Eric HammisIt may seem like Facebook is trying to continuously throw a big giant bag of wrenches into your marketing plan. Yes, Facebook is slowly but surely making organic reach obsolete. This is just the reality of the situation.
But if you really study Facebook and learn it inside and out, there’s solid strategies to limit your advertising spend while keeping conversions high, and a lot of it has to do with advanced Facebook targeting.
Now it’s very simple to select a location that is close to your business and determine a mile range from that location. That’s the most obvious targeting. But there’s other strategies, and it takes a little digging. So here’s some tips on using Facebook’s advanced ad targeting.
What do people like
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this one, but your target audience should have an interest in the product or service you provide. A great way of finding these people is by using Facebook’s Graph search. Simply put in a generic search of what you offer and see who likes products or business pages similar to your own. This can be done by simply typing it directly into the search bar. For example, we could type in “people who like digital marketing and live in Michigan.” Chances are you’re going to stumble upon some people who already like your page, but you can also find people who like your competition, and these are the ones you want to be pursuing.
Once you find these people, you can continue to do searches to find their interests and where they are spending their time on Facebook. If you really want to get your hands dirty, you can take note of things like gender, age, purchase behavior and more. These options are available in the right side bar once you make the initial search.
You can also find out more about individuals who popped up in your specific search. By simply clicking on the magnifying glass on the bottom right of their listing, you can view more interests and likes. Remember, the more you narrow your target audience, the better you will keep your cost per click low and conversion rates on the rise.
It’s not only for advertising
While the intended purpose of Facebook’s Graph Search is to target your audience for Facebook ads, it can serve a larger purpose. Maybe you have a blog that you run and are running cold on ideas. Well, type a few searches into the graph search and see what people are liking and reading. Maybe you’re trying to put together an online contest and not sure what to do. Perform a quick search and see what contests people are trying out.
I think by now you’re probably getting the idea. The graph search function is all about understanding your audience on a deeper level. Again, the more you know about your audience, the better off you are on all facets of your digital marketing plan.
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