The Good and Bad of Facebook Ads 10/05/16 | Welcome to the social party. You are an Ad and you are a little nervous because it’s your first party. You tried dressing up but your mom made you change into something that wasn’t exactly “you” before you went out the door. You brushed it off with some “It’s cool, I’m cool, whatever,” but deep down it didn’t help your confidence at all. Now you walk in and see the masses engaging together and you feel totally unwanted in the room as barely anyone takes notice of you. So you slide against the wall to another Ad that introduces himself as “O, O, O’Reilly’s Auto Parts” and you make a slight half-smile-hidden-grimace as you two have nothing in common and you feel like you’ll never get noticed for sure now. So here is the deal and we all know it is true. Even if we were in a crowd of thousands it's unlikely that the majority would raise their hands if asked "Do you like Facebook Ads?" – unless they, themselves, were the creator (aka Mom) behind the ads. The consumer is uninterested while the marketer is eager to catch the consumer’s attention. We all know the hook-and-bait programs like Spotify. Where they make it a goal to annoy you so much with ads that you end up buying the premium package, just to bypass the ads. But Facebook is nothing like that. Facebook Ads act like wallflowers at a social party. They are there, except, you may not really notice them unless in your own interest you float to the wall yourself. So what's the good and bad about Facebook Ads? How can we, as marketers, make ads appealing and begin writing a new story outside of annoyance for them? With the opposite effect of the reverse psychology that Spotify uses. Research shows that Facebook Ads actually excel when you appeal to your consumers. With Facebook, to appeal directly and target your audience is to win your audience. Hence, to come into the social party knowing your guest list is the way to go. It’s not logical; it’s psychological. People appeal to what they see and magnetize to what attracts their interest. Data shows that when targeting ads, you get 700% more click throughs. The more targeted & relevant ads do better with your audience. What is good about that? The more click-throughs you get, the more people you are reaching who will most likely have interests appealing to your business. What’s bad here? With Facebook’s Ad system it makes the advertiser in charge of getting back with and connecting to the customer. As wallflowers, it makes businesses compete with each other - because that guy who is the life of the party might be your targeted audience. And the other wallflowers might be after the same target you are. How do you beat them out? Appeal with image and powerful content. In essence, write a marketing poem and swoon the consumer in wanting to click on your ad. Also, there are a lot of people at this party and someone can easily just accidentally bump into you. Then recognize that they didn’t mean to, say a fast sorry and leave your page. You can help avoid this problem by positioning your ads to a specific demographic. It’s crucial to set your ads to target those who are interested in what your business is about. So, here we are again. Welcome to the social party. You are an Ad and this isn’t your first go around. You know how to rock you and the party only gets better when you walk in.