New York — Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, is gunning for small business as she did for Google, pelting out Ad baits to tempt small business owners to start using it by giving them $50 ad credit to help them maximize their sales, USA Today reports.
Sandberg, who recently interviewed Oprah Winfrey at Facebook’s headquarters, used to work for Google as vice president of global online sales and operations. At Google, she helped build Google AdWords, the company’s money-grubbing search-advertising business into a revenue garnering for the search giant.
Now, the chief operating officer at the world’s largest social media network preps to achieve the same for Facebook. She now visualize those small businesses tricks that joined Google’s ad program spending their advertising bucks at the social-networking giant.
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, Facebook, USA.
“My dream is really straightforward,” Sandberg, 42, speaking to the media organization while seated near a framed decorated portrayal of co-founder Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook’s headquarters. “I think every small business should…be using Facebook. We are not going to stop until all of them are using it to maximize their business.”
Sandberg goes on to talk about how far $50 can go and how Facebook makes it effortless for every business to have a website and how it is the topmost communication tool. The company is planning to offer free $50 advertising credits for up to 200,000 small businesses. When a user clicks on an ad, there will be a set rate for the click-through that the advertiser has to pay. Facebook would pick up the tab for the first $50 under the terms of the offer.
“For $50,” Sandberg claims, “most small businesses can target every single person they need to target at least once, and then they can maximize their business from there.”
The strategy is no surprise, given Sandberg’s background. Thus, the advertising barrage from Sandberg, a Fortune 50 listed (most powerful women in business) D.C. power-broker, comes as the social media network has swelled to some 750 million, representing an eye-popping advertising bonanza.
Sandberg figures-out that the United States alone has about 30 million small businesses, and out of that around nine million of which have already chosen Facebook as a marketing tool to communicate with their customers. However, just “hundreds of thousands” are spending money on ad campaigns though, she says, which is significantly less than the 22 percent estimated by a recent survey.
This may seem like small stuff, but it is the nucleus to an ad revenue strategy that could justify a monster IPO. In addition, with Facebook, businesses can hone their paid advertising with a precision not found in most other forms of advertising.
A wedding photographer, for example, could advertise just to women in a specific ZIP code who list on Facebook that they are engaged. A movie chain could talk just to film fans.
Sandberg asserts that Facebook allows businesses to interact with customers and create viral marketing campaigns. “Facebook takes word-of-mouth marketing and makes it work at scale.”
Greg Sterling, an analyst with Opus Research, says most small businesses resist using ad programs such as Facebook’s because they are too busy running their business to devote the time.
“Facebook has multi-billion (dollar) advertising potential,” he claims. “But right now, small businesses does not see the need for spending the money. They have their free page, and they are happy with it.”
The credits will help, he says. “It gets people to at least try it.”
While at Google, she used to say that about 50% of small businesses had not bothered to put-up a website yet–a number she claims is still in the 40% range. But now, it is pretty easy for small businesses to turn to Facebook, she says, because they do not have to pay for building a site, and most people can make a social media Facebook page, or could learn within minutes.
Sarah Loveland, owner of Daddies Board Shop, a skateboard shop in Portland, Ore., began using paid advertising with Facebook in 2010, in hopes of growing her business more quickly. She targeted fans of extreme sports and friends of those who ride skateboards and long-boards. The result: She says her business shot up, and she attributes much of it to Facebook.
Small businesses could just continue with the free business pages, “but if you really want to grow, and reach a wider community, you need to have at least 10,000 fans,” says Loveland. “Once you are there, you get tons of response every time you post something. You are looked to as a valuable resource to the community, and sales really start to climb.”
Furthermore, Sandberg says the social media humongous has created 250,000 jobs — engineers, developers and others who work on Facebook-oriented projects and related social-media jobs at companies. Facebook has 3,000 employees.
“We feel really good about our contribution,” she says.