Facebook Marketing – more than just ads

Almost every internet user encounters Facebook marketing daily—through ads on Instagram or Facebook. But Facebook marketing is more than mere advertising. It's about marketing strategies that allow you to reach potential customers at just the right moment.

Fig.1 Facebook Login Screen

In the following article, we show you how to set up effective Facebook marketing.

Facebook has been officially around since 2004 and was initially just an internal network at Harvard University. By 2008, Facebook had started reaching more users worldwide, gaining significant relevance. This is often forgotten, given that there are now over 2 billion active Facebook users. Facebook has become an integral part of daily life for many users, offering advertisers numerous opportunities to accurately target their audience from a vast pool of users.

Facebook isn't a fleeting trend that you engage with just because everyone else is. However, the competition on the social media platform has become very intense, making it advisable to invest a lot of work and time to be genuinely successful with ad campaigns. Therefore, ask yourself the following question:

What do I want to achieve with my channel?

Without a well-structured concept, you will not achieve the desired success. There are too many advertisers on Facebook and too much poor content. It's about standing out from other advertisers.

Set up a Facebook Page

With this in mind, you should also set up your Facebook page. On this page, you interact with your fans. Your Facebook page is your digital storefront for your business. Arrange your page appealingly because customers should feel comfortable on your page and find what they are looking for. Ideally, this leads to customers returning not just to Facebook but also to your online shop. Give your potential target audience a compelling reason to return.

Convert users to customers/fans through Facebook marketing

Develop a USP (Unique Selling Point) that sets you apart from other companies. Ask yourself the question Why would someone want to be a fan of this page? How do you want to impress them: high quality, an information platform, strong discounts, or perhaps all at once?

It is especially important that you remain authentic. Give your posts a personal touch and engage with your users. The higher the interaction rate, the better it is for your visibility. Try to respond to all posts and increase customer satisfaction. Respond particularly to critical posts and offer these individuals alternatives. Never forget that everyone can see what is written or NOT written on your page.

In summary, several rules can be derived for the creation and maintenance of the Facebook page:

• Stand out—be different from the rest and create added value. You can do this, for example, with special offers on your page.

• Take care of your customers—try to respond to as many posts as possible.

• Personality pays off. Give your company a human side.

Creating an Advertisement – finally launching Facebook ads

While the organic reach of posts on your own Facebook page is increasingly declining within the network, ads are becoming more important for conveying your content. When creating Facebook ads, there are several things to keep in mind.

We come back to the question – What do I want to achieve with my Facebook ads?

The advertising goal should logically align with your business objectives. These primary goals are defined by Facebook as follows:

• Awareness: Objectives that generate interest in your products or services.

• Consideration: Objectives that encourage people to explore your business and seek more information.

• Conversions: Objectives that prompt individuals interested in your business to purchase your products or services.

Facebook further breaks down marketing objectives into different subcategories that you can choose from. For a better overview, here is a screenshot from Facebook:

Fig.2 Facebook Advertising Goals

If you want to set up a video campaign for branding purposes, for example, you should choose the goal "Video Views." The campaign will then be optimized by a Facebook algorithm to generate more video views.

Target Audiences – How to avoid wasted coverage in Facebook Marketing?

When creating the ad, targeting is essential. You definitely don’t want to target users who aren’t interested in your ads. Pay close attention to very precise targeting to avoid wasting money on incorrect audience targeting. Check your analytics tool to see who interacts with your website most frequently. Often, the "perceived target audience" differs from the actually active users on your website. We therefore always recommend double-checking – who is actually purchasing on your website? Emulate these users on Facebook and try to target them using details like age, gender, origin, interests, behavior, or job title.

You should always set up different target audiences, and, for example, run them against each other in different age groups. To define your target group as accurately as possible, you can link different targeting options. Here is an example of what that might look like:

Fig.3 Facebook Audience

In the screenshot, we have set the targeting to address people interested in handball and also in Füchse Berlin. This helps us reduce targeting dispersion and very specifically narrow down our Facebook audience.

Facebook Ads – Content is King

When designing your Facebook ads, make sure your message is communicated clearly and distinctly. Show your customers what you want from them and make it as easy as possible for them to convert. Work with clear call-to-actions. Should the user buy something, download something, or watch a video? Make the purpose of your advertising clear quickly. Use appealing images that integrate the CTA button.

You want to provide your customers with added value through the ad. Vary the advertising materials you work with, run different ads against each other, and test which banner works best for your customers. Continuously optimize your campaigns, paying particular attention to the relevance of the ads. If your ad relevance drops below five, you should disable the ads as they then achieve poor performance.

You can view the ad relevance in the Power Editor or the Ads Manager on the ad level. More information on Facebook best practices can be found here.

Fig. 3: Ad Relevance Rating

Data is Everything - the Facebook Pixel

To measure the success of your campaign and create Facebook remarketing campaigns/custom audience campaigns, you must integrate the Facebook pixel on your website. You can do this relatively easily via Google Tag Manager. You need to implement the basic Facebook pixel code via a custom HTML tag on all your website pages.

Fig. 4: Facebook Pixel

If you want to track a conversion, such as a lead or a sale, you need to add another script to your page in addition to the basic Facebook code.

With the help of the Facebook pixel, besides the normal targeting options, you can create Facebook remarketing campaigns. Users who have previously interacted with your website get "saved" via the Facebook pixel and can now be targeted on Facebook. This allows you to engage with individuals who already have an affinity for your brand, providing them with an additional touchpoint.

Users in the B2B space typically need around 12 touchpoints to convert. The likelihood of conversion is significantly higher for users who have previously interacted with your website than for those without a prior connection.

External Parameters – Tracking through an Analysis Tool

To attribute the traffic in your analysis tool to the corresponding Facebook campaigns, always tag your campaigns with parameters. This way, you can evaluate performance not only in Facebook but also in your analytics tool. This highlights all activities on your site and allows you to compare different marketing channels down to the ad level.

Read the Facebook Marketing Guide – Now What?

To develop the perfect Facebook marketing strategy, you need to integrate the Facebook channel within your overall marketing strategy. How does Facebook play a role in achieving my goals? Is it about acquiring new customers via Facebook and then attracting them to the site through Google? Or are sales meant to be generated via Facebook?

This poses the question of how your users' customer journey appears until they convert and how Facebook can be integrated as a decision-making factor in the purchasing process. Analyze your initial campaigns and develop additional ideas based on this data.

Examine which sources generated the most conversions, how the target audience is structured, and who you do not want to have on your Facebook page because the interests of these individuals potentially do not align with your target audience cluster.

What can we do for you?

As a full-service online marketing agency, we can work together with you to create an online marketing strategy for your website. We’ll cover all online marketing channels to design the best possible marketing mix for your site. Contact us.