(This post was first published on September 27th, 2009 - It has been updated as of January 20th, 2014)
An ABC News segment in 2009 showed a great brief overview on using Facebook Ads for small businesses. In essence the video gives examples of small businesses that have successfully used FB ads to attract visitors to a company fanpage at low cost.
The ads are also helpful in serving impressions to targeted FB audiences with a small image in the ad. For B-to-C companies this is a bit more helpful than Google Adwords (it's the same concept but now advertisers can have a small image with the ad), though there can be benefits for some B-to-B as well. Small businesses can certainly take advantage of this advertising channel, as well as encourage fanpage participation for additional offers.
Facebook has recent undergone many steps to balance marketer's desire to advertise. At Zimana, that's a personal favorite, since you can track the traffic via Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics with user's desire to socialize ad-free. From votes on ads to the recent Nielsen link called BrandLift (See the CNET article here.), Facebook is looking to leverage its audience and maintain its core features, especially in light of Twitter's valuation news at the time.
Facebook ads provide an additional reach within the network. Ads are served based on a person's interest, so a successful ad should match up to an intended customer's usage. This differs in approach from the keyword usage for a Bing or Google Ad. The easiest takeaway from small business is to take a basic, honest assessment of how people use your services or products.
You can view the ABC news video segment here.
