Local businesses can now take advantage of a new location-based ad targeting tool on Facebook.
Facebook’s “local awareness” ads can be used by businesses to target customers who are in their immediate vicinity or neighborhood by tracking their location through their mobile phones. In this way, if a Facebook user happens to be nearby, the business can start advertising itself on their Facebook platform, enticing them with a discount, or a simple “Get Directions” button which opens a map to the business.
To enable local awareness ads, business owners can set an area of coverage around their business address and specify the type of people (by age or sex) it wants to target. Facebook will then display the number of people that the ad will potentially reach, based on how much the business owner is willing to spend.
That’s a powerful new targeting tool for small businesses, and one that is definitely more cost effective than running a continuous campaign. For businesses that depend on being the only provider of a service in an area, this is a godsend, making it easier to get the word out to people with the right profile, in the right area at the right time.
