Part Two: Qualified Impressions & Customer Targeting

In Part One of this discussion, we gave a brief overview of the differences in Google Adwords and Facebook Ads.  Part Two will focus on how each platform determines what a “qualified impression” means, and how you can target the right consumers at the right time.

Adwords:

In Google Adwords, the goal is to get your ad seen by the people who are searching for what you are selling. While Google actually has two definitions for an impression, the common factor is the search query itself.

A qualified impression would then be best defined as a search query that closely matches your keyword list. Marketers who have a well-defined and well-tested keyword list will tell you that they are worth their weight in gold.  They are effective but it is something that takes a lot of hands-on effort to get just right and maintain.

Facebook Ads:

In Facebook Ads, the goal is to position your ad in front of your target consumer where they spend [most] of their time online: their Facebook Home page.

A qualified impression on Facebook is quite different from Google.  To achieve qualifications, you must research how your consumers will most likely identify themselves on Facebook.  If you’re a customer of Intrapromote, you’ve likely heard a team member refer to these as “Common Denominators”.

Aha! That's the common denominator!

Here’s an example:  If I am advertising for an electronic retailer online, my consumers’ profile will span many age groups, locations and interests.  To narrow this down, I must define a series of common denominators that I can reference when detailing my targeting on Facebook.  This list will most likely begin with competitors.

Much like keyword research in Google Adwords, the same mentality must be applied to Facebook Pages.  If your consumer is into electronics, they will probably be fans of certain Pages (keywords) on Facebook that relate to electronics.

When creating your ad in Facebook, you should also have an understanding of the differences between the Pages (keywords) that you will be targeting.

Here’s another example: If I am targeting a marketer, I may enter “marketing” as an interest, and I will be given numerous variations of the term “marketing” as an option for targeting.  When “marketing” is preceded by a hashtag (#marketing), this tells me that this will target consumers that have “Liked” the Marketing Community Page on Facebook.  When “marketing” appears without the hashtag, this means that I am targeting users who have manually entered the phrase “Marketing” somewhere in their personal profile (most likely under Careers).

Once the common denominators have been determined for your target consumer, you will be guaranteed a qualified impression every time your ad shows up on Facebook.

What are some tricks that you employ to define your Common Denominators?

Is a Google Adwords impression more qualified than a Facebook Ad ever could be?  Let us know your thoughts, and stay tuned for our next installment in the series, “What to Do with Your Qualified Impressions”.

Dylan Bradford Price, Social Media Strategist and Senior Campaign Director, joined Intrapromote in 2008 from an implementation and marketing background in all things geek: telecom, applications development and systems engineering. At Intrapromote, Dylan manages our client’s social campaigns, and is one of the architects for ongoing strategy and development of our client’s social media programs. You can typically find Dylan watching futbol and reading an epic novel series while grilling a gourmet beef tenderloin.

Follow Dylan on Twitter:
Follow @dylanbprice

Brent Sharp is our money guy. He makes sure we all get paid so we all like him quite a bit and shower him with baked goods whenever possible. He has been with Intrapromote since 2003 and he came to Intrapromote with a degree in business management and 7 years of experience in accounting. He also started up and worked with our paid search team for a while before returning his full attention to the day-to-day operational side of Intrapromote’s business. Need an Excel formula? Brent’s the man. While Brent isn’t the type of guy to enjoy long walks on the beach (although he’s never actually denied it), he has been known to jam out to random tunes in our headquarters and share theories on the latest shows around the water cooler. A geek among geeks, the thing that makes Brent happiest is when one of us turns in a budget proposal for review and we’re more than happy to oblige. Brent likes to blog about PPC news, search engine development and cool apps that he’s discovered.

Follow Brent on Twitter:
Follow @cpasharp

Share