Facebook's statistics page declares they have "more than 800 million active users" and "more than 50% of our active users log on to Facebook on any given day."

These numbers are worthy of a brief meditation, especially if you are interested in internet advertising.

Think about what these numbers actually mean:

800 million active users,

50% logging in every day,

viewing 12 pages each (according to Alexa).

If those pages average only two ads per page,

then Facebook is displaying 3.5 trillion ads this year.

3.5 trillion, with a "T".

To put that number in perspective, it is 8.75 times the number of stars in our galaxy!

We don't know for sure the actual number of ads Facebook is displaying, but no matter how you calculate it, the result is truly astronomical. With so much ad space to sell what does the law of supply and demand suggest?

Correct. The price should be low.

Facebook ad impressions should be affordable.

And they are.

I regularly purchase Facebook ad impressions in the United States for as little as 12 cents per 1000 impressions. That is right, I can get my messages in front of 2400 people on Facebook for less than the cost of a single postcard.

But it gets even better. Those ads can be hypertargeted. They can be targeted geographically, by country, state, city and zip code. Are you a local business in Ann Arbor, Michigan seeking to advertise to people within 15 minutes driving distance to your store? You can target 176,000 of them on Facebook.

You can target your ads demographically too, by age, sex, and relationship status. Do you want to hypertarget women between 28 and 35 years old who live in San Diego? There are 135,000 of them on Facebook.

It gets even better. You can also target your ads psychographically, a big word that implies you can target your ads based on the thoughts and ideas in someone's head. On Facebook, people tell us what they are thinking by liking things. They like books, movies, TV shows, sports, and hundreds of other things. If your customers like these things too, you can advertise directly to them on Facebook.

Do you need to advertise to male Star Trek fans between the ages of 16 and 21 within a 50 mile radius of Raleigh, NC? You can invite 1000 of them to come to your local event with Facebook ads. It will probably cost you less than $3.

There are amazing new ways to discover new customers. There are over 155 million highly profiled and targetable users on Facebook in the United States alone. It is a serious mistake to not include Facebook Advertising in your paid advertising strategies.

Something to meditate on.

Thomas Meloche is the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising with Perry Marshall