Reach Your Community: 5 Ways To Use Facebook Ads For Local Advertising

 

Posted By Ryan Stewart, used by permission.  Read the original post here .

 

With over a billion users and a history of introducing fine-tuned advertising controls, paying for ads on Facebook is one of the best uses of your advertising dollar.

 

The level of control Facebook allows you to have over who sees your ad makes it an ideal platform for local businesses.

 

With these five simple approaches, you can create ads that transcend mere engagement, and actually, bring customers through your door.​

 

1. Increased Reach With Hyper-Local Advertising

In late 2014, Facebook took local advertising a step further into “hyper-local” advertising, called Local Awareness Ads.

 

Using location data from mobile apps, profile information, and IP data, Facebook had an accurate picture of where people were located, both the permanent home location as well as where they traveled throughout the day.

 

This information was injected into their ad platform. Local Awareness Ads answer both “where are they usually located?” as well as “where are they now?”

 

So, what does that mean for you? If a customer lives in the area very near your business, you can target them.

 

But even if they don’t live nearby, they still come through the area. Now you can target those transient customers, too. If customers are in the Facebook app on their mobile phone, the ads they see in their News Feed can be for businesses they are near right now.

 

With these local awareness ads, customers can:

• Message you directly from the ad.

• Call you directly from the ad.

• Find directions to your business.

• Learn more details about your business, or be directed to a website.​​

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This kind of hyper-local advertising brings in foot traffic, which translates more into real sales than many other forms of advertising.

 

These campaigns are also more cost-effective than other advertising because of the finely tuned targeting and because they reach the most people possible in the area.

 

Instead of paying when people click on an ad (which doesn’t often translate into actual sales), you pay for an ad that brings people to your door.

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