Like it or not, Facebook is still a hugely important social media platform and, despite all the recent scandals and controversy, continues to grow year on year.
Many businesses, especially those in B2B question whether Facebook is still relevant, and the short answer is most definitely yes.
If your customer is on Facebook then your business should be there too, whether you’re B2B or B2C, product or service.
Over the last few years much has been written about changes in Facebooks mystical algorithm. But what does it actually mean for your business?
Well, at its most basic, Facebook now needs to be regarded as a low cost advertising platform. Gone are the days when writing a post on your company page meant you’d be seen organically by loads of followers. Nowadays, unless you’re consistently pumping out engaging content that generates lots of likes, comments and shares (hopefully part of your social media strategy), your posts will only be seen by a small percentage of followers.
So how do you change this? Enter Facebook ads.
At its simplest, Facebook makes it easy to boost a post. In the click of a few buttons you can get more eyeballs on your post and increase Reach, helping generate wider brand awareness.
But if you really want to get savvy with Facebook you’ll need to harness the power of Facebook Ads Manager. Not only does Ads Manager help you take full advantage of the powerful algorithm (if you’re using it correctly) but you can also build smart audiences, utilise different creative styles and quickly test different ads to see what resonates and drives the most valuable action with your customers.
Still not convinced? Here are some of the top reasons to use Facebook Ads.
The Algorithm
Understanding how the algorithm works could be the subject of a whole other article, but it’s important to understand that ultimately the algorithm wants to work for you. This starts with choosing the right objective for your campaign, but what many people don’t understand is that Facebook also looks at variables like the quality of your website landing page, how customers are engaging with the ad, the budget you’re putting against your campaign and also your payment history when it decides how your ad will feed out. Get all the moving parts right and your ad will be more successful.
Smarter targeting
Gone are the days of paying for print ads and hoping for the best. Think of Facebook Advertising as a far superior alternative. Imagine you spent £1,000 on door dropping leaflets about your business to a specific area. What are the chances of hitting the right people in that door drop? Now imagine you just post your leaflets through the door of the people most like your target audience, or who you know are already interested in your product or service. That’s what you can do with Facebook Ads.
They allow you to build audiences that are bespoke for your business. So not only can you target people who like your competitors, but you can also build audiences based on what else you think your customer likes or how they behave. Powerful stuff.
Luxury brands can add interests such as “frequent international traveller” into the mix to try and narrow their targeting. Want to target people who are newly engaged or have recently moved house? It’s all there. And it’s also possible to create audiences of people who have already purchased from you, so that you can retarget them with another offer. Your warm audiences are likely to be your most responsive, so this is a great tool to have.
Test what works
Because of its relative low cost, Facebook Ads can be a great vehicle to test out different copy, visuals, calls to action or offers with different audiences. One set of people may respond really well to one ad, and it might completely stall with another. The more budget you have, the quicker you can see the results and test what does and doesn’t work. And when you find an ad that works you can invest more and see the results instantly.
In the click of a few buttons you can get more eyeballs on your post and increase Reach, helping generate wider brand awareness.
Grow your website traffic
It’s not all about sales. Using Facebook Ads to drive traffic to your website can increase the visibility of your blogs, help with SEO rankings and increase your website traffic with a relevant audience. And don’t forget that retargeting piece we mentioned earlier.
And also…
Facebook Ads are fast, instantly measurable, engaging, competitive, mobile friendly and cost-effective.
Can you afford not to advertise on Facebook?