Social network advertising, also social media targeting is a group of terms that are used to describe forms of online advertising that focus on social networking services. One of the major benefits of this type of advertising is that advertisers can take advantage of the users’ demographic information and target their ads appropriately.
Social media targeting combines current targeting options (like geotargeting, behavioral targeting, socio-psychographic targeting, etc.), to make detailed target group identification possible. With social media targeting, advertisements are distributed to users based on information gathered from target group profiles.
Social network advertising is not necessarily the same as social media advertising. Social media targeting is a method of optimizing social media advertising by using profile data to deliver advertisements directly to individual users. Social media targeting refers to the process of matching social network users to target groups that have been specified by the advertiser.
As of now, Facebook is also famous in social media advertising. Facebook ads are purchased on an auction basis, where advertisers are charged based on either clicks, impressions or actions. There 
are plenty of different ad formats offered, and in this guide we will try to give you a structured view of what opportunities you have as an advertiser on Facebook.
You can create and publish all types of ads yourself, either through Facebook’s self-service interface or through a certified ads API developer such as Qwaya – if you need a more comprehensive tool for managing your Facebook advertising. The ads are delivered all across Facebook, and some formats are eligible to show in the Facebook News feed.
Facebook ads belong to one of two categories, Ads or Sponsored stories.
What’s the Difference Between an Ad and a Sponsored Story?
Sponsored Stories
Now let’s look at Sponsored Stories. These were Facebook’s initial social ads and may now be referred to as “voice of friend” stories to differentiate from the new Page Post Ads discussed below.
These stories are shown to “friends of fans” (users whose friends are fans of your page and interact with your brand). These stories always show the friend’s profile photo and name, something not displayed with Marketplace Ads, and hence the social dimension.
Sponsored Stories can be generated from any of the following actions:
- Page Like (user Likes your page and their friends will see this)
- Page Post Like (user Likes a post on your page)
- Page Post Comment (user comments on a post)
- App Used or App Shared (user interacts with your app)
- Check In (user checks into your location)
- Question Answered (user answers a question you posted on your page)
- Event RSVP (user indicates they are attending your event)
Page Post Ads
The Page Post Ad offers the ability to display the same content in an ad unit as on your page. If users are not already connected to your brand through a friend, they will see an ad and have the ability to Like your page.
Existing fans and friends of fans will see a Sponsored Story is showing their friends who are connected to your brand, providing additional social context. For managed accounts that have access to Facebook Premium, Page Post Ads will also allow existing fans to interact by Liking or commenting directly within the Sponsored Story. This greater degree of engagement is not currently available to advertisers through the Online channel.
Page Post Advertising options currently include:
- Text (you make a text-only post on your page)
- Photo (you post a photo to your page)
- Video (you post a video to your page)
- Link (you share a link on your page, which can be used to drive traffic off of Facebook)
- Question (you ask a question/poll)
- Event (you create an event)
Facebook ads are so important to brands because of the extra reach, exposure, and targeting options available to brands who advertise on the network.
For every single brand that advertises on Facebook, it’s also important to be able to segment social media performance by paid vs. organic activities.
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