The Internet is constantly evolving, as the number of netizens keeps increasing and they increasingly turn to the Internet for information, social networking, and solutions to their problems. The web has become more personal today, with social networking sites like Facebook. The site makes money through advertising. With more than 500 million users logging into it, every month, the site offers a great opportunity for businesses, who are looking for advertising opportunities. Social networking provides you with access to global consumer groups. Facebook is the second most popular site in USA. If you want to widen the scope of opportunities for your business, it is high time that you know about advertising on this site. About Facebook Advertising Of all the advertising techniques, online advertising is now rapidly picking up. With Facebook, another facility for Internet marketing and advertising has presented itself. The site has been steadily growing over the years and has now come up with its advertising model, which is its prime source of revenue. With more than 500 million users all over the world, logging into it every day, the site is a target-rich advertising environment. The advertising model is similar to pay-per-click advertising, offered by Google AdSense. As you may already know, Internet advertising costs are entirely decided by popularity of keywords. You bid for certain keywords, relevant to your business and pay according to the CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPM (Cost Per thousand Impressions). Advertisements are placed according to the personal details and preferences of the user, which increases the probability of hooking up customers. You can specifically choose your target audience. You have the option of creating banner ads, referrals, and promoting your business through other means like casual multiplayer games. One prime difference of Facebook advertising, from Google Adsense, is that you can put up graphic advertisements to promote your business. You can promote and advertise via event invitation features. The relevancy factor, targeting personal interests, puts advertising on this site, in an entirely different league. Benefits of Advertising on the Social Networking Phenomenon Facebook is an organically growing network and advertising on it is of a similar nature. Here are the prime advantages of advertising there, compared to other Internet marketing ideas. Specifically Targeted Advertising Facebook's advertisement placement system is people centric. The site has a huge database of personal information of people, including age, gender, address, likes, dislikes, marital status, employment information, and the live stream of current status messages. This provides the site with a lot more leverage, when it comes to targeted advertising. Advertisements can be placed, by selecting very specific details of a customer's profile. This lets you reach out to your target customers more directly and increases the chances of revenue for your business. Cheaper Advertising The importance of advertising can never be overstated. For small businesses, Facebook advertising is quite inexpensive, compared to others. Of course, cost depends entirely on the popularity of a keyword, but overall, it costs a lot less for small businesses. Greater Flexibility A 135-character long word limit on ads, with images, provides you with a lot more flexibility, when it comes to deciding on the content. You can say more through the ads. You can put up ads, according to your daily advertising budget. All this makes the site, one of the best online marketing services. Marketing Benefits of a Page You can create a Facebook page for your business, which lets you provide latest information and updates about your product, to the customers. This feature promises greater and more direct outreach to customers. Promotional advertising can be made possible through these pages. Advantage of 'Like' Feature and News Feeds One of the prime benefits of advertising on this social networking site is its 'Like' or 'Fan' feature, which provides the means for word-of-mouth marketing via news feed. If any user, 'likes' your advertisement, it's broadcasted to all of his friends, who have subscribed to his/her news feed. So, if you net one customer through an advertisement, you have the possibility of netting a lot more. Suited For Local Marketing With business page features and targeted ads, local businesses can profit from reaching out to customers from specific geographical locations and personal profiles. Event invitations can let you spread the word about latest offers provided by your business. You can build a loyal community of users around your brand, through Facebook. Greater Outreach As the number of Facebook users grows, so does the possibility for advertisers, to reach a wider customer base. The site is multilingual and as it makes inroads into new geographical locations, your ads reach consumers, all over the world. The wide outreach of the site is a big advantage. You should go for it, considering the sheer number of users that visit the site every month. The inherent advantage of the site, is that it's an organically growing network, which allows for more specifically targeted advertisements, which are bound to increase your customer base. Not opting for it, would be losing out an opportunity to entice a large section of global consumers. The benefits of Facebook advertising make it a great online advertising option. It's highly recommended that you try it out.