5 Facebook Ad Targeting Tips to Help Digital Marketers Drive Phone Calls

September 11, 2016

The secret’s out: People engaging with social media ads on their smartphones convert by calling. Facebook and social advertising will generate 12 billions of phone call conversions to US businesses this year. And that number is expected to grow by nearly 200% to over 36 billion calls in 2019.


This online-to-offline consumer behavior from Facebook ads is especially true for industries like automotive, insurance, financial services, travel and hospitality, education, and health care. For these industries that involve an expensive, complex, or infrequent purchase, the phone call plays a critical role in the customer journey. People won’t make a purchase without first getting answers from a human being.


Studies also show that across most industries calls convert to revenue 10x-15x more than web leads. So fully optimizing Facebook ads to drive these valuable call conversions becomes even more important. Here are five Facebook targeting tips to help you drive quality phone calls and increase ROI:


Tip #1: Location Matters


Did you know 52% of consumers shopping on their smartphones want a local store or agent to be within 5 miles of them? Think about it. If you’re in the market for a new car, doctor, or insurance agent, you most likely want them nearby because it’s convenient.


As a digital marketer, target audiences based on country, state, ZIP code, or radius from your business. You can also extend your reach by setting specific location parameters, such as 30 miles from your business, but make sure to include a local number to show that you’re nearby. It’s also helpful to use localized ad language and offers as you’ll need to standout from nearby competitors.


Tip #2: Focus on Known Callers


Get your ads in front of customers with an affinity to call. You can do this by only showing your ads to smartphone users since smartphones make phone calls. To take it one step further, layer on an extra filter targeting people who are known to respond to offers by calling. People that make purchases over their smartphone by calling are more likely to click on your ad to call than a person who never purchases over the phone.


Tip #3: Exclude the Negative


Don’t focus your marketing efforts on trying to reach people with negative behaviors. If they can’t call, like tablet and desktop users, or use non-mobile browsers, you probably don’t want to target them with campaigns designed to drive phone calls. Instead, target those users with a different ad campaign that’s more appropriate to their behaviors and devices.


Tip #4: Layer Behaviors


Make your ads more relevant and compelling by targeting users based on their life events, interests, or behaviors. Perhaps the user is a sports enthusiast and likes outdoor-related pages and apps — show them a relevant ad with a relevant offer to get them to call. Or they’re married and add a life event for expecting a baby — show them an ad for insurance that includes messaging about a new child. And if you’re in the hotel and travel industry then you might target both of these audiences with ads for family-friendly vacations that offer outdoor adventures.


There are dozens of events or preferences that could make a consumer more receptive to your ads. Target people by the devices they use, their purchase intent, travel preferences, and more. Target by behaviors and overlay demographics, location, and interests to refine your audience.


Tip #5: Use First-Party Data


Retain your current customers and re-engage prospects by staying top of mind and reaching them on Facebook via retargeting tactics. Let’s say you wanted to drive calls. Upload a list of phone numbers or email addresses of customers or prospects that engaged or purchased over the phone. You can create a custom audience list to retarget with ads more personalized to their interests while implementing the Facebook ad tactics designed to help drive calls.


You can even use your data to reach new audiences, also known as lookalike audiences, similar to your customers and prospects. These advanced targeting features get you in front of an extremely specific audience. It helps you reach highly-engaged people who are more likely to take action from your ads. There is more potential to engage with a mirrored audience than an audience that doesn’t reflect your current customer base.


Facebook ads and targeting will play a big role in driving calls to your business. If implemented correctly, they will capture attention and create engagement, resulting in customers clicking on your ads and being directed to your landing pages. At that point, it’s up to your landing pages to drive phone calls. To learn how to optimize your landing pages to drive calls from Facebook and more Facebook ad tips, download The Facebook Playbook to Call Conversions: How To Use Facebook Ads to Drive Quality Calls and Conversions.

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