By: Jeff Wotton
Let me just start by saying that this is a do as I say not as I do type of post… Although we do use Facebook, we are not doing a great job at leveraging the platform for us because, well… we are busy doing it for clients.
So if you are a business owner or marketing professional you know by now that Facebook has dramatically changed over the past few years. Unless you are well known publisher with a big following, or you have 40 hours a week to devote to developing an organic following, it has become a pay to play model.
Most business owners and DIY marketers or those whom have been assigned to the marketing role in their organization lack a fundamental understanding of how the Facebook advertising platform works. And that’s not a knock at you or them, there is a lot I don’t know as well, so this post is designed to give you a little better direction to get started with taking advantage of this platform.
Keep the following tips in mind before you hit that boost button…
- Go beyond the boost. The most common feature for boosting a post is to show to people who have liked your page and their friends. While this may be an okay option for certain goals you have in mind, this is like preaching to the choir. If you want to reach new people in your target audience you need to go beyond the boost.
- Ads manager account. For those who are ready to go beyond the boost you will want to create an ads manager account. Setting up an ads manager account gives you a lot more tools and options to create your ads.
- Power editor. For those looking to go even more in depth you will want to create a power editor account. This will give you even more tools and options to scale your ads and customize your audience segments.
- Identify your target market. As should be one of the first steps in all ad campaigns, you want to first identify who your target market is. Identify their geographic location, are they local, regional or national? Identify their demographics like age, gender, income. Identify their potential hobbies and interests and other pages they may follow on Facebook. You can take these identifiers and create different audiences within the ads manager platform.
- Know your goals. Many people get hung up on how many likes their posts get. While post engagement is a good factor to consider, advertising on Facebook is about more than getting likes. After all, likes do not pay the bills. In fact most advertising campaigns we run on Facebook do not even show on your timeline of your page, they run independently through the ads network. So know your goal. Is it brand awareness, website visits, lead submissions, online orders, newsletter sign ups etc.
- Start tracking. Set your Facebook tracking pixel on your website so you can start getting more in depth analytics about the traffic to your website you are getting from Facebook. How many visits, how long did they stay, did they make a purchase, did they fill our a form etc.
- Get creative. The biggest challenge advertisers have is creating compelling creative for their ads. Use stunning photography, or video, something that will first get peoples attention in an ADD world. Keep the advertising fundamentals of AIDA in mind. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
Jeff Wotton, is a marketing consultant and co-founder of Spectrum Marketing Group. Located in New Bedford, MA – Spectrum Marketing Group is a multi-media marketing agency assisting small to medium sized businesses to better leverage their marketing efforts through brand development, professional design solutions and online marketing.