With most businesses having felt the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, now is the perfect time to begin exploring what opportunities are available for getting your business better known. With marketing budgets inevitably tight, not surprisingly, companies are exploring what options are going to bring the best returns in the shortest period of time. As a result, many are looking at PPC as the most viable option.
Of course, there is Google AdWords, but an increasing number of business owners are turning to Facebook Marketing to drive revenue, and with it, profits. Facebook has been proven to continually give a competitive advantage at each stage in the sales funnel process. While Facebook can receive a negative press in some quarters, here are eight reasons why it should form an integral part of your overall marketing strategy.
- Massive worldwide audience
In July 2020, Statista claimed that Facebook has over 2.6 billion regular users globally. Of the other social media platforms, WhatsApp and YouTube both recorded two billion users with all other social media falling some way behind. Indeed, only Google has more regular users than Facebook. Often perceived as a platform for younger generations, Facebook actually covers all demographics and all age groups. Only Twitter can claim to have anything like this widespread appeal.
- Can be used for B2C or B2B purposes
One perhaps surprising fact about Facebook is that on average, business-decision makers spend up to 74% more time on the platform than any other user group. B2B marketing, and indeed the advertising space associated with it, is at a premium and, therefore, marketers need to be aggressive with Facebook leveraging. You must target the right groups; your ads are in a format that appeals to your target audience, and you offer an excellent off-Facebook service. If you can achieve this, you have every opportunity for success.
Facebook remarketing is a must for anyone involved with B2B marketing. It is the ideal way to remind your customers and potential customers that you are still around, something which is essential in the wake of the pandemic. Facebook offers some fantastic tools when it comes to targeting B2B customers and can give you a wealth of information that might not be available elsewhere.
Of course, the potential for B2C marketing is more apparent with all successful marketing managers having at least some idea of how they select their target audience. Again, it is about targeting the right people from the outset, choosing ads that grab your attention and offering high-quality customer experience.
- Targets all levels of the sale funnel
Regardless of where your potential customer is in the sales process, Facebook allows you to engage with them. They have a variety of ad formats along with targeting options that match all marketing strategies as well as having measuring tools enabling you to monitor and tweak your ads to maximise their potential.
Irrespective of if your viewers are at the casually browsing stage or the final stages of the transaction process, Facebook’s stories, videos and even carousel ads can reach out to any segment. By utilising the custom buttons of your page, you can drive traffic to where they want, making the process smooth and straightforward.
Note: Remember to interact with viewers and respond to comments and messages.
- You know who your audience is
No one would argue that other social network sites have similar capabilities when it comes to targeting your audience. However, Facebook is entirely transparent about their audience, so you have higher levels of control. You know who is following you, who are friends of fans and you can target groups based on an individual’s interests as well as search behaviour.
Facebook allows you to find out which target segments are performing best, meaning that you can refine your strategies and conduct tests to optimise your strategy. This transparency, which is unparalleled on other sites, gives you all the tools you need to produce a dynamic marketing strategy.
- Psychographic targeting
While five years ago, demographics used to be used as an indicator of interests and purchasing behaviours, these days they tend not to be so accurate. It is a fact that has not gone unnoticed by Facebook, with the targeting options allowing you to drill down far more into someone’s interests, life events and specific behaviours. This level of precision targeting enables users to align all of their marketing strategies including offline tactics
- Different types of ad
Currently, Facebook has ten different formats for ads; which is considerably more than any of its rivals. At every stage of the marketing funnel, depending on your requirements, you will have a selection of options, although video and image ads are the most frequently used. As the vast majority of the ad options give you the scope to use both images and visuals, you have a fantastic opportunity to let your target audience know what you are all about and showcase your products or services.
Sponsored posts are an excellent ad format, especially if you allow others to post on your news feed. If a user-generated post is added to your feed, boosting it will give you the chance to engage with more users. User-generated ads consistently outperform purpose developed ads, so it is worth trying to encourage this where possible.
- Drive traffic to your website
The ad options allow you to drive referral traffic to your own website. It again gives you a chance to provide more information and promote more products and services. However, as most people intend to stay on Facebook, you must make your adverts compelling and make your target audience want to visit your website.
- You can measure performance
As Facebook has an extensive set of tools for reporting user metrics, you have all the information at your fingertips to make informed decisions regarding your campaigns. You will have data regarding the actions users made while on Facebook that can give you an indication of reach along with conversions. The only stipulation that Facebook has is that you install the Facebook pixel on your website – a small price to pay for such comprehensive data.