Have you ever wished that you could run a Facebook ad that only went to people within 5 miles of your store? Now you can do just that. Facebook Local Awareness Ads allow small businesses to tailor their Facebook ads to only show in the area around their store. With normal Facebook business ads you can only set a city or a zip code on your ads which if you live in a big city is not very helpful. But now with Local Awareness ads you are able to geo-target people whenever they are close to your store. You can even set your ad perimeter as low as one mile. These new ads are specialized for mobile which is why the geo-targeting is so accurate. Some people feel that while you are able to geo-target the ads the segmentation variables are still lacking, you can only segment by location, age and gender. This may not allow for narrow enough targeting if your business operates in a niche market. But many still feel that the Local Awareness ads are one of the cheapest options out there for small businesses to advertise on.
The Local Awareness Ads offer businesses two call-to-action options: call now and get directions. This allows people to directly get in contact with you either by clicking call or by coming into your brick-and mortar. Facebook also gives you analytical data on the click-through buttons in the ad campaign analytics allowing you to know how many people did call you or get directions to your store. This data is great to help business owners understand if their ad is working and if the ad money has been well-spent.
The point of these ads is to maximize your local and relevant reach potential. Facebook wants businesses to focus on reach because most people when they see an ad will not necessarily click on it but may still come in and buy a product as a result of the ad. Since Facebook allows you to choose the budget for the ads this means that you control how much you spend. This new tool is a great way for businesses to reach people that are nearby and increase traffic to their store and hopefully increase revenue.
