How Facebook Ads Can Boost Your Busines

The importance of Facebook

Love it or loathe it on a personal level, Facebook can be a hugely powerful thing to have in your business marketing toolbox.

Where else can we access close to 3 billion users and target with a level of detail which supersedes location and demographic alone, reaching into interests, life stage and even proximity of personal, special events? 

Let's face it, 10 million active Facebook advertisers can't be wrong, and they certainly wouldn't be parting with anything close to their $100 billion annual spend if it wasn't working.

As a digital marketing agency we constantly assess, and reassess, every platform available to our clients to get their message out there and Facebook ads are up there on our ‘must consider' list.

Why are Facebook ads an essential addition to my digital marketing strategy?

Facebook ads are now so ‘normal' to us all that we almost don't notice them, or at least we don't recognise them as advertising to us. That's a good thing. 

Whilst Facebook isn't the place people go when they are looking to buy something, your ad on Facebook will be served up when they are using social media to catch up with friends and family, interacting with like-minded groups or maybe just looking for light-hearted videos. That means you're likely to find them in a relaxed, positive and open frame of mind. Another good thing.

The success of Facebook ads is mostly to do with the unparalleled ability to target. Few, if any, platforms can target with quite the same level of detail as Facebook can. After all, by it's very nature, it has a plethora of detail on every single one of its users, their interests, their likes & dislikes.

Effectively, you can take your best customer ever and find lookalikes on Facebook via your targeting criteria. You can even find entire ‘lookalike audiences' by asking Facebook to mimic existing email lists you have – but that's a digital marketing topic for another day…

Who do Facebook ads work best for?

Any reputable digital marketing agency will tell you it will take more than one touchpoint to successfully convert a potential new customer on social media.

Facebook ads yield best results for those with low friction conversion processes – i.e. those who can offer a simple, low commitment service or ask for a simple initial sign-up rather than a full-on purchase commitment. 

It's great for businesses with a long sales cycle, especially those who have the ability to offer small initial ‘step' purchases. Subscription sales also tend to do very well, finding long term, high value customers.

What does a great Facebook ad look like?

A picture tells a thousand words. It's a cliché for a reason. 

When it comes to Facebook ads, the more visual, the better. Remember to use your own original images or video (no stealing from elsewhere) and avoid over-used stock ones. 

You have the option to include single images, multiple images (carousel), videos, collections, instant experiences etc. and we strongly advise that you take the time to look at all of these options to make sure you choose what best showcases what you do.

As well as promoting your page itself you can promote individual posts, your website or the actions which other users took – again, research into these will pay dividends and as your digital marketing agency we're here to help de-mystify the options.

How do I use Facebook ads to get the most from them?

We want you to maximise your investment, so there are a few ‘musts' to get you started. 

Firstly, think about intermediate conversion (signing up for a newsletter, offers etc.) and make sure you have a super-duper, high converting landing page to send customers to.

In-depth ‘interest targeting' will get you down to detail such as pages your target audience have already liked and apps they have installed. This can result in the most attractive digital marketing ROI but might take a little more time to think about. It is certainly worth doing oodles of research as to what other publications your target market read, who they follow, what they tend to buy etc.

How much should I budget to spend on Facebook ads?

When you've created your ad, Facebook will provide a suggested bid range and it's always best to start at the lower end of this and experiment. 

You set your budget and bid for clicks or impressions (by the thousand) so work back from your desired payback (in terms of number of sales you'll need to achieve and the average conversion rate). Patience is essential here so consider a smaller initial percentage payback before increasing to that much-coveted 100%.

Contact the people who know exactly how to use Facebook ads

If it all seems daunting, then enlist the support experts. We know a particularly great bunch of people who live and breathe Facebook ads, all available at the end of the phone.