11 minute read
What the tech? Putting Facebook ads to work
Next Article
Putting Facebook ads to work
The ultimate guide for small businesses
by Tabitha Jean Naylor, Manta Expert
Not only are paid ads your best bet at attracting new business – you can target the people you want them to be shown to, and your current audience will be more likely to see your posts.
How can you make sure you’re getting the most out of your Facebook
ads? These seven tips will help you strengthen your strategy and get the results you need.
It’s no secret that recent algorithm changes have made it considerably more difficult for businesses to reach their audience organically on Facebook. Now, the most effective way to ensure that your audience sees your content is to pay for advertising space with Facebook ads.
Everyone’s Facebook feed contains sponsored posts from companies that pay to be there. Unlike streaming video or music services, there’s currently no way for users to opt out of seeing these advertisements. Since Facebook has decreased how many people are shown organic posts, paying for your content to reach more people is the only way for brands to have a real marketing impact.
Statistics show that your organic Facebook posts might only reach about 2% of your followers on average. That means that as much as 98% of your followers could be missing out on what you’re posting. That’s a huge chunk of potential business!
To top it off – your organic posts are only being shown to people who already follow your page. In order for these unpaid posts to reach a new audience, you have to rely on your followers to tag their friends or share the content to their own feeds. This works to an extent, especially if you excel at creating shareable content, but by using Facebook ads you’ll be able to reach a much larger audience and attract new followers. While organic posts are still an essential part of any Facebook content marketing strategy, you’ll want to make sure paid advertising plays a large role. Not only are paid ads your best bet at attracting new business – you can target the people you want them to be shown to, and your current audience will be more likely to see your posts.
But there’s a definite learning curve when it comes to Facebook ads. On top of creating an effective and engaging post, you have to learn the ins and outs of setting up an ad and learn new strategies to make sure they’re effective. It’s definitely a daunting task, so it’s understandable that many small business owners avoid it altogether.
Some small business owners have even expressed frustration with Facebook ads, claiming they don’t convert and that it’s ultimately a waste of money, but with the right strategy, Facebook ads can be an incredibly effective marketing tool.
Of course, funds for a marketing budget are often limited and it’s important to make sure each dollar counts.
So how can you make sure you’re getting the most out of your Facebook ads? These 7 tips will help you strengthen your strategy and get the results you need.
Step 1. Have a clear goal.
Every successful marketing campaign should begin with a goal, and your Facebook ads should be no different. Each ad campaign needs a goal to aim for before
content is even created. If you don’t have a clear objective for each ad, it’s easy for posts to become too busy and have a weak focus on more than one thing and if your ads don’t seem focused, they’re unlikely to inspire action on the part of your audience.
Some great goals for your ads to have may include:
> Reaching out to new customers > Re-engaging with your current followers > Encouraging followers to download a freebie > Promote a new product > Advertise an event > Increase overall brand awareness
Once you know what the goal of your ad is, you can move on to figuring out what kind of people your ad will target.
Step 2. Target your audience.
Facebook has millions of people on it, but that doesn’t mean every single person is going to be interested in what you have to offer. Thankfully, Facebook offers options that allow you to refine your target audience so that your ads are reaching the people who will value your content and that are likely to take action.
This is your most valuable tool when it comes to setting up your ads, so it’s important to explore all your options.
Age, gender, and location are the basics, but you can do so much more than that. Facebook lets you target people who already like certain pages. So go ahead and make sure your ad is being shown to people who follow your competitors or pages that you know your audience is likely to care about. It also lets you target people by their Facebook interests.
If you own a video game store, you’d likely select a younger demographic who lives in the immediate area. You’d want to make sure people who follow Nintendo or PlayStation are included as well as people who have expressed interest in gaming. If the store had a specific niche, like retro gaming, they could easily get more specific with retro gaming references.
Many people begin posting ads by targeting the broadest audience they can thinking that the more people they reach, the more they’ll sell. But in reality, the more targeted your ads are the more likely they are to convert.
Sure, a men’s high-end clothing store could target every male in the state between the ages of 18-55. But if they narrow it down to men between the ages of 25-40 who live within a 20 mile radius of the store and fall into a high income bracket, they’ll be reaching people that are far more likely to come into the store and make a purchase.
When you take the time to target people who match your customer profile, your ad will be shown only to the people that are most likely to interact. Taking the time to set this up correctly means that you’ll be investing your ad money wisely and seeing the biggest ROI possible.
To find out what’s most effective for targeting, you’ll want to test different combinations and track your results. Who’s actually clicking through? How many of those clicks are turning into sales?
You’ll want to pick a couple of specific interests to use as test targeting, monitor the outcome, make adjustments, and then compare results. And remember, the more specific you can be, the better.
Once you have a good idea of who’s actually interacting with your ads, you’ll be able to use the same categories to target future audiences successfully.
Knowing who your ads resonate with will also help you create better content. Once you understand who’s really paying attention, you can personalize your ads to better relate.
Step 3.
Experiment with organic posts.
The everyday posts that you make can be an excellent indicator of what kind of content you should turn into an ad. What type of posts does your audience respond well to already?
If the content performs well with the people who already follow you, there’s a good chance the content will do well as an ad.
If you have a post with great engagement rates, try turning it into a sponsored ad. You’ll notice that many ads on Facebook are just regular posts that companies pay to promote, so using content you’ve already created can be very effective.
Step 4. Give value. The majority of your posts shouldn’t be all about selling. This is advice you’ve probably heard about your regular Facebook posts, but it absolutely applies to advertised posts as well. Your audience doesn’t sign on to Facebook to read sales pitches all day. They want to see content that adds value to their experience. Of course you can use the occasional ad to promote a sale or new product. But for the most part, you’ll want to advertise with posts that catch your audience’s attention and give them an experience that’s memorable in some way. Some ideas for engaging promoted posts include: > Give something away – People love free stuff, so using a give away as an ad is an excellent way to get their attention.
Create something that they can download like a how-to guide, a helpful checklist, or even a coupon for a free appetizer at your restaurant when they provide their email. You’ve helped them out by giving them something of value, so there’s a good chance they’ll appreciate and remember that, giving you new customers in the future. > Make a helpful video – Facebook ads don’t have to be pictures and texts. Video content is the most engaging type of post there is, so create something that shows off your best features, entertains, or informs. > Share an informative article – Use this as a chance to establish yourself as an authoritative and trusted source of information. Teach people what they want to know, and they’ll keep coming back for more.
Facebook is all about relationship building. There’s a reason people love commercial-free tv and streaming services. Use the opportunity to form a real bond with your customers and show them that you know what they want.
If you have a positive relationship with your customers, they’ll come to feel a sense of trust with you. People who trust you will be more willing to buy from you than if you were trying to hard sell them your product or service without having that relationship in place first.
Step 5.
Include a strong call to action.
No matter how engaging your ad is, it won’t do you any good if you don’t use the opportunity to invite your audience to take action. Without a strong CTA, your ads will fall flat. A good CTA will encourage your audience to take a meaningful action. Have them click through to your website with your best offers, give them a freebie to capture their email, invite them to follow your page, or have them register for your webinar.
Step 6. Be consistent.
Marketing on Facebook is not something you can do once in a while whenever you feel like it. If you aren’t consistently online posting engaging ads, your ads won’t be seen.
Most brands take the time to create at least one new post a day, interact with their audience, and respond to messages. And that’s at a minimum. It’s not uncommon to see bigger brands post at least five times a day. While not all of your posts
are going to be paid ads, you should make sure that you’re constantly posting engaging content. That way, when people look at your page after finding you through an ad, they’ll see an active brand.
And people don’t take the time to scroll back through days and days of Facebook posts. If you aren’t posting daily, there’s a good chance that even the people who follow you won’t get to see your content. The window of opportunity for significant engagement is pretty small – usually no more than a few hours.
Posting frequently not only helps your ads to be seen by more people, but it shows customers that you’re an open and active business that cares about its customers. Facebook pages that look “dead” to customers who are seeking information could actually push them to move to a page that’s more active and cause them to spend their money elsewhere.
But be careful not to spam people. Having your ads shown too often will annoy potential customers and push them away from your business.
You’ll also want your posts to be consistently published at the right times. Posting content at 3:00 am will reach far fewer people than at popular times like the morning or when people just get off of work.
A combination of timely and consistent posts will help you reach a bigger audience and extend your reach.
Step 7.
Commit to the process.
In order to succeed with Facebook ads, you’re going to have to commit to investing the money and factor it in to your overall strategy and budget. Learning is a process – if you give up right away when your first ad doesn’t get the huge results you wanted, you’re never going to have the opportunity to learn from those failures. By committing the time and money to learning Facebook ads, you’ll be setting yourself up for success.
One of the quickest ways to set your ads up for failure is by rushing through them blindly without understanding what you’re doing.
As a business owner, you have a ton of stuff on your plate, and it’s totally understandable if social media marketing isn’t your specialty. But if you want to succeed, you’ll need to take the time to learn these strategies and how to implement them.
Originally published by Manta at manta.com. Manta is one of the largest online resources dedicated to small business. Learn more and create your free company profile at manta.com.
If learning the ins and outs of full-scale social media campaigns isn’t in the cards do you, there’s no shame in getting help from someone who already knows what they’re doing. Manta’s Marketing Pro service is great for businesses that want customized help and advice for marketing strategies.
Conclusion
With the right strategy, you can make Facebook ads work for your small business. Learning and implementing new marketing strategies will always take time and effort, but it’s important not to give up. Once you know what your goals are, target the right audience, and create engaging posts, you’ll start to see your investment pay off and your social reach continue to grow.
About the author
Tabitha Jean Naylor is the Founder of Successful Startup 101, a digital magazine that provides answers to today’s most pertinent questions facing startup founders, and the Owner of TabithaNaylor. com. Her intimate knowledge of how sales and marketing go hand-in-hand has resulted in a variety of successful campaigns for startups through publicly traded companies. Connect with her on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
