Facebook marketing tips are important for many small business owners. Facebook is the social media platform that might be the most frustrating of all the available platforms. In fact, many small business owners have decided that this particular social media platform is better left alone. That’s just not true. The trick is to know what works, what doesn’t, and to NEVER just throw money at it without a plan. I’ve put together some Facebook marketing tips that will give you the best chance of being seen and getting results.
Image courtesy of Unsplash and Glen Carrie
Facebook Marketing Tips to Improve Your Presence
The first thing everyone needs to understand is that Facebook is an excellent marketing tool. Many people have decided that Facebook is either too diluted or too saturated. They think that the platform either doesn’t reach enough people or that it doesn’t reach the right people. That’s true to an extent. If you don’t know how to leverage the Blue and White Behemoth, you won’t see results. That’s the real trick of Facebook – strategy.
Know Your Audience
First things first. Know your audience. I’ve seen so many people throw money at an ad without giving adequate thought to this incredibly important foundational block to their strategy. Without knowing your target audience, a Facebook ad is a bit like net fishing in the ocean. There may be a lot of fish out there, but you might not catch any. OR you catch the tuna when fishing for crab or shrimp.
Luckily, Facebook and your website’s statistical data are a huge help with this first important step. Look at the statistics of your website or blog and drill down who comes to your site and who spends the most time there. The people who come to your site and then stay there are your target audience.
Next, fill in those demographic details when you create your Facebook ad. Drill down your target audience via:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Languages Spoken
- Inclusion or Exclusion of Target Demographics
Before finalizing your ad, Facebook will show you a graph which estimates how broad or targeted your criteria is as well as the estimated daily results of your ad. Use this in conjunction with your website statistics to further refine your ad.
Know Your Ad Needs
If knowing your audience is fishing in the right spot, knowing the type of ad to use is fishing with the right bait. Different ads are better for different applications. It’s important to use the right one for the job. The sheer variety of advertising possibilities on Facebook makes it impractical to list out every variation, but here are the five most popular ad types that seem to provide the best results.
- Carousel Ads – These are the ads with the little arrow on the edge that allows you to see a “slide” of different products. Thes interactive, mobile-friendly ads are perfect for products and telling visual stories.
- Offer and Homepage Ads – These simple ads are perfect to encourage repeat visits to your site or for simply getting a specific offer out there. Simple and to the point, these ads work well for one-off advertising stints such as limited-time sales.
- Video Ads – The new frontier of advertising on all platforms, video is the future. Video ads are like tiny commercials for your brand, and on a platform where people constantly share video media, it just makes sense to use them.
- Boosted/Promoted Ads – Everyone knows boosted ads. Businesses use them all the time for instant exposure. I advocate for using them a little less often unless you’re made of money. However, if you have a post or offer which is doing well already, giving it a little extra juice via boosting could be just the thing that takes your content from fairly popular to viral.
- Lead Ad – Lead ads allow people to download content from a brand directly from Facebook. These types of direct download ads are great for promoting downloadable PDFs, webinars, and other informational material – material that draws people to your site, brand, or service.
Test Your Ad
Facebook offers a split testing system to help give you the best chance of running a successful ad campaign. Using the system, you can create variations of your ad and simulate how well they’ll do based on your demographic information. Before paying up to market on Facebook, test our your strategy with options like:
- Ad Types
- Image Types
- Ad Copy
- Target Audience
- Offers and Incentives
Thoes are just a few of the ways you can refine your marketing strategy using the split testing system – and you should use it. It allows you to run a campaign with the least amount of variables in play.
Don’t Forget Remarketing
We’ve all been told the power of staying in contact with our readers or customers. Facebook can help you do that. In addition to different types of ads, remarketing is one of my golden Facebook marketing tips.
Set up a custom audience for your ad which targets people who have either already visited your site, purchased from your site, or are on your mailing list. This remarketing strategy reminds people that you’re still around and that you’re ready and waiting to continue helping them by providing your product or service.
Facebook Marketing Tips Can Change Your Game
I won’t promise overnight success based on these Facebook marketing tips. What I will promise is that these Facebook marketing tips will help you better target your audience, which can lead to more interaction, more sales, and a better sense of connection between the public and your brand. In the end, that’s what drives brand recognition, sales, and longevity.
Need help with your social media strategy? Want to create a social media calendar? That’s what I do. Email me – inkscrblr@rogers.com