Facebook Marketing, All You Ever Wanted To Know

Ever wondered what all the hype is about Facebook Marketing? Facebook Marketing has taken the Digital Marketing world by storm. Touted as the most indispensable and cost-effective, Facebook is an efficient marketing tool.

What is Facebook and Facebook Marketing?

Facebook, Inc. is an American free social media and social networking website founded by Mark Zuckerberg. With over 2.41 billion active users as of June 2019, it is THE WORLD’S LARGEST SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE. It facilitates interaction with family and friends. Facebook allows for the sharing of photos, videos, and other interesting content.

It is user-friendly, so you need not be tech-savvy to use Facebook. It has customizable privacy settings, protecting the information from reaching third-party individuals. Initially used primarily as a way to connect to family and friends, it is now the favored platform of businesses globally, both big and small.

Let us go over in detail all you ever wanted to know about Facebook Marketing.

Facebook Marketing:

Social media marketing using Facebook is Facebook Marketing. It involves creating and actively using a Facebook page to communicate with a set of audiences and attract more customers. Facebook being the biggest social media platform gives it the highest potential to drive traffic and convert leads to sales.

Marketing is the most important aspect of a business. The success or failure of a business depends on effective marketing strategies. With its popularity and minimal cost, Facebook Marketing is a choice of the masses. It is undoubtedly a powerful digital marketing tool and a free one at that.

From marketing to selling products/services, Facebook is a handy tool for it all. Especially for start-ups and small budget businesses, or even home businesses, Facebook is a boon. It provides a higher outreach with minimum to no cost incurred.

Yet, there are many businesses that are unaware of the impact of Facebook Marketing. Some are blissfully unaware of the importance of connecting socially in today’s age, while some others are hesitant as they are unaware of how Facebook marketing works.

If you are like the many out there, who believe Facebook is only a social media platform meant for “getting in touch”, give us the pleasure of busting this myth. Let us give you some insights and walk you through the benefits of Facebook Marketing to start off.

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Benefits of Facebook Marketing/Advertising:

Facebook Marketing/Advertising has a plethora of benefits, some known and some not so known. Let us list some of the advantages of using Facebook for Marketing:

• The global estimate is that an average user spends 50-60 minutes on Facebook. Regardless of who the target audience is, the fact is that people use it almost on a daily basis.
• It provides a bigger outreach to the target audience, which is of great significance.
• Facebook is the most economical, cost-effective mode of advertising. It diminishes the extensive costs of traditional advertising. Facebook Marketing is especially beneficial to smaller businesses or start-ups.
• It is relatively fast and drives quick results.
• This is a platform to let people know what products/services you have to offer. It is the most feasible way to increase brand awareness. Better brand awareness results in better prospects of conversions.
• Facebook Marketing helps in increasing website traffic thus increasing leads, conversions to sales, and ultimately revenue.
• It helps in lowering acquisition costs.
• Facebook is more engaging than other forms of marketing. This is an important feature as it builds a stronger connect with the target audience. The quality of the engagement decides the quantity of the audience and their response.
• Facebook Marketing helps build an e-mail list. This is useful to target customers who are likely to buy from you, thus driving repeat business.
• The shares, likes, and comments on posts boost the SEO rankings.
• Facebook Marketing is real-time, instant. Any changes or response is immediate unlike other modes of advertising/marketing.
• To top the list is the fact that Facebook Marketing is Mobile. With most of the population going digital via mobiles, this is undeniably a platform for success in digital marketing. It is #1 on the most downloaded social media apps in 2019.

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How to Leverage Facebook for Marketing?

Having had a fair idea of the benefits of Facebook Marketing, let us move onto the “how-to” part of Facebook Marketing.

Since its inception in 2004, Facebook has evolved with the changing times. Facebook Advertising is a powerful and sophisticated platform. Marketing on Facebook needs some experience. It can be a little tricky for the newbie until you get a hang of things.

Prerequisites of Facebook Marketing:

First and foremost, create a company/business page on Facebook. This will be the one page where you share all posts, images, videos, surveys, run ads, etc. It is more of a business page and different from the personal profile page. Be sure to fill in all details including the correct address, contact number, the profile picture (business logo), and cover photo (again related to your business). This is the information that is constantly displayed to people going through your page.

Go the extra mile to create an awesome business page as the first impression is the last impression for many out there. Appropriate and complete information also ups the chances of a good ranking of your business page.

Once the company/business page is ready with all the required information, it will be the second home page of sorts. Optimize the business page with some tried and tested SEO practices.

Now, you can start sharing posts, images, videos, surveys, contests, stories, or other information that is relevant to your business. Videos are very much the trend and have more people engaged. A proven fact is that content in the form of visuals, graphics, images, and videos garner more audience, views, and clicks than traditional plain-text posts. To corroborate this, check out the most viral Facebook posts. You will find that most have videos.

The biggest advantage in recent times is that Facebook allows you to add shopping features to your business page.

What does this mean? When a customer is browsing through the products/services on your business page, they can “tag” the product/service. Once information is gathered and product/service tagged, it leads the customer to the product shopping page where they can make a purchase of the desired product.

You can also post stories routinely on your Facebook business page. These stay active for 24 hours and useful to make announcements, product reveals, etc.

Read our detailed article on Google Digital Marketing Courses 

Audience Engagement:

Businesses today are customer-centric. The same is true for customers/consumers/viewers on your Facebook business page. They are the lifeline of a thriving business. You need to be alert to the expectations of your target audience and be creative in finding ways to keep them coming back.

There are some fundamental best practices to achieve customer satisfaction on Facebook.

Since most people buy things online these days, stressing the importance of “reviews” is a valid point. Do not underestimate the influence of reviews in decision-making. Enable the review option and engage with customers on their reviews of your products.

Improve on products/services based on reviews. People who love your products/services and leave reviews are indirectly promoting your product/service. They are unpaid salespeople, so invest in them, your time, and effort.

Add a personal touch to your business page. Take time to respond to their queries. Being friendly encourages further conversation, building a better connect.

Keeping the customers/target audience engaged and interested is the most important task. Post relevant content and post regularly.

Use Facebook Live and bring more people closer together. Live videos increase viewership and interaction and are an instant way to connect and speak with the audience.

Facebook Polls is another tested method of keeping the audience hooked onto your page. In fact, the Facebook Poll even gives insights into audience opinion which helps in decision making about Facebook Marketing strategy.

Call to Action:  A significant benefit of having the Facebook business page is the call to action button. You can select “add a button” at the bottom of the cover photo and choose from the options enlisted that best suit your needs. This simple addition has shown to be of tremendous benefit in acquiring new leads.

Boosting a Post:

Boosting a post is much like giving it a push ahead. It does not have a target audience as such. It is just a paid way of getting your post to reach a larger audience, quantity over quality in short. This tool compensates for the declining organic reach.

When you click “boost post” you get the option of boosting it to your contacts and their friends or choose a target audience. It is not limited to just people you know. You can target a wider audience. There are criteria to select the target audience such as gender, age group, location, interests, etc. Also present are budget options to boost a post. There is an option to select the number of days (duration) that you want to boost the post as well as modify accounts. After boosting the post, you can monitor the performance with access to analytics (Facebook Insights).

Facebook Ad, Campaign:

The other way to promote a post is by using the Ads Manager (or Power Editor). The difference lies in better audience targeting, pricing slabs, and bidding options. Facebook Advertising is a powerful and sophisticated platform.

Facebook’s Ad Manager allows you to run Facebook Ad Campaigns. Facebook Ads help acquire new customers, are much more in-depth and elaborate, and target a specific audience. As per a report, 1.6 billion people worldwide connect to small businesses on Facebook.

In Facebook Marketing terminology, we have Ads, Ad Sets, and Campaigns. A Campaign is a combination of all the Ad Sets. Ad Sets are groups of advertisements that target specific audiences. Multiple target audiences call for multiple ad sets. Finally, the most basic, Ad, is the individual ad that you post.

A good strategy to initiate Facebook Advertising is providing free valuable content. It could be in the form of a blog post, a checklist, a short video, or coupons, etc, but should be of value to the customers.

How to create a Facebook Ad?

To create a Facebook Ad, you need to have a clear objective/goal in mind. The objective is the answer to what outcome you want from the Facebook Ad.

From increased brand awareness and reach, sales, app downloads, traffic, engagement, lead generation, or conversions and sales, the goal can vary.

Next is selecting the target audience. Facebook has powerful audience selection tools that help segregate and reach the right audience. The segregating factors are inclusive of location, behavior, demographics, connections, and interests.

Facebook gives you the liberty of choosing where you want to run your ads, individually on Facebook, Instagram, or across both of them. A daily budget option with a time period is convenient and easy on the expenses. There is a lifetime budget option also that spreads your expense evenly across the time specified. You can even schedule the ads at a time convenient to you.

Facebook has preset formats to select from. Whether it is images, video, words, carousel, slide share, or a combination of all the elements, the formats have them all. Predominantly, they are images with minimal text. The best part is, the formats work seamlessly across all devices. You can tweak the ads as and when you deem necessary.

On the creation and submission of the ad, you can review and monitor its progress and results. There are many metrics to determine the success of ads or ad campaigns. The Ads Manager dashboard gives a lot of information with filter options. The metrics of Action, Cost per Action, and Frequency, etc, provide useful insights as to how successful Facebook Marketing is.

Facebook Analytics:

Much like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights is an analytical tool. It helps analyze the audience, engagement, how well the ads are performing, etc. These insights determine further Facebook Marketing strategy.

Since multi-device usage has increased in recent years, an omnichannel analytical tool such as Facebook Analytics plays a significant role in accumulating and simplifying all the data.

The data from Facebook Analytics can guide you on which audience to target, where to place the ads, what type of content to post, and also which channel is driving the most traffic. It needs some time and exploration to fully absorb, understand, and implement the extensive possibilities of Facebook Analytics.

Facebook Analytics is based on advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence. The Facebook Analytics dashboard works on the installation of the Facebook Pixel. The dashboard is customizable with the ability to build a custom audience, omnichannel insights, and the ability to segment and retarget the audience.

The overview reveals the larger picture of all that is happening on your business page. The post likes, page reach, and engagement, et al. You even get free tips on how to increase your engagement with the audience.

The Traffic Source reveals conversions as well as the path leading to conversions. You can customize and create different funnels to see which path gives the highest conversion rates.

Some Facebook Marketing Tools:

• Facebook Pixel: This enables tracking of what Facebook users do on your business page/site. It is a metric of sorts to measure traffic, conversions, Facebook ads results, and create custom audiences.

• AdEspresso, the Facebook Ad Management Tool. This tool helps create and manage Facebook Ad Campaigns. Automation helps analyze and optimize the efficacy of the campaigns.

• Agorapulse, the Facebook Management Tool. This aids in content management for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms. It helps check social mentions across platforms, schedule and publish posts, and even automate the process. After publishing the post, it helps monitor engagement and activity.

• Buffer, another Social Media Management Tool. It is one of the most popular social media management tools that helps schedule and publish posts across platforms. Features that make it a hit among the masses are its ease of use, seamless integration with WordPress and Chrome, and its valuable analytics and insights

• ManyChat, the Facebook Messenger Marketing Tool. This tool helps in creating a Facebook Messenger bot with ease, without the knowledge or requirement of coding. The bot helps with consumer marketing and sales support.

• Heyo, is the Facebook Marketing tool that creates better engagement. Sweepstakes, hashtag campaigns, interactive campaigns, or contests, it has preset templates for it all. It takes audience engagement to a different level with even giveaways, coupons, and quizzes to keep the audience entertained and coming back to your page. A sure-shot way to acquire new leads and retain the old.

• Pagemodo, a great tool to customize your Facebook business page. It is an intuitive editor that enables you to give your business page a professional look with minimal effort. As with all other tools, it provides analytics as well.

• InVideo, the online video editor. Making professional impressionable videos has never been this easy. They have a stack of images, stickers, and text boxes, animations, audios, and beautiful templates.

Facebook Marketing Hacks

There are some tried and tested Facebook Marketing hacks that if implemented well are a recipe for sure-shot success.

• Be in the know about your competitor’s Facebook Ads. The Facebook Ads Library is extensive and exhaustive. It gives information about all active ads. Check out your competitor’s pages for their Ads, not to duplicate, but to have a better idea and improvise. To see results, most Ads need to run long-term.

• Right Audience: These two words are of the utmost importance when it comes to Facebook Marketing. Simply running Facebook Ads without a target, is of no use. The Facebook Ads Manager is the solution to creating your target audience. There are options for creating a custom audience, a lookalike audience, or targeting saved audiences.

• Compelling Headlines: Most people, almost 80%, do not read beyond headlines. A compelling headline is what makes them delve deeper. Using numbers, positive and impactful words, and short yet succinct headlines work great.

• Testimonials: With so many businesses online, the consumer is wary of what is genuine and what is not. Customer experience can boost or downgrade a business. The average consumer tends to incline more towards reviews and testimonials by customers who have already bought or availed of the products/services. So, social proof in the form of testimonials goes a long way in strengthening a customer’s decision-making about buying the product/service.

• Videos, Images, everything Visual: Images and videos in Ads are undoubtedly more appealing than plain text. They are more compelling too. Facebook Live is also a trend that is gaining popularity by the day.

• Retargeting: It is a form of re-marketing. Customers who bounce off your site/page, or make it to the checkout but then abandon, etc, are the retargeting audience. Enticing this segment with offers, videos, or other retargeting strategies leads to better conversion and brand awareness.

• Facebook Messenger Ads: They increase conversions as well as response rates. The Messenger Ads basically work to initiate a conversation with the customers and subsequently lead to interaction and sales/conversions. It significantly reduces the bounce rate and increases active audience engagement. Their main aim is to generate organic leads and conversions. Speaking in numbers, Facebook Messenger is adding almost 666,666 users per day.

Conclusion:

Facebook is a wonderful platform for marketing your business. It gives fruitful returns on investment of your time, efforts, and money. If you are not getting positive results from Facebook Marketing, you need to revisit your Facebook Marketing strategy and revise or tweak aspects and do some trial and error to get positive results. Being proactive and getting down to doing things is the only way forward when it comes to Facebook Marketing.

Hesitate no more. Delve into the world of Facebook Marketing and take your business to a higher level.