With almost 2 billion users worldwide, Facebook is the largest social media site out there. Such a big platform gives you an enormous opportunity to reach your potential customers, as it is very likely that they have a profile.
However, reaching your audience on Facebook doesn’t just require frequent posts to your fans. The great thing about the platform is that it also gives you access to detailed paid targeting features that allow you to narrow down on a specific demographic, even if they don’t follow your page.
In this article, we will teach you the basics of Facebook marketing and advertising so that you can get in front of your audience quickly and efficiently.
Creating an Account
The first thing you need to do is make sure you have a Facebook business page. This can’t be the same as your personal profile because Facebook has rules in place that punish your business rankings if you don’t create an official page.
When you create this account, you’ll have the option of selecting the category that you think your business fits within: local businesses, companies, brands, artists, entertainment or communities. Once you’ve chosen the category that your business will be listed under, you will need to post a profile and cover photo. We recommend making your profile photo your logo and using your cover photo to help your business stand out from the crowd. Whether that is a picture of your store’s volunteers at a local animal shelter or a simple picture of your happy customers, a great cover photo can give your page some personality and make your business appear unique.
Next, you’ll want to fill out your ‘About’ page. This is placed below your company logo and is your opportunity to express your business goals and desires to potential customers. This is another chance for your business to appear unique to potential customers, so make sure what you say shows your best characteristics.
As for your wall, most of the content people see is on their newsfeed, so post things that will always be useful to your followers, like blog posts and town events. You want to make sure that anyone who doesn’t know your company will find the content you post to be relevant and intriguing.
Creating an Ad
Facebook has very unique paid settings that help to target your ads so that they reach the people you want to view your online store. The good news is, your budget for these ads can be set on a daily or lifetime basis, which means that even a little money can get your promotions out there for several days.
When creating your ad, you need to determine your target demographic. Once you have this, you can create ads that only show to people with specific interests, demographics, behaviors and locations, among many other tags. For example, if you wanted to target local people with an interest in pets, you can do that. In the same respect, If you wanted to target people with an interest in animal shelters, that is also possible. If you already have individual customers in mind, you even have the option of downloading a private list of target users.
After you choose your audience, it’s time to think about the format of your promotion. You have the option of making the layout with a clickable link, video, photo, or text. We recommend that you choose either a video, link, or photo ad because they are proven to be more popular among users. If you choose to link, these may be directed to your Facebook page, Facebook event, or mobile app installs.
If you have a live ecommerce store, another great ad format is a canvas advertisement with “carousel” scrolling photos of the items you sell, dynamic ads for remarketing or several pictures of a particular brand’s collection. Any of these are great options for promoting your products and make it easier to get people to see how extensive your catalog is.
Once you’ve chosen your preferred format and photos, you must select a budget and timeframe. Smaller budgets reach fewer people, but if you really take the time to narrow down your demographic, it should be just as effective at reaching your desired customers than a larger, less targeted campaign. Test out different formats and timeframes for your ad to see which people respond most to. You can do this by monitoring Facebook’s Ad Manager. Finally, don’t forget to add a great call to action before you post!
Having very targeted paid advertisements almost guarantees that your page will get in front of more people. Facebook is a very easy marketing tool to take advantage of because it can fit any company, demographic or budget. Try using this guide to start a campaign and learn the ropes of promoting a business page.