We know there’s no need to convince any business to invest in Facebook ads. Most people are already convinced. In fact, according to Sprout Social, 93% of marketers are trying to make the most of Facebook ads.
Facebook has put together the most accurate audience-targeting system imaginable and it can be an incredibly powerful tool if used correctly. This guide will demystify Facebook ads by offering clear information and advice about the following aspects of Facebook’s advertising system:
- Making the most of Facebook remarketing.
- Accurately identifying your Facebook audience.
- Choosing the right type of Facebook ad for your audience or for each specific product.
Making the most of Facebook remarketing
Remarketing in general is incredibly useful, and Facebook remarketing may be the easiest way to use it. Remarketing is a specific kind of ad that targets people who have recently visited your website. The purpose of remarketing is to pull people back to your website, to encourage users to return who have already shown a clear interest in your products. As well as targeting people who have recently visited your website, Facebook also lets you target people who have made a purchase, as well as anyone on your email list. Remarketing works because it keeps your brand in your potential customers’ sights and it works especially well on Facebook because the social media platform has more daily users than any other platform.
Remarketing essentially targets your hottest possible leads and DIGIDAY reported that the click-through rate for remarketing ads is significantly higher (0.7) than standard display ads (0.07). If you are unsure where to start with your Facebook ad strategy, if may be best to focus on remarketing.
Accurately identifying your Facebook audience
The best thing, by far, about Facebook’s advertising system is that you can choose an incredibly specific audience, specifying the age, gender, jobs, interests, and so much more about your target audience. No social media platform — or any marketing platform we’ve heard of — can help you target your audience with such precision. Facebook reported in a few case studies that defining and targeting the right audience can bring almost three times the ROI and it can also reduce the cost per action of each ad. In short, defining your Facebook audience is absolutely crucial. The good news is that Facebook has made this process relatively straightforward.
Facebook actually helps you define your audience with a very clear audience definition system. Choose your ideal audience’s location, age, gender, languages, interests, behaviours, and more. It also lets you choose what time of day you’d like your ads to run. The more specific you can be the better. If you audience is too specific, Facebook will tell you, and it also tell you if the audience you’ve selected is too broad. This audience-size barometer is perfectly gauged, and it helps you fully optimise your ad’s performance.
It’s also important to be critical of your own perception of your ideal customer. Perhaps you have a clear idea of your audience, but you may not or your ideal Facebook audience might be a little different to your standard demographic. Think about the way different demographics use and interact with social media when you define your audience on Facebook’s ad system.
Choosing the right Facebook ad
Another fantastic aspect of Facebook ads is the variety of different styles and formats. Just as you can choose your specific audience with pin-point accuracy, you can choose the specific type of ad you’d like to show them. Each type of Facebook ad has a different effect on its audience, so we’d like to outline the various options below:
Lead ads
Lead ads are the perfect marketing tool as they allow Facebook users to download files directly from the Facebook ad without having to click through further into your site. This is hugely convenient for your target audience and it’s a great way to disseminate marketing material, such as a PDF product leaflet, webinars, or any content you think might be useful to your audience. Providing easy-to-access guides and educational content is a huge aspect of content marketing and Facebook’s lead ads are a great way to get the message out.
Carousel ads
Facebook’s carousel ads are perfect if it’s images of your products that tend to convince people to buy them. Carousel ads allow you to put several product images together for your audience to rifle through the images, essentially browsing a curated selection of your products. This is the perfect way to show off your most impressive products and tempt users onto specific product pages.
Video ads
Chances are, you’ve noticed plenty of video ads on your own Facebook timeline. There’s something incredibly compelling about video ads — in fact, Facebook reported that its users tend to spend up to 3x more time watching video content than they do interacting with image or text-based content. Video ads work especially well on mobile as the videos begin to play as soon as someone scrolls past it, pulling your audience in, stopping them from scrolling past your ad. Video ads are perfect for the tourism industry where most companies are selling an experience and not just images of a nice location. Your video ad can be aspirational and it can really wow your audience. As long as you have a great video to push, Facebook’s video ads can be in incredibly powerful advertising and branding tool.
Boosted and promoted posts
This is probably the simplest kind of Facebook ad. It simply boosts one of your Facebook posts, giving it greater exposure. If you are very active on social media and you are always looking for new followers, then boosting your posts can be incredibly useful. Boosting posts is extremely cost effective as it’s relatively cheap to boost a Facebook post and you can gain a lot of exposure. It’s not as flashy as many of the other ad types discussed in this blog, but it works and you will receive accurate analytics telling you exactly how many people your boosted post reached and how many people interacted with it.
Standard Facebook homepage ads
The last type of ad is also very simple: it’s the typical sponsored post we see dotted about our timelines. Usually these kinds of ads take the user through to your homepage, but they can take them to a category page if you prefer. This kind of ad is simple: it includes a little line of text with an image, and if the user clicks on it they will be linked to your site. This can be a great option if you have a special offer or a sale you’d like to promote quickly and it’s the perfect format for remarketing.
We hope this guide has helped a few readers figure out how they can get the most out of Facebook ads. Facebook advertising can be incredibly powerful if you take the time to define your audience, utilise remarketing, and choose the right type of ad for your products (and for your audience).
Facebook has worked hard to produce an easy-to-use advertising system that SMEs and blue-chip companies alike can make the most of. If you have any questions about Facebook marketing or if you’re interested in working with TMA, please feel free to get in touch. We’re always happy to talk to new people.
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