From food trucks and shoe repair shops to luxury real estate sales and recruitment marketing, your online presence is vital to your business. It’s difficult to think of any business that doesn’t need an online presence these days.

Facebook and Google dominate online advertising with 50 percent ownership of the digital advertising market. Last year, Facebook had nearly $27 billion in ad revenue. In its 2017 second quarter earnings report, Facebook revealed its advertising revenue grew at more than twice the rate of Google’s ad revenue, catapulting shares of the social network to a record high.

Show ads to people who want to see them

Facebook has more than two billion monthly users. If you aren’t already using Facebook to market your business, you’re probably missing out on new business opportunities. That’s true for B2C and B2B businesses.

For advertisers, the Facebook Ads model is extremely attractive. That’s because you can target exactly the kinds of people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service – your audience. You can get very specific with audience targeting.

You can target your audience based on:

• Characteristics like age, purchase behaviors, interests and geographic location
• Your customer list that allows you to connect with them on Facebook
• Facebook users who match the characteristics of your customers

For example, if you want your ad to reach 24-year-old single men who are gamers and live in Kentucky, you can. Facebook allows you to be that specific about who sees your ads.

Choose what you want to pay for your ads

Facebook Ads can be developed for just about any advertising budget because you pay for the actions you want, whether it’s impressions or conversions. You determine what you want your daily budget to be. Spend as little as ten dollars per day or as much as thousands of dollars per day. It's up to you.

Your ads are only shown to the people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. You choose how much you want to spend per day on those ads. That means your return-on-investment (ROI) can be quite attractive because you’re not spending money to advertise to an audience that isn’t interested in what you’re offering.

Learn how to advertise on Facebook

If this all sounds like a no-brainer, it is, but beware. Don’t jump into a Facebook Ads campaign without knowing some basics. Here are five tips to make sure your Facebook ads are on track for success:

# 1 Set an Ad Campaign Goal

Know what you want to get out of your Facebook Ads campaign. Do you want to raise awareness about your business, product or service? Make sure you have a way to measure your success. That could mean that you want to get 1000 “Likes” or 500 people to sign up for your emails. Other metrics can include the number of clicks to your websites or the number of leads or sales.

#2 Create Compelling Ad Copy

You'll be surprised to find out how much easier it is to create your ads when you know what you want to accomplish. Your ad copy has a lot to do with the success of your ad.

Make a list of what you want to tell your audience and arrange those points in order of importance. The first item on your list is your headline. The second is your sub-headline. Continue down your list until you have exhausted all of the character spacing in your ad. Most likely, you will have more points than you can use in the ad. That's okay because you've gotten the most important things on the list in the ad. 

Next, think about the action you want them to take. That’s your call-to-action (CTA). A CTA can be a click to your website or a click to your Facebook page. You can use the points from your list that aren't included in the ad to tell them more when they follow the link. 

The idea is to have minimal text in your ad. The trick is that it has to be informative and eye-catching. You’ll get the hang of it with some practice.

#3 Throw in an Eye-Catching Image

After you’ve written some award-winning ad copy, you’ll need to find an eye-catching image. You can take your own photos or use stock photos from an image subscription service like ThinkStock or ShutterStock. It’s worth spending a little extra to get a professional image and you’ll be certain you have usage rights for the photos. Don’t grab an image from another website for your ad.

The images should be bright and engaging while also simple and easy to understand. You have a split-second to grab the attention of your audience. A complex and dull image won't grab attention so try using bright colors like red, orange or yellow.

#4 Choose the Right Ad Format

You’ll want to choose the right ad format. There are a number of ad formats you can choose based on the result you want, which is another great reason your first step should always be to define your goal.

#5 Test and Test Again

Remember, part of any good digital advertising program is testing. Be prepared to swap out the copy or the graphics and change the format of the ad if it’s underperforming. Test variations to see which ads perform the best.

Facebook advertising is fun, easy and cost-effective. Once you’ve run your first campaign, you will see why Facebook’s ad revenue is growing so rapidly. Your audience is there. Are you?