Quantcast
Channel: Digital Marketing Agency | More Business Buzz | PPC SEO Video Social Wales UK
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 8

Three Key Steps To Growing Your Business With Facebook Ads

0
0

Three Key Steps To Growing Your Business and Getting ROI With Facebook Advertising

So you’ve got a Facebook page for your business, spent a bit of time making it look good, and you’re adding posts when you remember – being careful to mix up interesting content with your offers.

But lately you’ve heard this terrible rumour: that it was all a complete waste of time because Facebook – how dare they, have decided not to show your content to many of your fans any more. And other business owners are muttering that there’s no point being on Facebook anymore because the youngsters are leaving in their droves – preferring to hang out on SnapChat and Instagram.

Apparently Facebook now expects you to PAY now – as in, invest ACTUAL money in your marketing. Shocking!

The problem with this ‘sky falling in’ attitude is that it leaves you helpless. Feeling like a victim of the constant changes the online platforms inflict on us, the hapless users.

Well it’s time to move on from the complaining, accept that change is the one guaranteed constant of online marketing, and get to grips with making the BEST of what Facebook wants businesses to do: use the PAID ads options.

And I heartily recommend this – for several reasons.

Firstly because the advertising options for businesses are insanely good. And secondly, because while all the ‘other’ business owners are busy grumbling rather than adapting, YOU have the opportunity to be ahead of the crowd!

So without further ado – let’s get into the three KEY ways your business can harness Facebook ads for growth :

This is not an exhaustive list of all the different types of Facebook ads (there are LOTS, which can be overwhelming to an ads newbie), rather an initial look at three of the core ways your business could benefit from using Facebook ads :

ONE: Facebook Ads to Grow Your Facebook Fan-base and Reach

Why does this matter? Page likes shouldn’t be about vanity metrics, rather they are about building a community of people who are interested in your business/products/services, alongside your website, in the platform many of them are on virtually daily. Then having built up the likes (your community of fans) it’s about making sure they SEE your core content in the crowded online space.

The Ad types you can use are the Page Likes Ads (to get more likes), and the Page Post Link Ads (to get your key website content seen by more people, and drive traffic to that website content)

Most people assume you should just be targeting people who have never heard of your business with this type of ad, but there are in fact several different audiences you should be targeting:

- Recent Visitors To Your Website

website custom audiences on Facebook picture

This ad type was only recently introduced by Facebook – this allows you to create a Website Custom Audience and then place your ads in front of them on Facebook. The mechanics are that if someone visits your website a tracking pixel on your website ‘registers’ their visit, they are then cookied, and then your ad will be shown to them on Facebook. (You may have heard of this referred to as Remarketing, or Retargeting). So if they aren’t a fan on Facebook, or on your email list, this is a great way to encourage them to become a Facebook fan, which then gives you one more route to stay connected with them from then on. You already know that they were interested in your business because they visited your website, so this is a hyper targeted group of people to connect to on Facebook.

- Your Email Subscribers

You may think that if someone is already on your email list, why would you want to bother connecting with them on Facebook as well?

The reality is that not many of your email subscribers will open your emails (typical email open rates are less than 25%, and click though rates – for example to an offer on your website – are less than 3%).

So targeting your email subscribers with Facebook ads gives you an additional way to make sure they see your key content and offers.

This is done by uploading your email list into Facebook and creating a Custom Audience.

- Fans of Similar Pages

Although this is less targeted than the other two audiences mentioned above, this can still be a useful strategy to build your Facebook audience, as it allows you to gain likes and place your key content in front of Facebook users who have liked Pages which are similar to your own business’s Page – but perhaps haven’t discovered you yet.

At its simplest form this can be as straightforward as targeting other similar business pages in your ads. For example if you have a cookery and bakeware shop you could target people who have liked other cookery and bakeware shops.

With a bit more thought you can also cast your net a bit further. For example – what TV shows do people who are into baking like? What magazines do they read? You can then start to work those wider interests into your ad targeting as well.

 

TWO : Facebook Ads To Build Your List Of Emails Subscribers

Why does this matter? However hard you work to build your Facebook audience (and other social media platforms for that matter) – you do NOT own this platform, and Facebook is quite at liberty to make changes to it as they wish. It’s important to remember that you are only ever ‘renting’ space on Facebook for your business, so it would be foolish to build your business entirely based on marketing done on ‘rented land’.

The best way to get around this is to move your Facebook followers OFF Facebook and ONTO your own email list wherever possible.

Once you have someone’s details on your email list (with their permission i.e. they opted in) you can then build the know, like and trust factor, and market to them how YOU want to, not how Facebook dictates you can.

Plus remember you can still market to them on Facebook as well via your Custom Audience ads, as mentioned above.

There are several audiences you can target with these types of ads :

  • Your existing Facebook fans
  • Fans of similar pages (other business’s pages, or interests)

The days of someone opting in to your email list for a newsletter are long gone, so the best thing is to offer something of high perceived value which is relevant to your business, in exchange for their email sign up.

It could be a downloadable e-book report, or access to a video series, or webinar or teleseminar. Or it could be a discount code, or voucher toward something your business sells.

Contests are also an excellent way to funnel Facebook users onto your email list.

example of newsfeed ad image

 

THREE : Facebook Ads To Make Sales

This is what we’re all in business for – to sell stuff! And Facebook ads can play a significant role in that, as one of a number of selling channels you can have in your business.

The most common type of ad used is the Link Post Ad (which links to your sales page, or the page on your website which you want people to see) as it gives you a good sized image in the newsfeed, and if someone clicks on the image or the text below it, or the link they will be taken to the page you want them to go to

Again there are several different audiences that you can target your selling ads to :

- Your Email List

This could include current and past customers, as well as people who have subscribed via email for your free report/vouchers etc

Of course the easiest way to connect with your email list when you’re making a selling offer is via email. However, as mentioned earlier, not everyone will see that email, or open it, or click on the link to whatever you’re offering.

Also we all get busy and inevitably a percentage of your subscribers might simply get sidetracked and forget to make the purchase, even though they wanted to.

Facebook ads are a great back up plan to make sure that more of your email subscribers see your selling content.

- Your Facebook Page Fans, and Fans Of Similar Pages

One of the most common reasons people ‘Like’ business pages on Facebook is for their special offers, so it makes sense to make sure your actual fans see your selling posts.

Also you can target this selling content to fans of similar pages, and people with relevant interest on Facebook even if they haven’t liked your page. Because they probably don’t know your business though, this targeting generally gets poorer results than targeting your page fans (which is why building up the audience of people who like your Facebook page is important)

A good ratio for non-selling content and selling content in your Facebook posts is 80:20 or even 90:10.

Similarly you wouldn’t want to be running selling ads to this audience continuously as it would quickly get annoying, so use it strategically.

- People Who Have Visited Your Sales / Product Pages On Your Website

If someone has visited a sales page or product page on your website they are a HOT prospect. They have taken the time to actually check out what you’re selling, even though they might not have bought there and then.

using facebook to sell image

This is where you can run a remarketing ad, so that when they are on Facebook they will see an ad from you, relevant to what they were looking at on your website. This is your opportunity to re-engage that website visitor with what you already know they were interested in. You could offer a bonus, or a discount, or highlight some form of scarcity.

So to conclude: yes Facebook has deliberately made it harder for businesses to reach their audience via organic posting. But in return they have given us an excellent advertising platform which can be used at all stages of our marketing and selling funnel to grow our businesses!

I encourage you to start incorporating Facebook ads into your business. I use them for my own businesses, as well as for my clients.

Can You See The Potential But Not Sure Where To Start, Or Just Want It All ‘Done For You’?

If you would like to start using Facebook ads but find the thought of it overwhelming do feel free to contact us for a chat about how we could help you with some guidance. Alternatively if you know you want to use Facebook ads in your business, but you just want it all ‘Done For You’ we do offer that as a service, and would be happy to have a chat with you about that. Get in touch today!

 


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 8

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images