If you want to be successful on Facebook in 2018, you’ll need more than just incredible content.
In fact, Facebook marketing success is as much about distribution as it is content. Especially as organic reach in Facebook’s News Feed continues to decline for many Pages.
So how do you get your Facebook content in front of more people? And not just any people, the right people — your target audience.
In 2018, many businesses are turning to Facebook ads as a way to boost the performance of their content. In our State of Social 2018 report we found that:
- 94% of businesses have invested in advertising on Facebook; and
- 67% of businesses intend to increase their social media advertising budget in 2018.
Added to our findings, Forrester believes that the total US digital marketing spend will be near $120 billion by 2021, meaning investment is still on an upward curve.
So when it comes to creating the perfect Facebook Ads for your business, what factors should you consider?
Here are five Facebook advertising tips to help you get the most bang for your buck in 2018…
1. Think about who you’re targeting
With Facebook advertising, it’s not so much about reaching the most people as it is reaching the right people.
Sure, big numbers look awesome on your reports, but you need to reach people who are open to discovering your content, curious about your business and receptive to your message. And that’s probably fewer people than you think.
When it comes to targeting and reaching your audience with a super-relevant message, you need to understand:
- What platforms your audiences use?
- What types of language they use and how do they communicate?
- What types of content they engage with most often?
More often than not, you can find the answers to these questions through data and research.
One of the best places to look to learn more about your audience is Facebook’s Audience Insights.
Audience Insights gives you the opportunity to learn more about a specific audience. For example, by checking out Buffer’s insights I was able to learn:
1. People in our audience also tend to like other ‘software companies’ like Moz, Mailchimp, and WordPress. As well as ‘internet companies’ like Hootsuite, ClickFunnels, and Salesforce. With this data, we begin “watching” these Pages to keep an eye on what’s working for them.
2. 35% of our audience work in management. This could help us to think about the language we use in out Facebook adverts as well as the story we tell.
3. People in our audience are more likely to click on an advert than the average Facebook user.
This only scratches the surface of what you can learn about your audience from Facebook’s Audience Insights.
To check the Audience Insights for your own Page head to: https://www.facebook.com/ads/audience-insights/ and choose the “People connected to your Page” option:
And then you can drill down your data even further using the options on the left-hand panel:
You can use these newfound learnings about your audience to create even more targeted ads and craft messages that you know will connect with your prospective customers.
For example, at Buffer, when we wanted to boost our podcast downloads, we created an audience of people we knew would be interested in our ads before spending a dollar. As Brian explains on his blog, we:
- Created a custom audience of people who had visited our blog or Buffer.com
- Added an additional layer of targeting to only deliver ads to people using iPhone, iPad, and other iOS devices
- Promoted our most popular podcast episodes as we knew this content would appeal to our audience
This approach resulted in 3,870 clicks to our podcast episodes for a spend of $922.
2. Tell a great story
Stories are an integral part of human communication. And storytelling — whether in-person, through the written word, or social media — plays an important role in building connections with others.
When you’re planning on creating Facebook Ads, stories are essential to capture the interest of your target customers.
Take Refinery 29, an independent fashion and lifestyle website, for example. The brand generated two different Facebook ad campaigns, both aimed at bringing in new subscribers to their website.
The first campaign featured some eye-catching creative and a clear call-to-action to subscribe. Whereas the second ad set guided the viewer through a simple narrative including an introduction to the brand, an article from the brand, and then a call-to-action to subscribe. Ads for both campaigns were served in News Feed to lookalike audiences.
Here’s…
