Good Idea, New Project

I started looking into newspaper advertising and quickly realized it was going to require many hours of phone calling and emailing (during business hours) just to get basic information on the newspapers there. I don't have that kind of time right now, nor do I feel like it would be a good use of a PTO day.

However, I'm still determined to advertise for myself. The more I think about what agencies charge, the more determined I am not to go that route. I don't want that industry getting my hard-earned (or borrowed) money.

This morning, it hit me. Why not advertise on Facebook? Everyone is on Facebook. I manage all our online advertising at work - everything from testing the most effective images and copy to tracking results and managing the budget - so it'll be a cinch. I can choose a daily budget, pay only if someone clicks on my ad, and control which states see my ads. I can target Democrats, pet lovers, non-religious people, young women, Spanish speakers, etc.

The opportunities are endless and inexpensive: using Facebook's minimum budget, I could advertise for myself for 5 1/2 years before hitting the $2,000 mark an agency would charge to put my name on a list. And the monthly cost is less than 1/3 of what the online parent profile website charges for a static page on their site, no advertising included.

My first three ads should be up and running in the next day or so (they're pending approval). I'll track the number of clicks and visits to my blog to figure out which ads work the best before branching out into other states that allow adoption advertising.

Here's a quick rundown of the three ads I'm testing to start:
Ad #1, shown above: Targets women ages 18 - 26, links to my parent profile blog
Ad #2: Up-close pic of my face, targets women of all ages, links to blog post Top 5 Reasons to choose a single parent (I wrote it this morning)
Ad #3: Up-close pic of my face, targets women who have identified as atheist or agnostic, copy speaks to non-religious adoption

I'm especially interested to see how #3 does, since there is some evidence online that birth parents have a hard time finding non-religious families for their children. So much of the adoption industry is focused on "loving Christian couples", I think lots of adoptive parents probably play up their religious affiliations because they think that's what birth parents want to hear. We will see!