Facebook Marketing for 2016
Facebook is also making it easier for users to hide ads from their news feed.
Does this mean that businesses should give up on Facebook? Not necessarily. Facebook still has a huge audience (about 900 million every day) that willingly shares their interests and activities. This is a marketer’s dream: All that data and a captive audience.
How can you tap into that audience for your business? Play the game. PAY to play the game, that is.
Here are several tips to make the most of your Facebook Marketing budget.
Define your goals clearly.
While brand building is important, it might not be the best route to just pay for more likes to your page. Consider: Most people who like your page will never see your page posts unless you pay to promote them, anyway. To make the most of your budget, pick a specific goal, such as clicking an ad to join your email subscriber list (After all, email marketing has the highest return of any digital marketing medium). Or, perhaps your goal is to spread the word about a specific promotion you are having. Creating an ad that goes to your sales page would probably be your best goal. Tailor that ad for people to Save Money Now.
Be wary of the Boost Post option.
This may seem like a quick and convenient way to get more engagement for your posts. But a Boost Post option only increases the views of your post to your current followers and their friends. It will not be shown to anyone outside of your followers and their contacts. If you have a promotion you want to brag about, it might be more effective to create an ad, which will let you choose a specific audience to show it to, and will give you more tracking options.
The more specific your audience, the better your post will perform.
It might be tempting to choose the largest audience possible for your ad. But just like choosing keywords in Adwords, choosing the MORE SPECIFIC audience will greatly increase your conversion rate. For example, if you are a book author creating an ad to market your book, choose not just Readers, but select your specific genre. If your ad is for an ebook sale, select people who own Kindles, or who buy digital media. Avoid targeting Facebook’s default interests. You want your UGC to closely relate to the exact audience you’re targeting, not a general interest group, which is much too broad. The more you can narrow down your audience, you’ll get more clicks on your ad.
Use emotion in your ad.
I talk a lot about
how important emotion is in making a buying decision. Leverage that knowledge when creating your ad. Fear of missing an opportunity (Limited Time only sale!), appealing to our insecurities (Look younger, feel better!), and other emotion-related titles will convert well. Instead of just bragging about your product or business, appeal to your audience’s emotions.
Impressions of ads matter.
I don’t mean first impressions (although those do matter). Impressions is what we call “views” in the advertising industry. Just because a user isn’t clicking on your ad, it doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking of it when making a buying decision. While it is difficult to measure the success of an ad that is viewed but not clicked, there is value in building your brand by increasing your exposure to new audiences. According to a Datalogix report in
this article: “On average, if you look at people who saw an ad on Facebook and later bought a product, [fewer than] 1 percent had clicked on the ad.”
Build Trust with a Customer Review.
Trust is an important part of convincing a customer to buy from a new brand. Using customer reviews is a powerful way to instill trust in potential buyers.
When using a review, it’s preferable to share a review where the customer tells a personal story. For example, personal reviews such as, “I bought this game for my daughter’s birthday and she absolutely loves it,” have a greater impact than generic ones like, “It’s a great toy.”
Use the Right Images.
Images can go a long way in setting the mood of potential buyers. Use a specific image that relates to your ad. For example, if you are promoting a product, feature your product in its best light. The example above shows a great use of images: client-shared photos of the product.
Don’t create two ads to target the same audience.
You’ll just be competing against yourself. You can test out ads organically on your audience and then tweak them before paying.
Run fewer ads with a higher budget.
Rather than running lots of ads with low budget, you’ll get better audience penetration by using a high converting ad with a higher budget.
Have you used Facebook to market your business? What has been your Facebook Advertising experience?
