Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/204636
48 Information Technology maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2013 2013 Let's talk about Facebook advertising DANIEL COLEIRO KINGSWELL A popular saying exemplifying how difficult it is to reach potential customers using traditional advertising is that of John Wanamaker when he stated that, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half". Although this is an old saying it is still very much true to date. This is why advertising on Facebook became so popular, as it has the ability to target potential customers while spending less money. If, for example, your business offers wedding services, it is useless to advertise with teenagers or already married couples, as the chance of turning these people to potential customers is very low. However with Facebook ads you can target engaged couples that are by far more potential customers than teenagers. This is called 'Hypertargeting advertising'. One can filter the audience by gender, age, workforce, relationship status, location and interest keywords, Facebook then uses the demographic and physiographic data that users provide to select your audience. With this filtering you are decreasing the amount of people that are unlikely to use your services or products, with the result of reducing costs. Advertising on Facebook also gives marketers the chance to make more personal ads. As before, one had to keep ads generic as the audience was mixed, today one can create several campaigns and target different types of audiences separately with the result of creating more personal ads and of increasing the chance of sales. Another advantage of Hypertarget- ing is that of being able to measure in great precision your performance and also able to fine-tune where necessary. If advertisements are underperforming in any segment or campaign, one can focus on testing new messages without affecting other well performing campaigns. There are no weak links. 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 (and visibility is still limited by some factors). An advantage of Hypertargeting is that of being able to measure in great precision your performance and also able to fine-tune where necessary 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, social network marketing give the chance to 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 the audience that are unlikely to buy and focus more on probable and potential buyers, which will in return increase your Return on Investment. Daniel Coleiro Kingswell is a Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Alert eBusiness (Internet Marketing Division) – www.alertemarketing.com Signal 8 Security Services collaborates with CIG Limited INFORMATION is Power. This is known by your competitors, who could be already after your information today, in an attempt to poach your ideas and beat you to the market. You have information scattered all over your office, home and vehicles, these could easily be technologically tapped or attacked and important information could end up in the hands of your competitor. 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We operate in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and North America and provide different solutions including: • Information security vulnerability assessments and penetration testing studies; • Cyber forensics; • Open source intelligence gathering programs; • Cyber security training; • Protection of electronic computing environments including Network, Application, SCADA, Command and Control, and Wireless and Mobile. Other services we offer include: • • • • • Surveillance; Anti-Surveillance; VIP Protection; Man Guarding; Cash in Transit. We aim to provide our clients with the most efficient and effective service for at good prices.