Making your business more accessible to your potential customers is Facebook’s goal, as well as providing people with a user-friendly ad experience. These new ads can provide a wide range of local awareness that may have not been previously available to your business if you have a storefront that is off the main roads, or you aren’t prominent on social media. Over the past year, Facebook has altered its algorithms for promoting pages and many small businesses have seen a decline in their online exposure. The new local awareness ads may be able to set right this loss. Businesses will be able to better target potential customers and Facebook will still be bringing in revenue.
Hyper-local ads have been a long time coming. In the past Facebook has hinted that mobile location services could play a role in hyper-local ads one day, and that day has finally arrived. Advertisers will provide their physical address and a geographic radius around which they want to advertise. A map will show you the area covered by your ad. The system then uses this information to create an audience of people who live in the area or were recently near your business. You can also choose age, gender, and add a photo and message to the ad. Pick the budget and duration of your ad and you’re ready to rock.
With over 1 billion mobile users, many of which give Facebook access to their location, plus desktop users who volunteer their current location, access to IP addresses, and the newest U.S. feature “Nearby Friends” , the social network now has the data it needs to make hyper-local ads a reality. You can even include a button to “get directions” on your business’s ad and a map will launch in an app on the user’s phone. With the users in mind, location services can always be turned off on mobile devices if customers prefer not to see the ads or privacy is an issue.
Imagine your customers walking down the street scrolling their newsfeed when they are hit with an ad for your restaurant or clothing store that’s in the area. They will be much more likely to consider visiting your business because these ads are more relevant. Your business will be getting better local awareness regardless of its physical location. Customers and businesses are both becoming more efficient with the use of this next-level ad technology. Local awareness ads will begin to go live in the U.S. over the coming weeks and around the global over the next few months. This exciting news will help you convert those local shoppers into customers!