Category: Facebook

Don’t Fear Facebook Ads: Here’s How to Get Started

Advertising has always gotten a bad rap as pushy and impersonal. But with the rise of big data and the global reach of social media, advertising has gotten smarter and highly personalized.

With one of the most expansive collections of user data, Facebook makes it easy for small businesses to reach their targeted prospects and customers with tailored and relevant ads. And with more than 2.45 billion Facebook users worldwide (that’s nearly one-third of the global population), now is the perfect time to face your fears and put Facebook ads to work for your business.

Here are a few tips for making the most out of Facebook ads once you get started.

Get to Know Your Facebook Audience

The key to turning ad clicks into customers is knowing your market. Get to know your buyer personas, where they’re at in the buying journey, what kind of things they engage with, their demographics, and so on.

When you make an effort to understand your customers, you can create content designed specifically for them instead of general, pushy ads geared toward everyone. The more personalized experience, the more value you’re offering your customers.

Use Video

Every day, users watch 100 million hours of video on Facebook. But despite all of that video being consumed, 54 percent of people still want to see more video content from the brands and businesses they support, according to a study by HubSpot. In 2018 alone, 93% of businesses landed new customers on social media thanks to implementing video.

If producing video feels like a terrifying undertaking, fear no more. Mobile business video maker apps like Boosted help you quickly and easily create high-quality promo-style video ads for Facebook that convert. Whether you’re launching a new product, running a seasonal promotion, or celebrating a business milestone with a sale, a professional video ad can help you hit reach the right customers every time.

Don’t forget: The majority of people watch video on Facebook without sound, so make sure your ad copy gets the point across or that you’ve got captions. And if you’re not sure when the prime times to post to Facebook are, we’ve got you covered in this blog article.

Use Social Proof

When crafting creative for your Facebook ads, leverage social proof in the form of customer testimonials, product reviews, or videos and images created by your customers.

After all, there is no greater advocate for your brand than an existing customer! And with one study showing that ads with user-generated content have a 300 percent higher click-through rate, it might be worth A/B testing at the very least.

Always Split Test Facebook Ads

Speaking of A/B testing, or split testing, it’s one of the most important things you can do when managing Facebook ads. The reality is that no two people in your target audience will respond the same to a single ad. A/B testing different elements in your ad sets will let you see what is resonating with the majority of your audience and what’s not working. Some of the elements you’ll want to A/B test include:

  • Headline
  • Visuals/graphics
  • Copy (e.g., long form, short form, with a link in the body copy, without a link, bullets)
  • Ad type (i.e., single image, carousel, video, canvas)

Once you know which ad is performing best with your audience, then you can put more spend towards that ad to generate more conversions. You can also vary your audience targeting for A/B testing, including:

  • Ad position (i.e., mobile, desktop news feed, desktop right column)
  • Bid amount
  • Demographics
  • Behaviors

Too many small businesses set up Facebook ads and don’t A/B test or forget they’re even running. Don’t run multiple failed campaigns one after another—instead, use what’s working and replicate that for future campaigns.

The Future of Facebook Ads

If Facebook ads seem overwhelming and downright terrifying right now, there are fear-tampering changes on the horizon. As Facebook’s algorithms gets smarter and create more automated processes for advertisers (we’re looking at Facebook’s Power5 ad tools), Facebook advertising should get easier because businesses will spend less time testing and managing ads and more time on the things that humans do best: crafting creative, buyer-driven video ads.

Action Items:

1. Set up a Facebook ad campaign for your business. Follow the best practices listed above when creating your ad. You can also check out this blog for guidance.
2. A/B test your ad. Be sure to adjust spend and audience targeting as necessary.

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3 Ways to Increase Engagement on Your Facebook Business Page

Unless your name is Jennifer Aniston, social media will always require a “slow and steady wins the race” approach to engagement, and this goes double for Facebook (unless you’re Cristiano Ronaldo, of course).

As the world’s most popular social network, Facebook has more than 2.41 billion monthly active users and accounts for more than 45 percent of monthly social media visits. However, despite the numbers, the average Facebook business page only sees a miniscule change in likes month over month — 0.13 percent to be exact — according to HootSuite’s 2019 state of digital report.

If you’re relying on your brand’s growing number of followers and engaged fans to rationalize pushing for new products or features, asking for a raise, or requesting an increase in marketing spend, this slow growth can be frustrating and demoralizing.

But don’t throw in the towel just yet. There are plenty of tactics you can work into your Facebook marketing strategy to help drive engagement and increase page likes while you’re at it.

1. Use More of What’s Working

Take a deep dive into your Facebook page insights to see which types of content are performing best and which are missing the mark to create a data-driven content strategy. With hard numbers in hand, you can create repeatable wins to increase your page engagement.

For example, if you look at your page’s insights for the past month and discover that posts with video aren’t receiving much engagement but posts with images are receiving lots of reactions, shares, and comments, then work more of that type of content into your monthly content calendar. But don’t go crazy and only post a single type of content; keep a healthy balance of video, images, and text-based posts. And make sure to post your Facebook video at the right time!

Then, check your data and analytics regularly to review how your content efforts are working. If you see your fans engaging with specific types of posts differently (seasonality is real), adjust your content calendar accordingly.

Remember: Data is your friend, and the more you can leverage the facts to create repeatable results, the more engagement you’ll see and the easier your job will be in the long run.

2. Ask For What You Want

This tactic might seem uncomfortable or counterintuitive, but here’s the reality: Consumers know that brands want them to become customers, and they assume that all posts and interactions online have that sole goal in mind. However, what they likely don’t know is that sometimes, you just want them to engage with a post without any long-term commitment or strings attached.

So if you want them to comment or share something, just ask them! After all, if your fans believe in your company — and as long as you’re posting valuable and meaningful content — they’ll be more than happy to respond with likes, comments, shares, and more.

3. Make Your Fans the Stars

It’s a widely accepted fact that people ultimately trust other people’s opinions more than they trust businesses when making buying decisions (it’s nothing against you, it’s just how people are). For brands, this is where user-generated content (UGC) can be a major game changer.

According to a Stackla report, consumers are 2.4 times more likely to view UGC as authentic and trustworthy when compared to brand-created content. When you post in-house content alongside posts from your fans — whether testimonial videos, product images, or something else that’s relevant to what you do and who you are — you’re providing your followers with exactly what they want.

Brands from Coca-Cola to Starbucks to Warby Parker are leveraging user-generated content to increase trust, connect with fans, boost engagement, and grow sales. In fact, when businesses use Facebook ads featuring UGC, they experience a 300 percent higher click-through rate and 50 percent lower cost per click and cost per acquisition than those created with brand creative.

On top of the power of UGC for building authenticity and trust, the more you share UGC, the more your fans will post their own content and tag your brand, which means you’ll have a treasure trove of posts to work into your content calendar.

Whatever approach you take to boosting engagement on your Facebook page, remember that it’s a marathon, not a spring, so don’t get discouraged if the growth is slow.

Action Items:

1. Try one or two of the above strategies to try and increase engagement on your Facebook Business page. Add the strategy to your to-do list this week.
2. Continue to regularly create and share valuable, meaningful content for your page. Check your page’s insights often and rework your content accordingly.

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