by Rianna M. Hill | rianna@pancakedigitalsolutions.com
As the second blog in this 10 part series, Facebook Ads Objectives Part 2: Reach, this post takes a look at the reach ads objective. This Facebook ads objective is similar to boosting a post. If you have ever boosted a post, that is a simplistic version of a Facebook Ad. A boosted post typically involves the reach objective, yet it has become more complicated as the software develops.
Reach is the second type of objective for the first awareness step in the Facebook Advertising process. This is the step where the audience is getting to know your brand.
According to Facebook, the objective of a reach ad is to: “Show your ad to as many people as possible in your target audience.” Effectively, the ad is shown to as many people in your audience as possible within your budget.
Let’s breakdown what this means-
The Actual Meaning of Reach
Based on the set budget and audience, the post is shown to as many people in that structure as possible. The measure of success for this objective is reach. This means the ad displayed on the person’s screen. However, they could have scrolled right by it or not even noticed it in the corner.
As a metric, reach is an important data point to consider for other objectives but does not do much on its own. However, it can be a good start to introduce your brand to a new audience.
Traditional Media
The reach ad objective is similar to traditional forms of advertising. With a radio ad, TV commercial, or Newspaper advertisement, the success metric tends to be how many people the ad will reach. This tends to be in a given target audience as well the consumes the media where the ad will be placed. For example, a billboard can say there are 10,000 people that drive by it every week, but how many of those people are the same every day, and how many even notice the billboard? A reach ad works exactly like that.
Side note- this is often the most common misconception as to why a boosted post “didn’t work.”
When to Use the Reach Facebook Ads Objective for Your Business
If your goal is to reach as many people as possible, this is the objective to use for your Facebook advertising strategy. Note- this does not mean you’re hoping to make sales from it or some other direct objective. While people sometimes take other actions from a reach ad post, this ad objective is designed to do one simple thing: reach as many people as possible.
It is important to know that reach can be a part of an ad strategy with other objectives in use. For example, reaching a cold audience to have them start to become familiar with your brand on any budget. This is especially true if you are new advertising or testing a new marketing campaign.
On the Table…
As the most simplistic Facebook Advertising objectives, reach is a part of the top of funnel for the sales process. It is designed to reach as many people as possible given a budget and an audience. This is most similar to a billboard both in design as well as reporting. This is the second post in the series for Facebook Ads Objectives Part 2: Reach.
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