Hi VAs,

I was looking in to buying advertisment on Facebook and I was wondering have any of you all had experience with this?
I know I can create a fan page, but I wanted to put an ad up to see what kind of traffice that could generate for me.

Happy New Year! 2011 is the Year of the VA

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Erikka Cullum
My Freelance Secretary

I've heard mixed results about people using Facebook ads. They are much like Google Adwords, so a good working knowledge about PPC and how it works would help you quite a bit before moving forward with Facebook ads.

Some people (mostly larger companies) report good results with FB ads but I've not generally heard the same for small businesses unless you can really get the attention of the your target market. Which unless you have a very specific market you are trying to reach, it may be hard to get the attention of just the general FB user.

If you do a search on http://insidefacebook.com for Facebook ads, then you see several articles they've posted about how to use Facebook ads and if they work.

Personally, I've not recommended them to any of my clients to use because I'm not entirely convinced they are all that beneficial.

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Kimberly
Facebook Marketing Magic!

We've tried FB ads a few times with mixed results. I really think that, like Kimberly said, larger companies [with relatively larger budgets] do better with this form of advertising but it can definitely be worth a try and if nothing else is great for brand recognition.

If you do try them I'd recommend getting *very* specific about your market and set your campaign to charge per impression - your budget will go farther this way.

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Hello,

I am popping in here to say that I would suggest having the fan page up if you should decide to create the Facebook ad as opposed to just running a FB ad.

I rarely click on ads...except if in error, but some have taken me to an advertiser's Facebook page and some have taken me to website pages.

It is my opinion that if someone likes an ad, they may wish to like the advertiser's page in which case it wouldn't hurt to have that up and running so you (as the advertiser) could capture 'something' and not lose the click-through entirely.

My point is that if the FB ad leads to a website, then have the FB link available on the site to capture the 'liker' rather than lose them on the website if no call to action is available. Make the click-through cycle to some place useful and if nothing else, get them to like the FB page.

Janine

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I agree! A fan page on Facebook is a great way to get your name out there, and once you get at least 25 people to "like" your page, you can actually get a vanity URL that you could use on your printed materials marketing your site. Everyone is on Facebook nowadays!!!

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Tina Thelen
Virtual Office Assistant

Thank you all for the great advice! This is awesome. I was in the process of creating a fan page but then heard a story on NPR about how a guy found a job targeting an ad agency he wanted to work for by using a FB ad. I figured what the heck, let me give that a try for my business! Thanks again.

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Erikka Cullum
My Freelance Secretary

This is a great tip @Your Virtual Wizard. I have done this serveral times. I liked an ad and then liked fanpage.

For what it's worth, I have never clicked on a FB ad in the almost five years since I created my personal profile. I asked a few friends about this a while back and they rarely click on them either.

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