Erin Higgins — May 19, 2017 
Most business owners are well aware of the ability to advertise on Facebook, but not all of them realize the potential power that this opportunity holds. With billions of active users every month, the marketing stage is wide open—all you need to do is find the right audience. But with so many people, how exactly do you do that? If you’re wondering how to market your business on Facebook, you’re not alone.
In this post, we’ll go over some of the best methods for leveraging Facebook advertising to get actual results. That’s right—not just “Likes,” but real, money-making results.
How to Market Your Business on Facebook in 5 Steps
1. Setting Up a Business Page
Before we get into the details of how to setup and optimize your paid campaigns, you first need to make sure that your business is well-represented on Facebook. If you haven’t already, set up a business page with your current contact information and a high-resolution image of your logo. If you have a physical store location, you should add your address so that local users can find you.
In order to look professional, you should also have an on-brand cover photo. You can also encourage customers to give you a rating, which will increase your reputability. Be sure that you update the page regularly with content that your followers and other members of your target audience will find enjoyable. Remember, it’s important to give people a reason to click that “like” button. If all you do is post boring promos for your own products, there’s not much reason for people to connect with you.
Additionally, you can register your business’ Facebook page so that it has a blue or grey check mark beneath your profile photo. This lets users know that it’s your official page. Note, however, that not all businesses will be eligible for this. Check the terms on Facebook to learn more.
Once you’ve completed your business page set up and started posting content and gaining new followers, it’s time to begin your paid advertising campaigns.
2. Identifying & Targeting Your Audience
How to market your business on Facebook has a lot to do with advertising to the right people. There are billions of potential customers on Facebook, but not every single one of them will be interested in what you’re selling. But don’t let that overwhelm you! The beauty of the Facebook advertising platform is that it has incredibly detailed targeting features that allow you to narrow down your audience to a very specific group of people.
Before you hop into Facebook’s Audience tool, you have to figure out who your target audience is. The best way to do this is to create a buyer persona. Essentially, a fictional profile based on actual data from market research from your customer base. This includes buying behaviors, demographics, pain points, goals, and more. Once you gain a comprehensive understanding of the type of people who are already buying your products, it will be far easier to find new consumers.
You can now use the information you’ve collected and input it into Facebook’s audience tool. For example, let’s say you own a car cover company. After taking a look at the data from your existing customers, you notice that most of them are men between the ages of 35 and 60 who recently purchased a car from luxury brands like Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus. You can use Facebook’s unique targeting features to reach people who meet those exact specifications:
Another cool targeting feature on Facebook is its Lookalike option. This allows you to import a list of current customers, and Facebook will use their information to find new consumers who are most likely to be interested in your product or service.
3. Retargeting to Existing Leads
In addition to targeting new consumers on Facebook, you can also create retargeting campaigns. Retargeting campaigns allow you to advertise to people who have already shown interest in your product or service but haven’t made a purchase yet. For example, say someone browses through your product catalog, adds a few items to their cart, and then leaves it there without checking out. You could launch a retargeting ad to remind them to return to your site. Because these consumers need a little extra push, it’s best to add a sense of urgency to your ad by using phrases like “Last chance!” or “Ends today!” You could even offer a special discount code as added incentive.
In order to launch retargeting campaigns, you need to install a Facebook Pixel on your site. The Pixel tracks user activity, allowing you to advertise to people based on their behavior on your site. For example, you could display ads to people who have visited specific URLs or who have added something to their cart without converting.
4. Setting Up Your Campaigns
When you create a campaign on Facebook, you will first have to pick a campaign objective. Facebook uses the objective you select to choose how to distribute your ads. There are several options for you to choose from:
- Awareness
- Brand Awareness – Increase awareness for your brand by reaching people who are more likely to be interested in it.
- Reach – Show your ad to the maximum number of people. Local awareness targeting is now part of reach.
- Brand Awareness – Increase awareness for your brand by reaching people who are more likely to be interested in it.
- Consideration
- Traffic – Send more people to a destination on or off Facebook. Now you can drive traffic by adding an offer to your campaign.
- Engagement – Get more post engagements, Page likes, event responses or offer claims.
- App Installs – Get more people to install your app. Now includes the former mobile app installs and desktop app installs objectives.
- Video Views – Get more people to view your video content.
- Lead Generation – Drive more sales leads, such as email addresses, from people interested in your brand or business.
- Traffic – Send more people to a destination on or off Facebook. Now you can drive traffic by adding an offer to your campaign.
- Conversion
- Conversions – Drive valuable actions on your website or app. Now you can drive conversions by adding an offer to your campaign.
- Product Catalogue Sales – Create ads that automatically show products from your product catalog based on your target audience.
- Store Visits – Get more people nearby to visit your brick-and-mortar locations.
- Conversions – Drive valuable actions on your website or app. Now you can drive conversions by adding an offer to your campaign.
For example, if your main objective is to build a following for your brand, then you would want to select the Awareness > Brand Awareness objective. This way, Facebook will optimize your ad to be delivered to as many interested people as possible.
Most businesses want to set up campaigns that are designed to make sales. If this is true for you, then you would want to select one of the conversion categories. If you’re trying to increase sales at a physical store, you’d want to select the “Store Visits” category. If you want to run automated retargeting ads based on specific products that people have viewed, select the “Product Catalog Sales” option. And finally, if you want to create your own ads (retargeting or otherwise), you should select the “Conversions” campaign option.
Once you’ve created a campaign, you’ll need to create an ad set. Let’s say you choose the conversions objective for your campaign. Now, you’ll need to tell Facebook what you consider to be a conversion by selecting a conversion event. For example, if you select “Add to Cart,” Facebook will optimize your ads for the most add to carts. If you select “Purchase,” Facebook will optimize your ads for the most purchases.
After you’ve selected your conversion event, you’ll select the audience that you created, choose your ad placement options, set your budget, and your conversion window. After you’ve completed the ad set, it’s time to start importing your creatives.
5. Designing Your Creatives
When designing your creatives, it’s important to keep in mind that people scroll through a lot of content every day. In order for your campaigns to be successful, you will have to create captivating ads that stand apart from all the other ads and posts that are clogging up each user’s newsfeed. You can achieve this both through colorful, original images and well-written ad copy that matches your brand essence.
Because the newsfeed background is white, images without color tend to get lost in the shuffle. Instead, try using bright colors that capture the eye. It’s also important that you don’t just upload a stock photo. Stock photos are more recognizable than you’d think, and they don’t do much to show off the value of your brand. Instead, create original graphics and be sure to include an image or other representation of your product. This is especially important if you’re showing your ads to new consumers who have never heard of your brand before. Make it clear what your product is and why they need it. If they have to guess, well, they won’t—they’ll just keep scrolling.
You should also include some type of messaging on your actual ad image. However, because Facebook restricts the amount of text overlay you can use, be wise about what you choose to write. Facebook got rid of their mandatory requirement for ads to have less than 20 percent text. However, even though you can now use as much text as you want, ads with more text will have poorer deliverability.
And finally, don’t make the rookie mistake of neglecting your ad copy. Once you’ve got a consumer’s attention, your ad copy will be the deciding factor in whether or not they click on your ad. You should include product highlights, any special offer you choose to include, and a brief description of your product. Just be sure to make it interesting. And remember, adding a sense of urgency can help motivate people to make a purchase right then and there.
Final Takeaways
Marketing on Facebook can be an awesome way to boost revenue and build a following for your brand. After reading these tips, you should have a better understanding of how to market your business on Facebook. So, are you ready? It’s time to start building your own campaigns and creatives! Use the information outlined in this post to help guide you, and feel free to reach out to our team if you have any questions along the way.
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