Targeting different demographics with Facebook advertising

You will be aware that Facebook is one of the largest potential sources of Internet traffic and engagement;  it's more popular than Google in some countries! You've probably also heard that if the number of Facebook users were equivalent to a country it would be the 3rdlargest country in the world after India and China with 400 million users. So if you're not looking at Facebook to engage your audience and promote your products and services, you are missing a big opportunity. You will know you can set up a Facebook Page for your company. But did you know you can advertise on Facebook, using Facebook Ads on a pay per click (CPC) or impressions (CPM) model? This is a similar option to Google Adwords but the main difference is you can micro-target your audience with the a number of features for which I…

Question: What are the basics of using Facebook effectively to promote an integrated campaign? Smart Insights Answer: Ultimately you"€™re looking to foster an ongoing relationship with someone, somewhere if you"€™re using social media. Facebook Fan Pages can be both "€˜home base"€™ for a brand (the place that will help you foster the ongoing connection with your audience online), and/or it can be one social media "€˜outpost"€™ (a channel where you are ultimately driving traffic from and through). I am assuming more an outpost since that"€™s most common.

What are your objectives?

Set your objectives clearly - WHY are you wanting to leverage Facebook as a communications channel, it"€™s important to be clear about why and how you"€™ll measure success before you start, what part of the campaign will Facebook play for you - traffic, awareness, lead generation...?

Who are you targeting?

Facebook is huge with over 500m global users logging in at least every 30 days…

Defining the best KPIs for Ecommerce

Ecommera have recently published a useful piece of research reviewing the key issues in 2010 for Internet retail strategy which is part of their new Trading Intelligence Quarterly report. Here's my summary of the stand-out charts.

They have also  added a new post on 4 key ecommerce KPIs based around profitability (no longer available)

Their survey of 100 UK Ecommerce directors was completed during April 2010.

2011 E-retail strategic challenges

Looking at the chart below, it's reassuring to see that social media isn't one of the major concerns and more fundamental issues like growing the online business through customer acquisition and retention strategies are more important. Acquisition is seen as more of a challenge or priority than retention which is often a misplaced priority in my experience It's a surprise that analytics and conversion optimisation is seen as a relatively minor concern, with driving traffic and…