Why You Need Facebook Local Ad Targeting In Your Marketing Artillery, And Fast

No matter how much you know about Facebook advertising, it’s not a patch on what it knows about you. Thanks to the billions of users pouring personal information into the network every day, Facebook’s ad targeting ability is scarily good. It’s no coincidence that fitness fanatics see protein shakes ads, or that new parents get the latest offers in baby clothing; the social media platform has given the term Facebook stalking a whole new meaning.

One of the most cunning and effective ad targeting techniques is location targeting. Facebook enables businesses to share their adverts exclusively with users in a certain country, city, town or postcode. This may not sound like a formula for evil-genius targeting, but in the right hands it is a powerful marketing tool, and it’s one that every business needs to be aware of.

The Standard Procedure

In order to demonstrate how evolved audience targeting can get, we have to start with the very basics.

Let’s say you own a pancake house in London. Your current local area marketing strategy might entail targeted leaflet drops, or press releases and adverts in neighbourhood publications. That was until you heard about Facebook location targeting.

Any brick and mortar business with an address can access this cost-effective, ultra selective advertising strategy. Creating a local awareness ad campaign is pretty straightforward. Once Facebook knows your business location you can begin customising the radius and reach of the campaign. Whether you want everyone within a 10 mile radius to know about your pancake house, or everyone in a 25 mile radius, you can tailor your strategy accordingly.

By default, Facebook ads will target “everyone in this area”, which includes anyone with a London personal address on their account (or ‘current city’ setting), as well as everyone using their device in London at any given time.

This can be tweaked and refined to give you best access to your target audience. Dog groomers, for instance, won’t want to target tourists, and a tourist hot spot might not want to constantly appear on the feeds local residents.

For a pancake house, a well implemented local awareness ad strategy could open up the opportunity to pick up customers before they’ve even left their house. To take full advantage of this Facebook tool and create an effective, high ROI campaign you must be picky, precise and personal.

Good news: The London Bridge pancake race is coming up, and it’s the perfect opportunity to advertise your pancake house! Bad news: It’s expensive and you can’t afford to advertise or sponsor the event.

Luckily you’ve got a secret weapon in the shape of Facebook ads. By targeting the area of London Bridge, all the hungry spectators will be able to see your advert and will, ideally, come racing over.

Some more widely relatable examples which may benefit your business are sports events and music festivals. Here, you can be pretty clever with the demographic of the audience you expect to be at the event. You can also be certain that every spare moment spent queuing or waiting during an interval will be spent on phones, and specifically on Facebook.

This flings the window of opportunity wide open, and without having to pay extortionate advertising fees you can reach hundreds, even thousands of people. They won’t necessarily lead to conversions straight away, but it raises your brand profile and could increase the amount of traffic your site receives.

When a Facebook user updates which city or town they live in, they are also providing Facebook with the information it needs to work out when that user is travelling or on holiday. For example, a user’s “current city” address is Cambridge, and they log onto Facebook in Rio, and because it is over 100 miles away from the stated home, Facebook can tell they are travelling.

This means that a business with a targeted location ad set to: “people travelling in this area” are going to have their adverts directed to this audience. In order to get even more focused, you could set your ad radius around a hot-spot destination, such as famous landmarks and attractions.

Next Level Targeting

Once you are familiar with the basic targeting techniques, you can start adding some more high power arrows to your quiver. Not only will these Facebook ads hit their mark, but they also provide businesses with the power to overtake their competitors—which is why you need to make sure you get there first!

For too long that rival pancake house on the other side of town has been getting more business than you. Older, more established businesses, with bigger advertising budgets or a location advantage have traditionally had the upper hand, but as traditional marketing techniques are replaced with digital alternatives, that stands to change.

Incorporating a bit of crafty Facebook ad targeting into your marketing campaign is all you need to usurp your rivals, and increase your sales. This doesn’t necessarily mean targeting your own business adverts directly at the address of your rival; it takes a little more cunning than that.

We’ve already shown how Facebook targeting can overcome budget limitations, now we reveal how a local awareness ad can overcome location disadvantage. If your competition is getting more business because they are located on a busy high street or popular hang out area, then by honing your adverts in on these spaces you will pick up customers from under you competitors’ noses.

Think about where people will be, and what people will be doing before they visit your (or your competitor’s) premises. Targeting these spaces, especially in areas where people are likely to be active online, is an amazing way of introducing yourself to new customers and turning engagement and visibility into conversions.

As Facebook ads become more widely recognised as a powerful digital marketing tool, businesses became tempted to focus their attention and marketing budget almost exclusively on social media, and less on search engine optimisation. However, most of the world’s digital marketing revolves around Google.

It’s common knowledge in marketing circles that customers rarely purchase upon their first encounter with a brand or service. This makes it essential that your visibility isn’t limited to Facebook. When a potential customer turns to Google after they’ve seen your ad, your presence in organic search (and PPC where appropriate) will convey the trust that’s needed to commit to your product or service.

Thus in order to create a truly astounding marketing campaign, your business must harness Facebook’s intimidating targeting power and Google’s unparalleled reach. Whether you are a pancake house, dog groomer or something entirely different, a comprehensive strategy starts with SEO.