Facebook is steadily taking over the world, there’s no doubt about that. Currently, 2.23 billion people log in to the platform every month which is an astonishing figure; it has the largest user base of any social network, as well as one of the most engaged.
More and more businesses are getting onto the bandwagon, advertising their offering on Facebook. However, so many are grabbing at straws and are unsure of the most effective way to approach a Facebook advertising strategy.
Since 2014, there has been a steady decline in organic reach on Facebook, so promoting content via paid ads is now the most viable option.
When it comes to social media marketing, it’s best to do it right or not at all. Social media marketing is the new form of advertising and needs to be taken seriously. Implementing a below par social media marketing strategy can have hugely negative effects for your brand. If you’re doing it the right way, your brand will be viewed as a trusted subject matter expert, have high brand visibility and a dedicated stream of followers demonstrating strong brand loyalty.
If you aren’t doing a great job, it can have hugely detrimental effects; your brand won’t be taken seriously, your customers won’t believe in you, and you’ll lose credibility with both customers and others in your industry.
Whether you decide to go it alone or utilise the services of a Facebook advertising agency, promoting your brand on Facebook needs to have a strategy behind it. Knowledge is power, so make sure that you’re on top of your game when it comes to social media marketing. You’ll see a major benefit from Facebook advertising and a greater ROI when you do it strategically with greater knowledge of the platform.
Here Are The Top 6 secrets From A Facebook Advertising Company That Will Guarantee A Killer campaign:
1. Dissect your audience
If you have an audience of any kind, it’s pretty much a no brainer that they’re already active Facebook users.
One of the biggest benefits of Facebook ads is the ability of advertisers to specifically target the people who are most likely to buy their product or service, and no one else.
Facebook ads provides a medium that is hugely targeted down to the nanometer, which will only be beneficial to your business if you know the ins and outs of your audience.
Unlike PPC advertising in the past, current Facebook advertising lets you get detailed when targeting your audience, only advertising to relevant users.
Here’s how a Facebook advertising agency recommends you should break down your target audience:
Create Your Audience
The joy of Facebook ads is that building an audience from scratch is easily done, whether you’re a Facebook advertising agency working for a global brand or a small business owner. You can outline your audience based on certain parameters like:
- Age: Whether your audience has a broad range or is more specific, you can define your ads precisely as opposed to taking a blanket approach.
- Location: Whether you’re an international business or local brand, you have the option of specifically targeting your audience based on their location.
- Demographics: From education level to marital status and so much more; it’s spooky how much detail Facebook ads gives you to work with.
- Habits & Interests: Your potential customers are constantly on the platform liking, commenting and sharing. What does this mean for you? Facebook ads gives you the ability to harness user behaviour and target those that are most likely to click through and convert.
Custom Audience
Remarketing ads is one of the tricks of the trade that can see your conversion rates increase drastically. Basically, remarketing ads target anyone that has previously interacted with your business, they may be prior/current customers or an individual who has shown interest in your business in the past.
Tools like Facebook Pixel give businesses the opportunity to target custom audiences that already have some knowledge of their brand; you are no longer “cold calling”, you’re reaching out to an audience that already knows who you are.
Lookalike Audience
What’s better than selling your offering to existing customers? Selling your offering to those that look similar to your existing customers. Facebook ads allows businesses to target potential customers, that have similar characteristics to existing ones. Lookalike audiences are a great opportunity for businesses to maximise their Facebook ads campaigns; if you’re wanting to prospect and build awareness then Lookalike audiences are for you.
2. Choose The Right Type Of Ads
Just like any other advertising campaign, you need to choose the type of ads that are best suited to your Facebook advertising strategy. Firstly, you need to identify what you want to achieve from your campaign, which will then determine what type of ads you use.
Are you wanting to increase awareness by increasing your reach? Are you wanting prospects to pay attention to your brand? Or do you want to turn browsers into customers and increase conversions?
Whatever your goal may be, it will be the driving force in terms of which ads you choose for your campaign. From carousel ads and stories to dynamic product ads, there are loads of options that are perfectly suited to your goals.
3. Get Creative
No doubt, you’ve got existing marketing collateral on file which you have been dipping into as a resource for your Facebook advertising campaigns. Reusing marketing collateral may seem like the most cost effective and most convenient option, but it may not be the right choice.
Consumers are making smarter choices; they want to feel like their hard-earned money is being invested in a business that cares about them. What does cookie cutter marketing collateral mean to them? It means that you can’t be bothered putting the effort into creating something specifically for them. If you don’t appreciate them, they’ll find another brand that does, with one click of a button.
Your audience is bombarded with hundreds of messages a day, so in order to stand out you need to be doing something different. Facebook has nearly 100 million small- and medium-sized business pages with nearly 10% of those advertising on Facebook.
Bland advertising collateral or collateral that is used repeatedly is pretty much a guarantee for a failed Facebook advertising. Social media advertising is booming, and everyone has gotten on the bandwagon. Your audience will only be attracted by something that stands out from the crowd.
Unique, creative content is the only way to grab your audience’s attention, and keep them engaged.
Make It Interesting
Being boring won’t fly. Your audience has limited time in their busy schedules, so they aren’t going to be spending their precious time on content that just isn’t interesting. Exciting or fun content is engaging, so take some time to create content that is stimulating and your audience will give you more of their time.
You may not have the resources of a Facebook advertising agency, but you know your business, your industry and your customers best. Use your knowledge and expertise to provide your customers with something that adds value; solving their problems will make their lives easier and improve your standing.
They’ll become your biggest fans, and return time and time again if they know that they’ll find something interesting. There’s nothing more powerful than word of mouth advertising.
Add Video Content To Your Offering
Whether you like it or not, video content is becoming the preferred medium for social media advertising. People gaze five times longer at video than they do at static posts, like photos on Facebook.
It may seem daunting to create unique video content on a regular basis but it is an avenue that shouldn’t be overlooked. If you don’t have the skills to do it then it may be worth reaching out to a Facebook advertising agency for small business, that will be able to assist.
Facebook Stories or Facebook Live broadcast are becoming the leading video tools on the platform; Live videos generally receive six times as many interactions as regular videos; they rank higher in the newsfeed.
Live videos don’t generally take a huge amount of effort, but you do need to broadcast them strategically to ensure that your audience is getting something of value.
Facebook video advertising is making video content marketing more accessible for businesses that don’t have huge advertising budgets for things like TV adverts. Small guys and big brands alike can battle it out online utilising Facebook ads as a way to reach their audiences.
If you’re a small business, don’t be scared off by the large global brands that are advertising on the platform. With a bit of creativity, you can outperform your competition whatever your budget.
4. Sharpen Up Your Call To Action
Communicating with your audience is a great way to increase exposure, but ultimately you want your audience to act. Whether it be to sign up, shop or whatever action you want them to take, if your call to action isn’t clear then your audience won’t take the next step and click that button.
Your call to action needs to be precise and direct in order to get the desired response. Once again, time is limited, so if you have a call to action that’s ambiguous then you won’t get the outcomes that you want. Less clicks means less sales at the end of the day; your bottom line will suffer if you’re not giving your audience a clear message.
Review your call to action to ensure that you’re maximising the time you have with your audience, directing them down the buyer journey.
5. Adjust Your Campaign If Required
Monitoring your campaigns is one thing, adjusting your campaign according to the results you are seeing is another.
The joy of Facebook ads is the flexibility it gives to those who use it. Real-time, detailed data relating to the performance of your campaign is invaluable. Facebook ads provides exhaustive data that’s simple so every user can easily understand it; you don’t need to be a Facebook advertising agency to interpret the data.
Ensure that your business is flexible so if a campaign is not performing as hoped, you can make some tweaks and adjust it accordingly. Some things may work and some things may not; don’t be afraid to try different things and test their effectiveness. You may be surprised at the types of content that engage your audience; take note when something works well and do more of it.
6. Don’t Focus Solely On Paid Advertising
Paid advertising is a must, but don’t make the mistake of focusing solely on it. According to a Facebook advertising agency in Melbourne, organic activity through content and community-building goes hand in hand with paid Facebook advertising.
A dual approach will ensure that your social media presence is sustained longer term; building a brand that lasts is more important than making a quick sale.
Building long lasting relationships with your customers is invaluable; they’ll become your biggest advocates. Brand loyalty is something that can’t be bought, it takes time to build your customer’s trust to ensure that they keep coming back.
Conclusion
Facebook can be your biggest enemy or your biggest ally, that’s up to you. If you take the time to learn the ins and outs of the platform, then you can use it to your advantage. Facebook ads isn’t just for global brands with bottomless budgets, it’s for every business out there, whatever your budget.
Use these 6 best kept secrets to ensure your next Facebook advertising campaign kicks the ball out of the park.