7 Powerful Facebook Advertising Strategies That Work | Roger West

Despite countless attempts to dethrone the social media giant, Facebook reigns supreme over social. With 2.32 billion monthly active users, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network is more than just a place to argue with distant relatives – it’s a smart marketer’s wonderland. Facebook advertising has become their top source of revenue, earning $16.6 billion in 2018; which demonstrates a 30% increase year over year. The rapid growth of Facebook’s ad revenue is proof of its efficacy. Brands keep paying for advertising because it pays off. This level of popularity does come with its own set of challenges. If you use the platform, then you know that it’s saturated with all kinds of content – making it critical for marketers to find a way to stand out in the crowd.

Here are 7 Facebook advertising strategies to kickstart your next campaign:

1. Figure Out What You Need

Sounds simple, right? Nope. Facebook ads are still relatively cheap, with the average cost per click (CPC) being $1.72 – with some variation between industries. Apparel settles right around $0.45 per click, while finance and insurance average $3.77. The range of industry averages is wide, so do your research to determine your benchmark cost. If the CPC is too steep for your budget, you may need to reassess your plan and consider ads to increase impressions instead. The cost of Facebook ads isn’t what will stop you - it’s figuring out their ads interface. Good luck!

2. Create Realistic Buyer Personas

The identification and creation of realistic buyer personas will help you better execute other winning Facebook ad strategies. Part of segmenting and targeting your audience involves thinking about buyer personas. This will require research to identify the kinds of people who will find value in your product, how they’ll see your ads, and their unique demographics (employer, device use, gender, etc.). Don’t think of your buyer personas as statistics, though, think of them as real people…because they are. Don’t lose the human connection and become a sales robot. The CAPTCHA police will hunt you down. Or not. You don’t want to take that risk though, do you?

3. Aim to Entertain

Your Facebook ads need to be informational, but it’s more important that audiences find them entertaining. Sprout Social surveyed customers on the most effective social ad content. 41% said the most engaging ads are entertaining, and 37% said that they’re also most enticed by the promise of a discount. Grab their attention first, then give them the information they need. Video content is one of the best ways to accomplish this. Video allows you to grab user attention, raise awareness, and attract customers. Video will also come in handy when it comes to retargeting – as you can measure how long viewers watch your video content. Put a cat in it, or maybe a funny grandma and bask in the views.

4. Segment Your Audience

Segmentation is one of the best ways to harness the power of Facebook ads. Businesses have strayed away from creating ads targeted towards large groups and are instead creating more ads that targeted towards smaller audiences. Not only does this give creative the opportunity to have a little fun, but it creates a more personalized experience for your audience. Smaller segments also create opportunities to test what works and what doesn’t within certain demographics – with minimal risk. Contextualized content is the key to converting customers with Facebook ads.

5. Retargeting

Once you’ve got your audience segmented and engaged with more relevant ad content, it’s time to analyze who has been most engaged. Identify those who clicked, shared, or viewed your ad content the most/longest, and create another ad with a strong call to action (CTA) targeted specifically to those users. They’ll laugh about Facebook for “stalking” them, and you’ll walk away with a sale. Win-win for you, right?

6. Think Mobile

1.15 billion people use Facebook from a mobile device every day. If you’re not optimizing your ad design to consider mobile users, you’re missing out on a huge segment of your potential audience. Keep your ad copy short and think about product discovery. It’s important to capture mobile users’ attention so they’ll take the next step to learn more and buy your product or service.

7. Adopt a Hybrid Strategy

If you’ve gotten this far, then you’ve noticed that all of these Facebook ad strategies are related. That’s because in order to pull off a successful Facebook ad campaign, you need to diversify your tactics. Every social ad strategy that you use should be a hybrid strategy – but in this case, we’re talking about using sponsored content to supplement organic content. Focusing on organic reach is how your brand will build a community that is engaged and loyal. Paid ads and content will attract new users, and help retain the old. Blending your content is also a great way to “trick” Facebook’s algorithms, especially if your organic content is more informative than promotional.

Do you need help planning and executing Facebook ads or other paid social search campaigns? Roger West can help. Let’s talk.