Facebook Advertising: How to reach and engage your audience

Ten years ago, no one would have guessed that Facebook advertising would take off and become the social powerhouse it is today! Facebook is considered one of the top online advertising platforms, accounting for 51% of total advertising spend in the US and 53.5% in Canada. With more than 2.2 billion monthly active users and close to 1.5 billion daily active users, Facebook is a massive part of our daily lives. This is a trend that is not going to change anytime soon as we make our way through the digital era. Are you considering running Facebook ads to grow your business? In this article, we’re covering the fundamentals of Facebook advertising. That way, you can launch your first successful Facebook ads campaign without wasting time or money.

Why Facebook advertising is so effective

Even with data protection regulations, algorithms used for targeted advertising are still effectively tracking and predicting our behaviour. Marketing analysts have recently stated that the average person is exposed to 5,000 ads a day. Other online marketing experts say that’s on the lower end of the scale. The exposure can be as high as 10,000 ads a day for high media consumers. Considering Facebook has over 1.5 billion daily active users, that leaves a huge opportunity for companies to reach consumers. If you are still unsure whether Facebook ads will work for you, now is the chance to try them out and let the data speak for itself.

Getting started with Facebook Ads

The first thing you will want to do when implementing a successful Facebook ad campaign is to identify your potential customers. Considering there are one billion daily active Facebook users, it’s important that you only target groups who are potentially interested in your product or service. Audiences not likely to become conversions are a waste of your advertising budget. One of the most cost-effective ways to identify your customers and reach potential buyers is by creating buyer personas. Buyer personas are fictional, generalized characters that share demographics and psychographics with your current and prospective customers. Creating these buyer personas makes it easier for you to tailor your content, messaging, and product development to the specific needs and desires of the groups you want to reach. Here’s a quick overview of how Facebook lets you target specific groups of people based on interests, behaviours, and more.

Location

Targeting a certain area or region allows you to reach people based on their location. Whether that means specific communities, cities, countries, or any other location-based parameter, your ads can reach them no matter where they are in the world!

Behaviour

Behaviour allows you to target people based on their purchase history, travel history, events they have attended, personal anniversaries, and so much more. Facebook gathers this data and uses it to predict your customer’s future buying habits.

Demographic

Demographic targeting lets you select audiences based on age, gender, job, relationship status, education level, and anything that doesn’t identify an individual personally.

Connections

Connection-based targeting allows you to reach audiences based on whether they are currently following your page or not. This helps you reach new potential customers or reinforce your message to your current ones.

Interests

Interests are one of the best targeting options as they allow you to target people specifically interested in any subjects relating to your product. For example, you could target people interested in your competition or broader industries. You can even target magazines, blogs, and other publications that cover your market.

Creating Target Audiences

Once you have created your buyer personas, you can use this data to strategize your target audiences. Perhaps the most powerful tool you can use is the audiences tool, which lets you build custom, lookalike, and saved audiences. You can create these audiences in Audience Manager, which allows you to run campaigns that target these specific groups, creating a highly effective and strategized marketing effort.

Custom Audiences

Custom audiences retarget past website visitors or people who have already engaged with your brand or channels.

Lookalike Audiences

A lookalike audience is a way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business. This is because they “look like” or are similar to most of your existing buyers.

Saved Audiences

You can create saved audiences by choosing an individual’s characteristics, interests, location, age, gender, income level, and so much more. Facebook automatically collects these audiences, so you can use them for future campaigns or build lookalike audiences based on them.

Breaking down the different types of Facebook Ads

Once you have identified your target audiences, it’s time to strategize your ads. The most crucial factor to consider when strategizing your ads is understanding that not all ads are created equally. You can create many different types of ads based on the call-to-action you are looking to achieve.

Brand Awareness Ads

You may want to use Facebook ads to put your business and your products on the map. Whether you wish to get your name out there or you’re just looking to bring in more leads, it is always beneficial to incorporate brand awareness ads into your strategy.

Website Conversion Ads

Website conversion ads are meant to encourage users to instantly click on ads and convert them to your website. This ad allows you to send users to specific website pages, landing pages, discounts and offers, or blog posts.

Facebook Lead Ads

Facebook lead ads allow users to access offers and discounts within the Facebook platform. They are similar to web conversion ads but appear as a pop-up inside the platform rather than taking them to an external site. Facebook also auto-populates the forms with information, making it quicker and easier for potential customers. These are the most compatible mobile devices, which account for 95% of Facebook’s usage.

Local Awareness

Whether your business is just opening or you want to raise awareness for one of your existing locations, use a local ad to drive brand awareness in specific areas. For a complete overview of all Facebook ad types, see this guide by Facebook.

Use these tools to grow your business.

As you have seen, Facebook has a very broad offering of ad types that meet every need of your business. We suggest you test different ad formats and see which ones perform best for you. This will ultimately deliver your business the best results at the lowest cost. At Aliado, the potential for business growth with Facebook advertising is limitless. We are all about getting your business front and centre. Our team will create and execute an aggressive and targeted advertising strategy to bring more people to your website. Don’t you want more leads and traffic? Of course, you do! Contact us today to get started.