benefits of a Microsite for Business

Posted by Laura Powers

A microsite is a website concentrating on a very specific topic, product or service that can range in size from a single landing page to several linked pages. Microsites are typically used to support a larger website and share specialized editorial or commercial content. They serve as an easy-to-scan resource of focused information and content for audiences.

When a company provides niche services or products pertaining to a very specific market, microsites help support integrated marketing efforts. As part of creating a space in the marketplace, a company must be able to highlight a specialized offering and target a specific demographic. Examples of this may include: a law firm’s focus on a specific practice area; a company initiative to develop thought leadership in a particular industry; or the promotion of a special event.

Microsites benefit a company and enhance a brand in many ways. Below are five key benefits that companies should keep in mind when considering an investment in a microsite.

Builds Trust by Detailing a Clear Path to Information

As an online tool for leading audiences to a call-to-action, a microsite supports your relationship and deepens your connection to a targeted audience by providing them with a resource and thereby building trust with that audience. Microsites offer the freedom to expand on a topic in more detail, providing information such as specifications, background, history, etc. The site might explain industry trends in detail or include specific and relevant information to educate audiences.

Enhances the Brand

Overall brand support is a primary objective of a microsite, yet designs should be completely customized to appeal directly to target audiences with strong images and design elements. With the audience in mind, unique and targeted design can be employed which should echo the company brand, but be influenced by the site’s content. Well-designed sites will naturally demonstrate the flexible, diverse and innovative nature of the company. The connection between a main company site and a microsite should be obvious. A microsite, as a devoted resource to a subject, service or product, should also support the primary brand’s communication goals.

Focuses Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Efforts

Microsites support SEO by the nature of their content and even microsite domain names can be specific to each microsite’s topic, service or product. A unique microsite domain name should be secured to not only support SEO in this manner, but also to make the search engine result that a user sees that much more relevant to their search inquiry. A more relevant search result for users means a better chance that they will click through to a site. A site with a strategic domain name, relevant keyword phrases and well-written, search engine-optimized content will perform well in search engines. This, in turn, will strategically support the company's overall SEO efforts.

Supports Targeted Lead Generation

By reaching the right people at the right time by utilizing targeted content and SEO strategies through a microsite, the site is bound to attract interested visitors. These types of relevant visitors are likely to be strong leads for the company. By providing highly-targeted, clean SEO along with relevant content, your audience is likely to find your site and be genuinely interested in what it has to offer. Include strong calls-to-action and your lead generation strategy for the microsite will become a powerful engine for new business development.

Demonstrates Commitment

Another way to approach a microsite initiative is to consider the influence on the public perception a microsite may have. As a devoted slice of Internet real estate, a microsite demonstrates a commitment to a particular aspect of a business. The investment of resources in the site itself is an effective foundational piece of the company’s demonstrated commitment. By providing this level of dedication, not only do you inherently influence perceptions about the company’s market share of that service or product, but you are also building an audience's confidence in the company’s ability to provide it.

If your company is looking to niche in a particular subject matter or highlight a specific call-to-action, a microsite may be a digital marketing solution to consider as part of your integrated marketing efforts.

Avvo Webinar: Integrated Marketing For Law Firms With Gina Rubel

Posted by Amanda Walsh

The Avvo webinar hosted by Gina Rubel that we wrote about last week is now up on Vimeo for your viewing pleasure. Learn about implementing a strategic approach to integrated marketing for your law firm.


Integrated Marketing for Law Firms with Gina Rubel from Avvo on Vimeo.

A big thank you to Avvo for hosting the webinar!