One thing you can count on in the world of social media is that it will change. As we discussed in our blog “What Does the Latest Facebook Algorithm Change Mean for Your Brand?”, Facebook’s methodology for deciding which information is shown on a member’s newsfeed does not necessarily benefit companies trying to reach even the people who have “liked” their business page. It is a fact that you now have to pay to play on Facebook.
Facebook offers a variety of opportunities to place your products or services directly in front of your target market. However, with any marketing efforts, understanding what you are trying to achieve is central to the success of a campaign.
Things to Keep in Mind When Implementing Facebook Advertising Campaigns
1) Know Your Goals – At Fresh Figs Marketing, we begin every marketing plan with a clear understanding of what we are trying to achieve. Otherwise, we will have no idea how to measure success, what to include in the ad, or who to direct it to. Common goals for Facebook advertising include increasing post engagement (page likes, post likes, shares, and link clicks), increasing website traffic, boosting event attendance, and driving more traffic to your brick and mortar store. Once you determine your intent, you will be able to choose the best advertising option, create compelling ad content, and target the appropriate audience.
2) Choose Your Target Market Wisely – Facebook allows you to narrow the audience for your ad, increasing your chances of attaining a healthy ROI. Age, gender, location, languages and interests, as well as detailed demographic information, can all be chosen to create a highly targeted group of Facebook users. You can also build a campaign around the type of connection you have to the individuals within your audience, such as people who have already liked you page. Understanding who buys your goods or services will help you define a robust set of customers. Sending your message to people who will never care about it will dilute the effectiveness of your campaign.
3) Speak to Your Audience – Why do your customers do business with you? What problems do you solve, needs do you fulfill or pain-points do you eliminate? Create an ad that sends a clear message to your audience of how you can help and what you want them to do (i.e. click through, buy, sign up, like your page). Imagery plays a large role in attracting the busy Facebook user’s eye, so be sure to include a compelling picture in your ad.
4) Evaluate Your Reach – One feature we love to play with in setting up a Facebook ad campaign is the budget and duration. Facebook will show you an estimate of the number of people your ad dollars will reach, allowing you to evaluate on the spot the potential of your budget. You can set a daily or a campaign lifetime budget, choose a start and end date, and optimize for ad delivery. We suggest changing the variables around when you are first setting up your campaign to see which mix of money and time has the most potential to achieve your goals. Then you will want to move to #5.
5) Test, Evaluate, Adjust, Test Again – Beyond treating your customers with respect, there are no hard and fast rules in marketing. So, a large part of the success of a campaign is testing the waters, evaluating the results, adjusting as needed, and testing again. Say you began your campaign by boosting a Facebook post that sent users to your blog for $20 over 3 days. Next time boost your post for just one day with the same budget. Evaluate which scenario best helped you achieve your goal – website traffic. It takes a while to discern how your audience will interact with your ad. Paying attention to how changes alter the effectiveness of your efforts will lead to a greater ROI.
At Fresh Figs Marketing, we have seen a drastic increase in consumer engagement and website traffic (which were our goals) for our clients through Facebook advertising, both in the localized services and hard goods arenas. We’d be happy to help you create an effective Facebook advertising campaign. Send us an email or give us a call at 860-670-6595.
