Facebook marketing refers to the use of Facebook's advertising platform to promote a business, product, or service. Facebook provides a vast audience for businesses to reach potential customers through targeted advertising.
As of 2022, Facebook has nearly 3 billion users which makes it the most popular social media platform in the world. Having said that, Facebook engages people over 30 years of age making it a more mature audience engagement. While the younger audience prefers alternatives like TikTok and Snapchat.
Facebook marketing can be done through various ad formats, including image ads, video ads, carousel ads, and more. Advertisers can target their ads based on specific demographics, interests, behaviors, and geographic locations to ensure that their message reaches the right audience.
Facebook also offers various tools and features to help businesses manage their social media presence and engage with their followers, such as Facebook Pages and Messenger. Facebook Pages allow businesses to create a public presence on Facebook, where they can share updates, interact with followers, and promote their products and services. Messenger allows businesses to communicate with customers directly through Facebook, providing a way to answer questions, resolve issues, and offer personalized customer service.
Facebook Features
Facebook Profile is a place where personal account holder updates their information. It is made available after creating an account.
It is available for both Public/Private Profiles
Though one may not be able to perform business activities along with advertising.
A personal profile is limited to 5000 members and also does not allow integration with third-party apps. The user has the provision to message friends from a personal account.
Facebook Posts are the content that is posted on Facebook which can be a photo, video, text, link, or poll.
Facebook Stories are content that appears at top of the news feed for 24 hours after which they disappear from your friend's view. They can be photos, videos, or images posted as a story. If your profile audience type is Public then you can see stories from friends, followers, and people who chatted through messenger, but only your friends can reply.
Facebook Reels are short-form videos. Users may opt to recommend Instagram reels on Facebook after which they may be viewed on Facebook.
Facebook Live is for real-time broadcasting of user videos. A recording is made available later. While users viewing streamed content are allowed to engage.
Facebook Newsfeed holds posts indefinitely until deleted while stories are held for 24 hours before they are removed automatically from your friend's view. The stories, posts, and actions are unique displays based on connections you have to people, pages, and groups while posts and actions are displayed on the newsfeed.
Facebook Page is a place that has followers instead of Friends.
The page can be used for running ads for promotion.
It is always associated with a Facebook profile and is publicly visible.
Events can be created using a page. A profile can also be converted to a page. To create a page you need to set up a business account.
Users cannot send direct messages to followers on a page.
Facebook Groups are created to build a community to share and discuss subjects of common interest. They are associated with a Facebook profile or page. They may or may not be associated with the brand. They can't be used for creating & running promotional ads. Groups may be public or private depending on the group admin. Groups help in business growth and are an exceptionally better way of networking.
Facebook Marketplace is a place where users are allowed to shop. It behaves similarly to a retail online store.
Facebook Account Types
The Facebook page is like a personal website on the Facebook platform.
Facebook has two account types personal and business. A general account is of a personal type and is also associated with a personal profile, whereas to set up a business page and launch advertising campaigns you will have to create a business account.
A business page is created for an organization, brand, business, or public figure. You need a personal account to create a business page. Multiple personal accounts can be associated with one business page.
While the Business Manager can handle business page creation and ad management, the Business Suite on the other hand manages all Facebook and Instagram accounts. Though Facebook provides a default Ad account during sign-up, for advertising through Ad Manager one needs to create a page and get associated with Business Manager or Business Suite depending on their requirement.
Facebook Owned Apps & Platforms
Messenger originally developed as Facebook chat is currently a dedicated service for sending messages and supporting video calling.
Instagram can now be accessed directly from Facebook. We also can market through Instagram.
WhatsApp which is a messaging app unlike Messenger which does not rely on phone numbers is now a part of Facebook.
Oculus Quest is a virtual reality headset for playing games and running apps under an Android operating system. This is also used with Facebook's new platform the Metaverse.
Giphy is a platform that uses animation deals not only in GIFs but also stickers, arcades, clips, and others. Facebook bought Giphy for a reported $400 million in 2020.
Masquerade is a face-swapping app that creates playful filters for your selfies. Facebook bought MSQRD in 2016 which stood a competition with Snapchat Lenses.
Facebook Metaverse is where your surrounding real world is recreated virtually which is called Horizon Home. Horizon Worlds is where you can create worlds and get into that. Metaverse holds a digital version of humans and you can perform your daily activities in the virtual world using Virtual Reality headsets. Seems like a game changer in the world of the internet for people who are remote and yet want to travel.
How should you perform Facebook marketing?
Now that you have seen the bandwidth of Facebook now called Meta and what it covers under its umbrella it will be easier to understand its reach through marketing.
Due to its vast coverage through various apps and platforms, Facebook Algorithm can offer you a wide organic reach with a high-converting audience.
By creating a business page you will get access to a variety of business tools that can help you promote your brand or service.
Talking of Facebook features, a personal profile audience who are more of friends and family would be interested in you as a person while a business page audience is always interested in "what you do?".
It would be tempting to spend on gaining followers, but with any changes to the Facebook algorithm the reach would decrease overnight wasting your time and money, instead, it's always encouraged to go for organic growth.
A Facebook business account provides options to create a custom audience who has visited your page, which can be used to reach this audience with your future content or tap into a similar audience. This is also useful during competitor analysis.
Facebook Insights can give a lot of information on your audience which can be used to your advantage.
Reaching out to Sponsors and Influencers can also prove beneficial.
Should you boost your post or not?
The best time to post is usually when the maximum number of your followers is active online. The location and online time of the audience decide the engagement trends. According to SproutSocial Research data, the best day to post on Facebook is Wednesday.
Instead of spending on boosting your post which will gradually lose engagement, it is advisable to gain an engaging audience over time. Posts that are promotional and are meant to reach your target audience for a specific period and purpose can be boosted.
Should I use paid Ads?
Facebook is an ad network whose audience is large enough and caters to mostly earning and settled customer segments.
Facebook allows retargeting through pixels where the cookie follows users to another website to display the ads.
Facebook caters to outbound ads that require the right targeting audience which may be created through the custom audience option.
Along with targeted reach, you can also get organic reach with Facebook Ads.
Interacting with your ad audience is also possible.
A Call to Action can be set up while managing the audience to suit the AIDAA-based funnel. All these features and more make Facebook Ads beneficial.
Facebook Marketing Analytics
Facebook provides its own analytics tool called Facebook Ads Manager, which allows advertisers to track and analyze their ad campaigns. This tool provides detailed metrics on ad performance, such as impressions, clicks, cost per click (CPC), and cost per acquisition (CPA). Advertisers can use this data to adjust their targeting, bidding, and ad creative to optimize their campaigns.
Facebook Ads Manager also provides insights into audience demographics and behavior, allowing advertisers to understand who their ads are reaching and how they are engaging with them. By analyzing this data, advertisers can create more effective targeting and messaging strategies to reach their desired audience.
In addition to Facebook Ads Manager, there are various third-party analytics tools that can be used to analyze Facebook marketing campaigns, such as Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics. These tools can provide more in-depth insights into website traffic and user behavior, as well as help track the customer journey from Facebook ads to website conversions.
Facebook Marketing Metrics
Facebook Marketing Metrics refer to the various data points that are used to measure the performance of Facebook marketing campaigns. These metrics can help businesses evaluate the effectiveness of their ads, understand their audience, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their advertising strategies.
Here are some common Facebook Marketing Metrics:
Impressions: The number of times an ad was displayed on a user's screen.
Reach: The number of unique users who saw an ad.
Clicks: The number of clicks an ad received.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who clicked on an ad after seeing it.
Cost per Click (CPC): The cost of each click on an ad.
Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM): The cost of displaying an ad one thousand times.
Engagement: The number of actions taken on an ad, such as likes, comments, and shares.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of people who completed a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form, after clicking on an ad.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): The amount of revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising.
Frequency: The average number of times a user saw an ad.
By monitoring these metrics and adjusting their ad strategies accordingly, businesses can improve the performance of their Facebook marketing campaigns and maximize their return on investment.
To succeed in Facebook marketing, businesses need to create compelling content and use effective targeting strategies to reach their desired audience. They also need to track and analyze their performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize their advertising strategies.
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