Two billion people use Facebook every month - that’s a huge portion of the world’s population. The reach that marketing on Facebook can provide is astonishing but it’s not as simple as creating a page and hoping your products stand out. We’ve compiled some helpful information for you to get the most out of all the marketing tools that Facebook offers; ads, the Facebook Page, Messenger, and the Audience Network.
Facebook Ads are a powerful tool for showing off your business, and Facebook takes this to the next level with its huge user base and ability to target your specified audience. You can create ads on different formats and assess their effectiveness through reporting tools. Select your core audience based on the following four aspects:
- Demographics: Find people based on age, gender, education, workplace and more.
- Location: Where do you want to do business?
- Interest: What kind of things are your audience into? Hobbies, sources of entertainment etc.
- Behaviors: Find people based on how and when they use their device, purchasing behaviors and other activities.
Use Facebook as a platform to enhance your brand presence; you can build a community with the hope that you can convert those people into paying customers. Use your Facebook Page to develop a community by inviting customers and friends to follow your page. Communicate with these customers through comments or even messenger to stay in touch with them directly. Finally, post regularly and promote your products frequently through competitions. This can keep people feeling engaged with your brand but be careful not to post too much as it can come across as spam. Your community gives you credibility and helps build your reputation, share your posts and promote your brand. You can constantly improve your page with Page Insights. This allows you to monitor your page and see how people are responding and interacting. With these insights, you can modify or improve your approach based on how your content is performing.
According to Facebook around 1.3 billion people use Messenger. If you have a Facebook page set up for your business, you also have Messenger. You just need to enable it in your settings to begin conversing with your customers. This is useful if you need to talk about something privately, such as their orders. It’s important to manage your messaging for when you can actually respond to your customers. Set your estimated response time to something that's reasonable to avoid false expectations. You can also take advantage of the reach of Messenger by running ads on the home screen of the app. You can even use Messenger to build an interactive experience through the Send/Receive API. This is a bit more complicated, but if you've got the technical know-how it could benefit you significantly. With Messenger you can nurture existing relationships or contact past customers with relevant content and updates.
Go beyond Facebook with its Audience Network. You know when you’re in the middle of using a free app or you’re on a website and suddenly a video or image ad pops up? This is an example of the Audience Network in action. It allows you to market your business through other apps and sites using videos and images. Facebook takes care of the rendering and how it will display in the various placement types so you don’t have to. Use your video or images to drive traffic, conversions, app installs, reach, engagement and brand awareness. 70% of in-stream ads on Audience Network are viewed to completion. They’re non-skippable so users must view them before accessing their desired content. Keep in mind when creating an ad that on the Audience Network, they can be up to 15 seconds long but shorter can be better. You don’t want to frustrate potential customers.