Daniel Coleiro

John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838 - December 12, 1922) was a United States merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure, considered by some to a proponent of advertising and a pioneer in marketing. One of his the most memorable quotes attributed to this gentleman is:

"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."

This statement might have been uttered a century or more ago, however the fact is that it applies today, and it explains the huge popularity of Facebook advertising. In essence when advertising on Facebook marketers can profile and target potential customers so accurately that it becomes possible to get very detailed return on investment figures. 

If for example your business offers wedding services, it is useless to advertise with teenagers or couples who have already tied the know, as the chance of turning these people to potential customers is very low. However with Facebook ads you can target engaged couples, who are clearly in the market for your services. This is called Hypertargeted advertising.

When planning an advertising campaign on Facebook it is possible to filter the audience by gender, age, workforce, relationship status, location and also interest keywords. Facebook then uses the demographic and physiographic data that users provide to select your audience. With this filtering you ensure that the people who get to see your advert come from your target demographic, and you do not waste money advertising to people who are unlikely to be interested in your products and services - getting the maximum bang for your buck.

Advertising on Facebook also gives marketers the chance to personalise their campaign. When targeting a mixed audience it is essential to keep adverts generic - however it is now possible to create several campaigns and target different types of audiences separately, meaning that campaigns are more personalised and the resulting sales higher.

Another advantage of Hypertargeting is that it becomes possible to fine-tune your campaign as you go along. If advertisements are underperforming in any segment or campaign, one can focus on testing new messages without affecting other campaigns with better performance. There are no weak links. In addition it enables you to calculate performance and results with much greater precision than has ever been possible.

Your audience can also see your ads from their mobile phones. While traditional media is bound to show your ads at a specific time and for a limited amount of time only, your ads on Facebook will be shown to potential customers whenever your audience is online, be it in the middle of the night or else during lunch time (ad visibility is still limited by some factors).

Although the basics of marketing still remain very valid in any type of advertising, social network marketing is somewhat different with some unique characteristics. Users of social media participate to express themselves and socialise with their family and friends, thus enabling smart advertisers to include themselves into these conversations.

Stop wasting ads on people that will never buy, people who aren't the right age, gender or marital status for your products or services. With Hypertargeting advertisers and marketing managers can eliminate viewers that are unlikely to buy and focus on probable and potential buyers, which will in return increase your Return on Investment (ROI). 

Daniel Coleiro is an eMarketing Specialist at Alert eBusiness. For more info about PPC, SEO and Social Media Marketing go to www.alertemarketing.com Member of the Alert group www.alertgroup.com.mt

 

Tech update

Online platforms such as Crowdcube, Seedrs, InvestingZone and SyndicateRoom in the UK, and Crowdfunder and CircleUp in the US, have successfully launched the concept of equity crowdfunding, enabling firms seeking a cash injection to upload their business plans, including how much they need to raise and how much of their business they're prepared to sell and at what price.

The difference with other forms of crowdfunding is that investors are not lending money in return for interest on a loan, or donating money in return for rewards and perks - they are actually buying shares in the company.

"We felt passionate about the democratisation of investment," says Luke Lang, co-founder of Crowdcube, an equity crowdfunding platform launched in 2011.

"We wanted to open things up to ordinary people - investing was too elitist."

 

eMarketing Update

Statistics are starting to emerge for sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and the indications are that Apple have broken their previous sales records with sky high figures for the new smartphones that hit stores recently.

The surge in sales has driven a major surge in app downloads, as new iPhone 6 users set up their phones with must have apps downloaded from the iTunes Store. In October app downloads were up 42% over September, and up 39% year-over year, reaching a record high of 7.8 million across the top 200 free iOS apps.

Analysts are predicting that Apple will sell roughly 70 million iPhones in the holiday season this year - clearly the winner in smartphone sales this year.

For more eMarketing news go to www.alertemarketing.com