- What is Facebook marketing?
- How Facebook marketing could benefit your business
- Types of Facebook ads and how to use them
- How to get the most out of Facebook marketing
With approximately 2.89 billion active users on Facebook each month, it is the largest social media network globally.
If that number doesn’t blow you away, roughly 1.84 billion users use the social media platform daily! And from a marketing perspective, the opportunities to engage with new audiences and expand your business’s reach is vast.
So, how should you go about capitalising on these opportunities? First, put together a comprehensive Facebook marketing strategy.
New marketers may feel a little intimidated by the idea, but fear not, Soar Online will walk you through the tools that you can use to your advantage to facilitate the process.
What is Facebook marketing?
Facebook marketing refers to the practice of promoting and advertising a brand’s products or services in front of an audience on the social media platform.
It is not limited to paid or “boosted” ads, as Facebook marketing also includes organic postings and interactions.
Some of the different ways you can market your business on Facebook include:
- Business Pages
- Facebook Ads
- Facebook Groups
- Facebook Marketplace
No matter how you choose to market your brand, there’s a strategy suitable for every budget.
Benefits of Facebook marketing
Given that billions of people use Facebook every day, and at least 17% of these users engage with the social media network in search of brands and products, it makes sense for businesses to build and maintain a presence on the platform.
Separate data from eMarketer has also revealed that 66% of Facebook users visit a business page at least once a week. Meanwhile, the number of clicks on searches for local businesses rose by 23% between February and May last year.
With more people using Facebook to find out about products and services they consider purchasing, you could help them discover your brand and spread the word about your business with an effective marketing strategy.
What types of Facebook ads are there?
Marketers need to understand the different types of Facebook ads to get the best results.
These simple ads are not only a great way to get started with paid ads on Facebook but can be highly effective in driving traffic to your website.
Images must be uploaded in PNG or JPEG format, and the ad’s headline must not exceed 40 characters. Furthermore, given that the description has a 125 character limit, these ads are best used for short calls to action (CTA).
Video Ads
Video ads can be displayed in the News Feed, on Facebook Stories and in-stream ads, making them ideal for promoting products and client testimonials.
It’s best to ensure your video ad is under two minutes long, as these tend to get the most engagement.
Still, while video content is fast becoming the most popular means for people to satisfy their information and entertainment needs, you’ll lose viewers if you advertise a low-quality video with a vague message.
Carousel Ads
Carousel ads can contain up to 10 images or videos, allowing users to scroll through the ad and see the same or multiple products from different angles.
The Carousel is most effective when used to showcase an image; however, each photo or video can have an individual link if you want to display multiple products.
Augmented reality (AR) Ads
These ads use features such as filters and animation to allow users to interact with your brand.
For example, if you’re selling sunglasses, someone who comes across your brand on Facebook can virtually try the sunglasses to see how it might suit them.
AR Ads can also help expand your reach, as users can take “selfies” with your product and upload them on their own social media channels.
How to use Facebook marketing for business?
Start by creating a Facebook business page. You will then need to access Ads Manager, an all-in-one tool for creating, managing and monitoring advertisements on the social network.
Choose your ad objective and name your campaign
Once you’ve completed that step, choose your campaigns ad objective. There are three categories to choose from:
- Awareness Goals
- Consideration Goals
- Conversion Goals
After you’ve decided upon your goal, name your campaign and confirm whether you want to implement A/B testing – you can always change your mind later if you’re unsure.
Budget and schedule your advertising campaign
Now, you’ve created a name for your campaign; you will need to set a daily or monthly budget and schedule a start and end date for your ad.
You can also set your ad based on time zones to schedule it for a time when your target audience is most likely to see it. For example, if you target a Chinese audience, you can set the ad to display during daylight hours, China Standard Time (GMT+8).
Build your target audience
Now it’s time to choose your audience, which you can filter based on:
- Behaviour
- Demographics
- Interests
- Language
- Location
Defining your audience for smarter ad targeting will improve your chances of reaching the right people.
Choose your ad placement
Next, it’s time to decide where you want your ad to be displayed.
Beginners might want to opt for the “Automatic Placement” option, where Facebook decides where best to feature your ad to gain the most traction.
However, if you’re a more seasoned advertising professional, you might want to place your ad based on device type or operating system to target specific segments of your audience.
At this stage, you can also specify the content you don’t want your ad to appear next to, e.g. violent, sensitive or offensive ads.
Create the Facebook ad
Now it’s time to choose your ad format, e.g. Carousel, image or video style, upload your media fuels, hit the “Publish” button and make your ad live!
How to get the most out of your Facebook Ads
While Facebook offers a dynamic advertising system, given that the social media network only allows marketers to add a few images/videos and a strand of text to their ads, here’s a few tips you could employ to get the most out of your Facebook Ads.
- Create highly targeted ads to avoid reaching uninterested audiences
- Always upload high-resolution images to ensure the quality of your ads
- Ensure photos and videos are vertical, so they display correctly on mobile
- Avoid overly populating your graphics so that the message of your ad doesn’t get lost
- Ensure your CTA is visible and compelling
- If possible, incorporate the use of video content
- Use A/B testing to monitor which version of your ad has the best performance
Ensure your ads invoke the user’s interest with CTAs and compelling content – think about what would make you click on an ad.
Other ways Facebook marketing can help boost your brand
As aforementioned, Facebook marketing is not limited to creating ads, and you can spread the word about your brand by utilising other strategies.
If you’re looking to boost your Facebook presence, consider capitalising on the following strategies.
Create a Facebook group
Facebook groups are a powerful marketing tool, as it gives all your customers a place to engage and interact with your content and the community.
People in your Facebook group are also likely to be your loyal customers, allowing you to tap into key insights from the people purchasing from or interested in your business.
You can also use Facebook groups to:
- Increase your organic reach
- Promote brand events and products
- Start conversations related to your business
- Engage with group members
Ask for feedback, engage in conversations, learn from members of your group, and better your relationship and service with your customers.
Join the Facebook Marketplace
If you’re looking for new opportunities to sell your products, it will be worth checking out the Facebook Marketplace, a place to discover, sell and purchase products.
Facebook allows businesses within the Auto dealership, e-commerce and real estate industries to sell on the Marketplace, which doubles as a great platform to connect with potential customers and reach interested buyers.
It’s also free to list on the Marketplace – making it the perfect option for businesses with small budgets.
Utilise your Business page
Despite claims that Facebook’s new algorithm has made it harder to get likes and build brand awareness on the social media platform, it’s still worth investing in a business page.
With billions of people using the platform each day, likes should not be your priority, and it won’t be enough to guarantee long-term success.
You can use your Facebook business page to share content and interact with audiences at the most basic level. However, if you want to get more out of your page, you should consider:
- Making connections, building relationships and creating a massive email list
- Share promotions of your products and services
- Nurture followers to read, download and share content with link posts
- Gain insight into your audience via the posts you create
- Build brand loyalty
- Monitor your competitors
You can also link your Marketplace listings to your business page, which will help convert visitors into loyal customers.
Tracking the success of Facebook marketing campaigns
Whenever you run a marketing campaign on Facebook, it’s important to track metrics to help you ascertain the effectiveness of your ad.
The five most important metrics of Facebook ad campaigns are:
- ad impressions
- ad frequency
- click-through rate (CTR)
- conversion rate
- cost per action
Facebook offers three primary tools: Ads Manager, Events Manager, and Facebook Business Suite to monitor those metrics.
Ads Manager
Ads Manager allows marketers to monitor up-to-date data on their ad’s performance and create or schedule reports that break down the metrics.
Events Manager
Events Manager is a tool within Facebook Business Manager (FBM) that allows web admins to set up a tracking pixel to better advertise to users that have previously visited your website.
The pixel records whenever someone adds an item to the basket or travels through the funnel and completes a purchase and notes this as an “event” to help you better understand how users interact with your site and Facebook ads.
Facebook Business Suite
The Facebook Business Suite is a tool that allows you to manage all of your Facebook, Instagram and Messenger accounts, pages and profiles in one place to help view engagement and performance across the platforms your business operates.
It also provides quick access to crucial data, such as:
- audience demographics
- post and content engagement
- paid ad performance
The social media network aims to expand Facebook Business Suite to include Whatsapp in the future.
