Why small brands are kicking butt with Facebook ads

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Most Facebook users have seen their fair share of irrelevant or inappropriately targeted ads show up in the sidebar (perhaps none as notorious as the man who saw his wife’s picture next to a Facebook dating ad). Most of the time I ignore the ads and don’t go through the trouble to “thumbs down” an ad and give a reason.

Lately, however, I’ve started to notice more and more genuinely good ads. They aren’t coming from huge brands with big budgets, either. Small organizations looking for an inexpensive way to precisely target audiences are turning to Facebook. Check out this ad that was served up to me earlier in the week:

FBad1

This ad worked for me because it was:

  1. Local: It somewhat startled me to see the town of East Greenbush mentioned in an ad. I thought, “Hey, I know where that is!”
  2. Relevant: I like going to plays and the theater. I had updated my Facebook status last week before heading in to a play at a different local theater, so Facebook knows it’s something I like to do. It wasn’t an ad for a local Monster Truck Derby.
  3. Quaint: Perhaps not the best term, but it was kind of refreshing to see an ad from a small, local organization versus big national brands. I had been getting sick of Facebook ads pushing summer blockbusters or TV shows or “Become a Fan of Megabrand X.”

I would likely never have heard about this production had it not been for the Facebook ad. I’d actually never heard of the organization (The Spotlight Players) putting on the play before until I saw this ad. It caused me to do a little searching and it turns out the organization, a small community theater group, doesn’t even have a Web site. Just about its entire online presence is via Facebook. They have a great fan page that includes several photo albums of previous productions and they use the wall to announce calls for auditions and post links to reviews. The page has 137 fans, which is pretty decent for a niche theater group that caters to a small suburban town.

I’m sure the Spotlight Players also take advantage of many traditional means of promoting shows (community calendar announcements in local newspapers, flyers, etc.) but since I don’t live in the specific community where they operate I’m unlikely to see those. Facebook ads are an easy and inexpensive way for them to expand their geographic reach and hopefully increase attendance at their productions.

Social media isn’t just for big companies and big brands with unlimited budgets. Nor is it only for organizations that have dedicated marketing staff or social media “expertise.” I doubt that The Spotlight Players have much of a budget at all and probably no dedicated marketing team or “social media experts” in their organization. Still, they’ve figured out an effective way to get the word out about who they are and what they do.

Last week I didn’t even know The Spotlight Players existed. Thanks to their Facebook efforts, I just may be going to see The Producers this weekend.

6 thoughts on “Why small brands are kicking butt with Facebook ads”

  1. You saw one relevant Facebook ad that you liked and that means all small brands are kicking butt? No offense or anything, I was just expecting more from this post because of the title. I do agree though, it is a good example of effectively targeting an audience with Facebook ads.

    • Liz – I’ve seen many of these types of ads lately; this was just the one I chose to highlight in the post. Perhaps I should have used a different title, but overall I was trying to make the point that small brands, even through they may not have the resources of a larger organization, can and should be using Facebook ads to expand their reach. I think a lot of the big brand ads on Facebook have become irrelevant noise, at least in my opinion, and it has been refreshing for me to see more local, targeted ads like the one I highlighted above.

    • Liz, the title does not say “Why ALL small brands are kicking butt with Facebook Ads”.

      Small brands, local biz, local companies absolutely have the most to gain right now in Facebook’s marketing eco-system. The geo-targeting is great. The content targeting, I am going to spare Amy my “Band of Horses” story on her blog comments.

  2. Amy I really like the post and am glad I stopped by for the first time, but can see both sides of the debate above. I would say that based on the headline I too expected a broader review of what smaller brands are doing. But nonetheless I still found it interesting and helpful. If there are more examples you want to share in the future that would be awesome. I’ll be back. Thanks.

  3. Regardless of title, I think it’s refreshing to read success stories, or just the acknowledgment of something getting through.