Social Media Strategy: Facebook Marketing Tips

Social platforms and technology are constantly evolving so it can be frustrating trying to keep your social media strategy up to date. Facebook marketing is not just about showcasing visually appealing content. It’s equally as important to get said content in front of the right eyes.

Below are some Facebook marketing tips to add into your strategy this year to get the highest return on your ad spend. 

1.Diversify Your Content

Videos remain one of the highest performing ads on social media and can easily be adapted for use in some way for nearly any industry. Keep videos as concise as possible! Depending on the placement 15 seconds or less might sound short but is ideal for grabbing and keeping the viewer’s attention to the end. Facebook offers many ways to get creative and if you don’t have the means to produce a high-quality video ad, you can start small by using Facebook’s creative studio to create a slide show and enhance it with stickers, text, or effects. You can also advertise a collection of products or services in a catalog or carousel ad.

Creative fatigue often occurs after the audience has been over-exposed to your content. Canva is another easy way to create more engaging images, videos and even GIFs, using colorful layouts and customized templates. The best way to avoid a fatigued audience is to have multiple assets ready to swap out, even if it’s just new colors, different ad copy or call to action. Whatever you decide to start with test early and often, what people want to see can change quicker than you think.

If you’re struggling to know exactly where to start to reach your goals, Facebook Business offers a wealth of resources from creative guidance to optimization tips backed by case studies. 

2. Engage The Audience

Great Facebook marketing goes beyond a pretty picture or fun video. Whether it’s creating a poll, or quiz, or hosting a giveaway or contest, consumers love being able to interact on a deeper level than simply liking or following.

• Go live and give customers a glimpse behind the scenes to foster customer relationships and build brand loyalty.
• Ask questions and listen. Offer customers a chance to feel valued and heard.
• Don’t just rely on influencers, your own customers might be showcasing their support and feel overlooked.
• Don’t be afraid to build credibility by sharing relevant or useful content from other brands who post in your niche.

Be proactive when it comes to generating buzz and encouraging users to engage on your page by adding some level of interaction with your post. 

3. Get Creative With Custom Audience Targeting

Now that you have the right content you want to tap into the right audience. There are certain types of campaigns that can and should be tailored to appear to different audience segments based on more than the usual demographics like sex, age, location etc. Getting more granular with your targeting can be extremely beneficial when it comes to spending your ad dollars in the right places. Facebook has many options to target based on major life events such as graduation, engagements, travel plans, birthdays, and more.

While LinkedIn remains the most accurate career-based targeting platform Facebook reigns when it comes to extensive interest and behavior-based targeting. Interests and hobbies range from veganism to League of Legends lovers and from small business owners to winter sports fanatics. You can even create layered audiences, and exclude certain criteria. For example, targeting Engaged Online Shoppers while at the same time excluding those who live too far from your area of service.

Think about who your audience has proven to be and if there are any new segments you are interested in reaching. No matter how incredible your ad is, if you show it to the wrong audience, it will be just as effective as the mediocre ad that’s gets in front of a more relevant audience.

4. Expand To Lookalike and Retargeting Audiences

Lookalike Audiences are the next step in tailoring your perfect audience, once you have a good Custom Audience strategy in place you can expand your reach to include people with similar traits and common interests. Here is where you can upload customer lists that include phone numbers or emails that can be matched to corresponding Facebook accounts and then mirrored in a lookalike group.

One of the most important audience targeting features in Facebook Ads is the Pixel. You or your developer will need to install the Facebook Pixel directly on your site to begin receiving events and start retargeting. Even if you have limited customer information available or only have a small Facebook following you can still use lookalike audiences to show your ads to people who have recently viewed your website or looked at specific pages or products. Retargeting allows people who are already familiar with your brand to rediscover what they love and continue converting in one way or another. If you are already running video ads, you can create an audience based on who has watched the most of a certain video and move them down the sales funnel. Differentiating ad strategies between the people that are new to your brand and those who have already heard of you before is key to keeping loyal customers coming back and piquing the interest of new ones. 

Conclusion/Tracking Success

The most successful Facebook ad strategy for you will be one that is diversified, personalized, and comprehensive. Don’t forget to identify your measures of success early on and utilize a multifaceted tracking approach.

As of July 2021, Facebook got rid of its own analytics dashboard so there is no way to view data directly from the pixel in Facebook. They also warn that some metrics may be skewed or unavailable due to the new privacy settings in the most recent iOS update. To compensate for this, they have a Conversion API that allows you to set custom conversion events on your site to track, in addition to the pixel. If you have access to Google Analytics and are already running other paid ad campaigns it will be beneficial to at UTMs to any content with external links, especially anything you are paying for. Facebook has also made it possible to add the pixel via Google Tag manager, allowing you to create a more comprehensive view of your customers’ journey in Google Analytics.

When it comes to creating the most successful targeting strategy for your brand, only you can figure out which of these tips will work best. One size does not fit all. Learn from others in your niche and allow time to A/B test multiple elements within your audience segments to find which garners the best response.