Everyone is on Facebook!
From about half a million Facebook users in 2007 we have landed to about 126 Million Facebook users currently in India. As per a research report by IAMAI we have about 300 Million Internet users of which almost 40% use Facebook.
Facebook and other social networking sites have become a prime reason for Internet penetration in the urban and rural populace of this country.
Facebook Advertising is a great opportunity for marketers to reach the fastest growing Facebook populace. With most of the youth now owning smartphones with access to Facebook 24×7, it becomes even more imperative to reach out their audience through it.
Marketers can target Facebook users in five different categories:
Basic Demographic:
Users can be targeted on the basis of Age, Gender, Location and Language. Many perceive there are more female Facebook users than male. Observations show that, there are about 76% male and 24% female Facebook users. It is Youth dominated with maximum users belonging to the age group of 19-24. Maharashtra has the maximum number of Facebook Users in India with about 14.08% users.
Advanced Demographic:
Facebook captures all the data that users feed using Life Events and while creating a Facebook profile. This provides a fantastic opportunity to streamline your target audience on the basis of the following criteria: sexual orientation, status of relationship (single, divorced, separated, widowed, married, in relationship, long distance relationship), education level, universities they study, employers, designations, industries, parenting status, upcoming birthdays, anniversaries and more.
Interests-Based Targeting:
In this kind of segmentation, Facebook defines a user on the basis of their interests they showcase by looking at the groups they have joined, pages they like & the general topics of interest they speak more about. Interest can be classified on the basis of Business and Industry, Entertainment, Fitness and Wellness, Food and Drinks, Shopping and Fashion, Technology, Sports and Outdoors etc., and is completely keyword oriented. It’s a best way to nail down to niche segment after defining the demographic for marketers.
Behavioral Targeting:
This segment analyzes lifestyle of a Facebook user. You can target users on the basis of digital activities of users, expatriates, mobile devices they use, events and their travel habits. Behavioral targeting forms a part of niche target. For example you can target iOS users – they are the upwardly mobile segment. A travel company can target the business and frequent travellers. A digital marketing company can target Facebook Page Admins. Using this segment, marketers can target expats and NRIs too.
Custom Audience:
Custom Audience can be built using existing database a company has. In case you have a specific set of people to whom you want to show your message, you can upload the database of your customers (email address and phone numbers) and target only those users using ads. This is the crucial part of Facebook Advertising that makes the communication very personalised & hence pulls in more attention to one’s brand. Facebook also allows you to re-target website visitors by allowing you to create an audience of people who visit your website.
Indians spend a lot of time on Facebook today and also share a lot of information about their lives. Marketers need to recognize this avenue as an important platform for growing their presence & showcase their brand on a broader level. It is a cost effective model and definitely helps one reach to their audience on the budget defined by them.
