Do you know the signs that it’s time to try Facebook ads?

"In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create."

- David Ogilvy

In the last 20 years, the internet has made just about everything infinitely easier.

From ordering food to finding a date to seeing a doctor, consumers can access virtually any product or service they desire with unprecedented ease and convenience.

Conversely, the same is true on the business side.

Creating a product or service and offering it up to the right people has never been simpler.

But selling that product or service… that’s a bit more challenging.

As it has become easier and easier to make offers online, the competition has gotten fierce.

For many businesses, social media advertising is a viable solution and could lead to some impressive results (as long as you’re following the right strategy).

But is it for you? Let’s find out.

Following are 7 signs that you should be running ads on Facebook.

#1: It takes your customers more than one visit to make a buying decision

Most businesses fall into this category. People typically won’t make a purchase the very first time they are exposed to a product or brand. This isn’t true in all cases, but consider this… how likely would you be to drop $50,000 on a car you’ve never heard of or seen before?

Sure, that’s a big purchase…

But work your way down. Are you more likely to spend $20,000 on an unknown brand? $5,000? What about just $500?

Even smaller purchases requires a level of trust that is difficult to establish on the first touch.

Facebook Ads makes it easy to keep in touch with people who have visited your page, checked out products, or even who have abandoned their cart.

You may not have turned them into a customer the first time they stumbled across your site, but with a strategic campaign that nurtures and moves them along the customer journey, you’re more likely to turn that prospect into a customer at some point down the line than if they never run into your brand online again.

#2: Customers Can Easily Purchases Online

The less friction between seeing an ad and the customer getting what he or she wants, the better chance they will take action.

For example, it’s easier for most customers to enter their information online once they decide to make a purchase than it is for them to pick up the phone and order via an inbound call center.

Although this isn’t a hard and fast rule (we have clients who run local services who require customers to call or stop by), it helps.

(If you're interested in promoting a local store on Facebook, check out this post for more ideas).

#3 Your Business Is Scalable

If you’re able to service more customers without greatly increasing your costs, you may be a good candidate to try Facebook ads.

That’s because it’s possible to increase your profits while advertising without having to increase costs per goods sold.

For example, if you sell a digital product that won’t run out of stock, and if an influx of customers won’t strain your current team, you can scale your business using advertising and still maintain the same (or greater) profit margin.

#4 You Want To Target a Specific Niche? Try Facebook Ads

Facebook makes it easy to target a very specific avatar. If you know that your ideal customer falls within specific demographics, it only takes a few clicks to find them and show them timely messages.

The better you know your avatar, the better you can target them. Do you want to reach customers in the greater New York area who are between the ages of 25-55? Easy.

Want to target moms living in the U.S. who have children in grade school? You can do that too.

Whoever you want to reach, you can find them on Facebook, giving you a great reason to try Facebook ads

#5 It’s Time To Build An Audience

Facebook advertising is a great way to build an audience. If you are gearing up for a launch, an event, or otherwise want to build up an audience that is familiar with your brand, try Facebook ads; they can work for you.

Besides running ads to drive traffic to a sales page, ads can be used for a number of reasons. Try Facebook ads for building an audience using native video, or sending traffic to content on your website. Or, boost social posts to stay front of mind.

#6 You Have a High Converting Landing Page

If you have a landing page that converts well, why not send over more traffic?

If you try Facebook ads, they can give a quick boost of traffic that would otherwise be difficult to get organically.

If more targeted leads will lead to more customer conversions, you may benefit from paid ads. However, be careful. Simply sending traffic to a page that isn’t converting well won’t do any good.

Check out this article for more tips on optimizing your landing page for ad traffic.

# 7 When the Lifetime Value of A Customer Is Higher Than Advertising Costs- It's Time To Try Facebook ads

When deciding if paid ads will work for you or not, the bottom line is… is this good for business?

To answer that, it’s important to consider the lifetime value of a customer.

Calculate the profit on the initial sale, but also consider future sales.

Because you experience an acquisition cost every time you acquire a new customer, but pay significantly less (or virtually nothing) to sell to the repeat customers, it makes more sense to try Facebook ads when you can continue to sell to that same customer for a long time to come.

If the expected lifetime value is higher than what you’ll pay to turn that prospect into a customer, it’s worth it!

So… are you ready to try Facebook ads? If any of these 7 signs resonated with you, it’s worth taking a look! 

In the meantime, why not find out what the “7 biggest mistakes you’re making with your Facebook Ads are”, and how to fix them: