Hi everyone! I would love your input on the following: Im working on setting up our FB page for a startup company. And we are going to use FB ads to attract fans to our FB page. How much should we spend on it? We have the resources to spend all from 100-2000$ on ads, but we would of course love to spend as little as possible to attract as many fans as possible.. any tips and or thoughts on how we should do this?

@idamarleneh agreed. 

@idamarlene You need to create a campaign and set a lower budget in the start but also during ad creation you need to look into each n everything that where, whome and what you want to show. 

You can create different ads in one campaign and then you can check which one is working best then you can continue that ad to get more traffic. Secondly your ad must be creative and offering something in return to visit your page, Choose the best picture and draft something good and attractive for the ad. 
Start from the lowest bids and goes upward step by step, so you will learn and will see that how much you need to spend in a week, month or year on facebook. 

You can also use facebook coupons to test it. 

Let me know if you need help in creating a campaign. 
Thanks,

Ijaz Rafi, I appreciate the great tips! I will most definitely do that:)  

Dedi Mason, thank you. Im learning a whole lot from you guys and its really helping me getting a picture on how I should run FB ads:) 

@annfurnivall  ~ A fan gate can be a number of things.  Right now, I have a contest that only shows to fans.  When you come to my page, you see that there is a contest that you can enter if you “Like” the page and there are also links on it that lead to various parts of our website.  It’s a trial run so it won’t be up for long (ends tomorrow night).

Once you click “Like” on the page, you are given a different view that allows you to enter the contest.

Feel free to check it out, but I’d rather keep our fans to locals who golf ~ so if you “Like” the page to see the change, it’s fine with me if you “Unlike” it when you’re done.

http://www.facebook.com/Lilac.Golf

I pay per click.  You’ll see that your impressions are massively high when you run an ad campaign.

My current fan gate is through Shortstack ~ they have a free version, but I am using the $15/month version because of the ability to utilize databases for the contests.  I’ll probably switch to the $30 version if I decide it’s running like a charm because I have 3 pages that I need to run contests on.

@idamarlene ~ I love this group!  I can’t begin to tell you all the things I’ve learned from people in here.  I’m glad that I can help someone like I’ve been helped

@pegsousa ~ Oh wow!  Your friend is near another location that we managed last year and may buy.  I count it as ours because of the work we put into it, but we haven’t officially purchased it.  That one is a 9 Hole Par 3 with a Miniature Golf Course, Driving Range, and Batting Cages . . . and it’s the one you find me at the most, LOL.  I can actually go outside at that one, get some fresh air while I work

We DO have an email list which we have a double opt in form on out website.  I am in the process of redesigning the websites, so I am not pulling any pages up from there right now . . . but once they’re redone, I’ll pull that page into FB.  The email form on that particular contest is only for that promotion, but when I take the promos full force and ‘for real,’ the statement will say that they are agreeing to receive our newsletter.  That was (hopefully) the last of my promo trials ~ It’s done with shortstack and I liked it.

I just recently found out about the long profile pics for pages.  Good ol’ Photoshop and I are about to get together and work up new pics for all three of the course pages ~

Thanks for the thumbs up . . . I’ve been learning (often the hard way) and working to apply everything I’ve learned.  In order to keep it going during golf season, I just added an admin from each course’s clubhouse to their respective pages.  One person cannot do it alone during the hectic craziness of golf season!