Juan Pablo CastroSocial media has a number of great capabilities for brands, from increasing awareness to sparking new levels of engagement. Facebook also makes it easier for advertisers to reach their target audiences through a platform they already use.
Many companies have lamented that traditional forms of advertising aren’t as effective as they once were because consumer behavior is rapidly changing. For example, it’s more difficult to reach people through television ads because of the popularity of online streaming.
With the wide adoption of Facebook, brands can leverage its power as an advertising tool.
Choosing Your Ad Format
Facebook offers a few different options for advertisers, including right-hand column ads and news feed posts. The right-hand format can capture attention right when people log in to their profiles, and Facebook recently announced a new look for this type of ad, according to Social Media Examiner.
Even though these promotions are larger and more visual, news feed ads may be more effective and a better source of qualified leads. These ads fit more intuitively into the overall Facebook experience because users will see them while scrolling through their news feeds.
It’s important to remember that social media is highly visual. Photos and images perform really well on these networks, but only when high-quality graphics are used.
Facebook only allows 20 percent of an ad to contain text, so considering your visuals is an essential part of the campaign.
Facebook has a grid tool to ensure you don’t exceed the 20 percent threshold.
High-resolution photos tend to work best, but A/B testing can reveal which are the best choices. Testing a bunch of different options may be beneficial.
Setting Up Customized Audiences
Running an effective campaign on Facebook is more than having a detailed profile and selecting the right images. Your ads have to reach the most relevant people.
Most brands have customer segments, and converting this concept to Facebook advertising can ensure your ads get seen and noticed by customers who have the highest likelihood of making a purchase.
One of the biggest benefits of Facebook ads is they allow you to harness the social network’s powerful targeting capabilities. The platform excels at gathering relevant data about its users.
Although you have your own information about your customers, such as website visits and current purchasers, Facebook has more details about age, gender, interests and even income levels when you use partner data as well, KISSmetrics said.
When you combine this data, you have the opportunity to create highly relevant ads that will compel your customers to immediately take action.
Facebook allows you to see up custom audiences from your current followers, customers, website visitors, leads, high-value clients and past purchasers. Facebook can target these people with very little information. An email address or phone number can be entered into the platform so these individuals will see the ad.
However, you need to be sure you asked users’ permission to utilize this data or Facebook may drop the ad.
You can set up multiple audiences depending on the individual ad or product you want to promote. Facebook won’t send ads to an audience of less than 20 people, but you can set up niche groups.
You may be wondering what the benefit of using Facebook is if you already have contact information for your clients. While the power of email marketing shouldn’t be overlooked, the reality is active Facebook users check their news feeds up to 15 times a day.
Social media can’t be the only channel you use, but it fits well into a multichannel approach.
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