How to Create An Effective Facebook Ad Strategy in 2023 – [Complete Guide]
Wiki Article
Facebook is as much of a social networking site as it is a sales channel. The platform allows for more than simple brand-customer interactions.
Throughout the years, we’ve seen various social media platforms have their rises and falls—but through it all, Facebook has remained a powerhouse. With nearly 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook is by far and wide themost-used social media network.
Facebook Ad Strategy 2023
If you’re new to advertising on Facebook, this landscape may look like a frightening new frontier where no business has gone before… but it’s not. There are more than 3 million businesses actively advertising onFacebook.
“Wait… then isn’t it oversaturated? Shouldn’t I advertise somewhere else?” There are so many advertisers on Facebook because it works. It’s an excellent way to reach your desired audience and inspire them to take action (ideally, purchasing your product).
Now, what you do need to know is that not all of those 3 million advertisers are successful. Many have failed to understand who their ideal customer is and how to target the people they want to sell to.
As a result, the question isn’t whether you should advertise onFacebook. The question is, how do you advertise properly so the ROI is worth your time and money.
What to Know Before you Set Up your Facebook Ad
We get that you’re excited, but some pre-planning will help make your campaign much more successful.
you need to understand who your customer is.
Who are they?
What does their family situation look like?
How much do they make?
Where do they live? (Both geographically and whether or not they own or rent).
Where do they work?
How do they spend their free time?
Once you understand who they are, you’ll want to take it one step further and understand how they think.
What keeps them up at night? How is their emotional state and what needs are they looking to have fulfilled? How do they identify themselves? The way they see themselves is often more important than how you see them (even if your view is more realistic).
you’ll want to walk through the average customer journey. What steps do they take as they:
Recognize that they have a problem
Identify what that problem is
Discover potential solutions
Become aware of you as an option
Choose to purchase your product
Facebook Ad Strategies
Now that you’ve set up the foundation for strong Facebook Ads, we can take a look at different strategies you might employ with your advertising.
Depending on what audience segments you choose to target, these may not all fit the bill. Make sure to keep all of theaudience research you did, in mind as you look through these options.
1. Combine Facebook Ads with Content Marketing
Many companies make the mistake of targeting warm leads with ads designed to turn them into paying customers. You know better. You know that a warm lead is not ready to buy from you yet. Instead of turning them off with straight sales offers, provide them with useful content that answers their questions, and solves their pain points. This needs to be short, interesting, and valuable. Be patient. Eventually, you will convert these warm leads into customers.
How do you do this?
Create content.
Share content on Facebook.
Ask your team members (and maybe a handful of friends) to like and share the post.
Boost your Facebook post so you can reach a wider audience.
2. Use Giveaways and Contests
Facebook contests needn’t focus on sales all the time.You can instead offer a potential high-value prize to create increased brand awareness that will pay off in the long run by bringing new leads into your conversion funnel. Before committing to a contest or giveaway strategy, review Facebook’s policies to ensure you aren’t violating any of their rules.
3. Use Lead Ads to Build Up your Marketing List
A large Facebook following is great, however, Facebook “owns” your contacts. If they decide to change their algorithm or shut down, you will lose access to those people.
Creating a lead magnet such as a free e-book or course and then running a lead ad, will help you build your marketing list. Consumers can enter their email address directly into Facebook (no added steps or friction during which you may lose them) in exchange for their free gift. You can then add their email to your marketing list and include them in youremail marketing campaigns moving forward.
4.Incorporate Video Ads
If you’ve been running ads for a while and aren’t seeing the returns you’d hoped for, or you’re brand new toFacebook ads and want to try a few different options and see what works best for your situation, video ads may be just what you’re looking for.
Not only do people love videos, but they also have the lowesteffective cost per click (eCPC) compared to other ad types. Need to sweeten the deal even more? Adobe found that “shoppers who view video are 1.81 times more likely to purchase than non-video viewers.”
5. Create Facebook and Google Ads
While many marketers see these platforms as one-or-the-other, Facebook and Google can actually complement each other quite nicely.
Once again, your strategy must depend on your campaign goals and the audience segment you’d like to target. For example, someone searching for a specific product, say a new computer, is likely ready to make a purchase and is simply researching their options. Using the right keywords and creating Google ads around them may be better than targeting warm leads on Facebook with increased brand awareness.
6. Utilize Facebook Mobile Ads
Before we go any further, is your website or landing page optimized for mobile viewing? This means that users will have a positive viewing experience no matter what device they use. If your site is not set up for this, you aren’t ready for mobile ads. Despite the fact that 94% of Facebook’s advertising revenues were generated via mobile, you will be throwing money out the proverbial window if you send potential customers to a site that causes them frustration.
Over to You
When it comes time to devise your Facebook ad strategy, the most important thing you can do is understand your audience better. All of the fancy strategies and new tricks won’t help if you don’t know who you are selling to and how close they are to making a purchase.
Spend some time getting to know your ideal customer, learning who they are, what they do, and what they want. Once you understand where your potential customers are in their buying journey, you can better usher them towards purchasing your product.
Facebook may have changed, but the value of understanding your customers never will.
Types of Facebook posts
Different post types that you can use to share your brand’s message with the world, each serving its own purpose in marketing a particular product or service.
Here are some types of posts you can incorporate into your Facebook marketing and content strategy:
Text post: The simplest of post types This is because posts with photos, videos, graphics, or links are more likely to grab users’ attention. Text posts are typically used on personal accounts to source information, ask for recommendations, or share big announcements.
Photo post: Photographs can elicit strong emotions. Using one (or a few) high-quality photos in a Facebook post can showcase the available colors of a summer dress, spotlight a restaurant’s best appetizer or cocktail, or promote a tropical beach destination.
Video post: Videos in Facebook posts can help a business tell its brand story or deliver live updates. According to an analysis from ChatterBlast, 53.5 percent of completed videos are played without sound (which means subtitles are important!) [2].
Linked content post: Posts can include a link to your website, blog, or news article. Linked content can include a call-to-action (CTA) that may directly lead to sales, brand awareness, or promotions.
Facebook story: Facebook stories are photos or short video content that appear on the top of a news feed and remain for 24 hours. These tend to be casual updates, sometimes cross-posted from Instagram.
For all post types, you should use high-quality photos and videos whenever possible, take advantage of holidays, and craft genuine messages that reflect the brand. Preparing media assets like photographs, videos, and graphics requires time, so it is wise to plan ahead. Businesses typically use a social media content calendar to execute a plans in a timely, organized fashion.
You have the option to publish each type of post on your business Facebook page for free. Posting for free will create a public post shown to users navigating to your Facebook page and may show up on the news feeds of people who already like or follow your page. You can also pay to boost your posts using the Ads Manager.
How to start marketing on Facebook
To build your brand on Facebook, you will need to develop a marketing strategy that delivers high-quality content promoting your brand.
First, you will need a Facebook business page, which can be easily created using a personal account. Facebook has comprehensive step-by-step guides if you need assistance creating or setting up your page. This video also provides an introduction for setting up your social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more.
Getting likes on Facebook
Once you have yourFacebook page, you’ll want to start acquiring likes. When people like your page, they’re essentially joining your network and will start seeing your posts in their news feeds. The more likes you have, the more visibility your business will have on Facebook.
As you begin to build your Facebook presence, it’s important to know who your target audience is. Knowing who you are targeting will enable you to create the right content for your desired customers.
Once you know who your audience is, you can intentionally seek them out on Facebook, either organically, inviting members of your personal network to like your business page, for example, or through paid ads set with parameters that match your target audience. As you build your audience, you can learn more about who they are using the Facebook Insights tool.
How to create a Facebook marketing strategy
Creating your Facebook marketing strategy is similar to creating your general content strategy, only in this case, you’ll be focusing on creating compelling content specifically for Facebook users.
The steps for creating a Facebook marketing strategy are:
Define your goals.
Research your target audience.
Conduct a content audit, if relevant.
Choose your post types.
Create your content plan.
Develop a process for content creation.
Measure the success of your content.
Build your brand with Facebook Ads
Since Facebook launched paid advertising in 2007, it has played a key role in how businesses use social media as a marketing tool. With the influx of content in Facebook news feeds, organic posts can get lost in the algorithm. Paid ads help businesses target specific demographics to get their message out.
After creating an organic brand presence on social media, you can focus on the two types of paid advertising available on Facebook. The first type is a boosted post. This increases your visibility by boosting certain posts, so you can get the most out of yourorganic content. The second is to create paid advertising campaigns usingFacebook Ads Manager.
The fourth course in Meta’s Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate is all about Advertising with Meta and guides learners through the processes.