I don’t normally talk about social media if it costs money on this blog. My main audience here are small businesses, not-for-profits, and artists, who, let’s face it, don’t usually have the funds for advertising. And that’s why social media is so great–it’s an investment of time, not money.

However. I’ve done a little experimenting with PPC Facebook ads of late, and the results have been pretty impressive. In December, I purchased a paid post, and it tripled  the amount of traffic I normally get. For $5, it’s not a bad idea every once in a while. With my new book coming out in a few days (February 15, people, mark your calendars!!), I will probably buy one or two more in the next bit.

I also did an experiment with PPC ads. Starting on January 12, I purchased ads on FB with a maximum $1/day commitment.

Let me first say a quick word about PPC advertising. First off, you only pay for the ad when people click on  it, not when they see it. So, they may see it a few times, and not click, but then click the 3rd or 4th time. Secondly, it’s tough to put a solid price on PPC ads. They depend upon what keywords you’re using, and how niched you are. Basically, the more popular your keywords are, the more people will be using them, and the more expensive they will be. However, more specific keywords will be less expensive. One great thing about PPC ads is that you have total control over how much you spend. If enough people clicked on my ad over the course of a day to add up to $1, FB simply pulls the ad until the next day.

Your ad, by the way, can either lead to a page on FB or to a website off of FB. My goal for this campaign was to boost my fan count just prior to the launch of my book, so I created an ad that lead back to my FB page, encouraging people to “like” it. You can also choose to target a specific demographic: for example, what countries they live in, what industry they are in, what languages they speak, etc.

I ran the ad from Jan 12 until Feb 1. Over that time, I acquired 50 new fans, at a cost of about $20. That breaks down to $.40 per fan. Not bad.

Here’s the breakdown:

Here’s my advice: if you are new to this whole Facebook game, you may want to invest a few bucks in a PPC campaign. It can really help to boost your numbers up quickly. Once you get up past a couple of hundred, things will organically grow and move a bit faster. Buying ads can help to get you over that hump.

Wanna try it?? Get started!