According to Sprout Social, more than 1.86 billion are monthly active users on Facebook, which includes a 17% year over year spike since 2016.
This shows how important and preferred Facebook is as a social media network. Facebook has expanded its wings and has moved beyond just a network to connect with family and friends. It is, in fact, considered one of the most important social media marketing platforms. Keeping the amount of audience that visits Facebook and its growing importance in digital marketing services, you should not ignore the dominance of Facebook advertising strategies that bring instant conversions.
A lot many search marketers are either unclear or unaware of how to advertise on Facebook. Hence, first of all, your entire social media marketing strategy has to be crystal-clear and completely in-line with your social media goals. Facebook advertising strategies also require the same logic and action.
How to build Facebook advertising strategies that bring instant conversions?
Facebook advertising strategies come in various varieties. The options include the promotion of your business page, promotion of your posts on a business page, promotion of your popular posts on which users have taken action, or promotion of your website.
A Facebook advert makes it easy to find the right people, capture their attention towards your advertisement, and get the desired results. According to KISSmetrics, Facebook ads are more like display ads than search ads. Facebook advertising strategies should be used to generate demand, not fulfil it.
If you are worried or unsure about how should you advertise on Facebook, here is the suggestion!
- Figure out at which stage your Facebook advertising strategies will fit
- Build ideal customer audience i.e. connect with your target audience
- Display advertisements to your target audience whom you already know
- Perform A/B testing of your creative advertisements
- Track performance of your Facebook adverts and incorporate improvements in your Facebook advertising strategies.
QL Tech Tip:
In Facebook advertising, the ad content works well on the basis of three parameters:
1. Relevant target audience
2. Quality of content and
3. Perfect timing of posting content including timely interactions
Keeping the above mentioned three points in the mind, your Facebook advertising campaign needs to be prepared.
Facebook ads can appear in your target audience’s News Feed or right column of Facebook. Run through various types of Facebook advertising strategies which can bring traffic and boost conversions.
Types of Facebook ads
1. Page Post Engagements
These ads are basically the posts that invite you to like, comment, or share. Hence, such ads are targeted to boost engagement of the posts of your fan page.
2. Page Likes
The amount of likes serves as social proof. And hence, the higher the likes, the better the social image. These are the most popular category of Facebook advertising strategies. Because once your audience base increases through likes, it will spread awareness of your brand in their networks too if they like or share your posts.
3. Clicks to Websites
Such facebook ads are targeted to take some desired action. Such ads are best fit if you want your target audience to visit your website by inviting them to read your blog or any offer.
4. Website Conversions
These ads rather than focusing on any other information direct user to take the desired action on their CTA. These ads work best when you want to promote any special offer or limited time discount coupons.
5. App Instalments
These ads are getting attraction from the young crowd. Such ads direct users to download their app and use it rather than browsing their sites on the internet. Flipkart app, Ola cabs app, etc.
6. Event Responses
These ads are treated as special ads. Whenever any event or webinar is organized by your business and you want to promote it over social media to invite attendees, these ads are the best options.
7. Lead generation campaigns
Lead generation encompasses two elements: generating interest in your business and then capturing it. And hence, lead generation campaign advertisements often ask a target audience to take action.
8. Offer Claims
On special days or special occasions, brands prefer to go for this option to boost sales. For instance, Social Media Perth had invited people to join their special event of entrepreneurs meets on their 4th birthday, June 27, 2017.
Now let’s have a look at how Facebook advertising strategies work for a brand for instant conversions.
As seen above, there can be a variety of advertisements based on marketing goals. Before you start with your Facebook advertising campaigns, run through the below-mentioned tactics.
1. Select a campaign based on your marketing goal
For campaigns and paid advertisements, Facebook has three objective categories: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. According to Charlie Lawrance, “The best way to determine your campaign objective is to work backward from your goal.”
It means if your marketing goal is to generate sales for your ecommerce business, for instance, you could offer the customers of 20% discount on their first purchase to tempt them to make a transaction on your e-commerce site.
For all three categories, the structure of a Facebook advertising campaign consists of three levels. They are a campaign, an ad set, and an ad. The first level, the campaign, is the starting point of your Facebook ad.
- At the first stage, you need to set the advertising goal at the campaign level, for example, get more page likes, drive more traffic, etc.
- At the second stage of the ad set, you need to define your targeting strategy by organizing factors like targeting, budget, and schedule.
- And, at the third stage, finally, your ads are creative visuals in the form of images or video clips which will drive your target audience your offerings.
2. Make your brand popular by creating interest in it
It is sort of creating awareness of your brand. This works best when you target the audience for such campaigns who have already liked your page and are aware of your business and social media presence. Create compelling advertisements that create interest in your brand. Such ads are best for start-ups since they do not focus on generating sales but they more work towards the establishment of brand awareness.
3. Build and test the creativity of your advertisements
The ad level is the final/third stage of the Facebook campaign structure. Your final published ad copy is going to be visual in front of your audience. So, it is imperative that you choose your image, content and timing of ad very wisely. Do not compromise on the creativity and format of your advertisement.
Facebook advertisement format is divided into 6 elements:
It is must to do A/B testing of your Facebook advertising elements to check what is performing well over others. Three elements can be tested i.e. image, copy, and timing. However, not all elements can be tested in a single experiment, do it one-by-one and check the relevance scores. If an ad is not at all doing well, replace it with another. However, introduce new ads when the relevance scores of your current ads decline, often due to ad frequency, as the best way to continue to generate results from your campaign. Moreover, frequent blunder people commit is to kill the campaign and start a new one.
4. Identify the products/services that you want to promote vigorously
If your marketing goal is maximising conversions, focus on creating campaigns of the products/services that are the best among the lot. And, you need to promote them vigorously. Through your advertisements, convey and convince your audience why they are best for them.
5. Encourage users to participate in activities
If your marketing goal is to succeed at the consideration stage, create advertisements that compel users to participate in various activities you want to perform them. Here, such type of ads is applicable for almost all brands that are looking forward to growing their subscriber base.
For example, if you are promoting your bags and purses, write a copy defining how a particular product will define their style statement and ask them to read a related blog or subscribe to your newsletters.
6. Offer incentives at the conversion stage
The conversion stage is often an important stage of your marketing funnel. At this stage, create advertisements offering some special discounts, coupons, or vouchers. These are the best when your target audience is your active fan following. Here, you can offer them the discounts on their special events like: “Get 20% off on your anniversary”, or “Get FREE vouchers worth $XX on your birthday for shopping above $XX”. Precisely, Advertise to your audience with these tactics in mind in order to increase brand trust, awareness, and overall conversions.
Conclusion
Prior to creating your Facebook advertisement campaign, dedicate your time to define your campaign strategy. It is a must for you to decide how and where in your sales funnel you can use in creating Facebook ads to grow your business.
Do share your thoughts on how effectively you are using your Facebook advertising strategy to boost conversions.