As the new decade dawns, I bet more than most of you are wondering what channels will work best for your marketing strategy in 2020 and beyond.In this article, we guide you or how to ace Facebook marketing this year!
I know that you already know how well email marketing and marketing automation can work for your campaigns and I also know that you’re very eager to try out new tactics and tools-a free subject line tester perhaps or personalization options for Facebook ads. So, as you understand, Facebook marketing is as relevant and as important as it’s ever been.
Let’s have a look at the numbers:
(Source)
Business pages on Facebook are going pretty strong. In fact, if your business doesn’t have a Facebook presence, more than most people will think that it’s not very legit in the first place.
So, Facebook marketing is still as important as ever and still going strong. But how are you going to use it to your advantage without wasting too much time and resources and without blowing up your marketing budget?
I’m here to give you a tip or two! So, let’s begin!
Facebook Ads Success
Facebook marketing is all about Facebook ads. In fact, it loves ads! But how oh how are you going to use Facebook ads to your advantage and beat that dreaded algorithm that everyone keeps talking about?
The solution is actually simple.
Determine Your Goals and Target Audience
This is actually the first thing you need to do, in order to make sure that you can actually go forward and create something appealing.
Let’s say, for example, that you’re promoting your brand new blogging platform for beginners and you need to set up an ad or two to get more people to know you. What would you need to know, first and foremost?
Well, your target audience, of course!
As I mentioned before, all businesses use Facebook and, of course, Facebook ads.
There are way too many users on Facebook for you to target them all. And, truth be told, you don’t need to target 12.5 billion users for your business to be successful-on the contrary!
First, check out your Facebook likes. The ones who like your page are, of course, the ones who will like your content and your service a little bit more than the rest. You’ll need to check this audience and find out what would be appealing to them.
But how are you going to do that?
By taking a deep dive into your data, of course! But I’ll give you some more info on that in a tick.
For now, I need to point out that determining your goals will be just as important and it will actually help you determine your target audience before even looking at the data you’ve gathered.
So, what are your ads supposed to do? Is lead generation what you’re aiming for? Well, perhaps.
Or perhaps, you want to send more people to your website. Or maybe you thought more buyers would do the trick for your business.
By determining your goals, you’re one step closer to determining your actions and by determining your actions, you know what kind of data you need and, in the end, how to use Facebook ads to your advantage.
If you log onto your Facebook ads page, you’ll see that there are some marketing objectives you can choose from and there’s definitely one for you in there, provided you know what you’re looking for.
Study Your Data and Analytics
Now, let’s assume that your list is not too large and that you’re not very sure of what you should do.
Well, you can target everyone on Facebook and then check the helpful little tool called “Audience Insights”. This is what will help you determine what you can do with your audience, that will be appealing to them and will serve your own purpose down the line.
Set the parameters you need to check and then just go. You can check the audience of your competitors, see how your competitors are handling the segment you’re going to set, and then just go with it.
Your data will help you see what the largest segments of your ideal audience would like to see, in order to become what you need them to become (followers, customers, you name it!).
Let’s assume that you want to promote your affiliate marketing programs. So, the first thing to do, when checking out your audience insights, would be to segment in a way that will enable you to see who would be interested in something like that.
Also, using deep learning and AI can give you the competitive edge you need, when it comes to deciding on the creation of your campaign.
AI can detect patterns in data that appeal to a very small segment of your crowd, almost resulting in one-on-one segmentation.
So, if you’ve got the opportunity to use it, do so!
Create Ads That Will Be Matching Your Brand
Or rather, your brand’s tone of voice.
A brand’s tone of voice is very important, as it is what your prospects will remember you by. And, most importantly, it’s what your prospects will identify with in the first place.
This means that you’ll need to keep it unchanging, even when you’re going through some rebranding efforts.
A brand’s tone is-or, at least, should be-optimized for your target audience. It should speak to them and it should be able to portray your brand’s core values.
If your brand uses the color blue, use it on your ads. The same goes for specific typography, even for the way your brand ambassadors can be presented in one of your Facebook ad campaigns.
Imagine how befuddled everyone would be if Coca Cola, for example, decided to change its brand’s tone and go for a different color.
A/B Test-Always!
A/B testing is probably the best way to decide on pretty much anything, including content. And especially Facebook ads content.
You can create more than one ad, but you already knew that. So, what if you created a Facebook ad or a Facebook post or anything you’d like and made sure that you created variations of it that differ from the original one in one key aspect?
Well, that’s A/B testing for you!
Run several of those ads and create more than a little of this type of content and I can bet that you’ll get great insight on what makes your audience tick and love or hate this or that element.
Just make sure that what you’ve created differs from the original in one key element and one alone. You need to make sure you understand what it was that made all the difference.
Just make sure you understand the elements that you’re testing for and what they can do to help you with your goals and conversion. But most importantly, make sure you understand how your audience can benefit from that.
Just let them run for a day or two, in order for you to have enough data to make a decision that won’t disappoint you in the end.
Be Very Careful With Ad Specs
And when I say very careful, I mean very, very careful. Your ad might be exactly what a prospect needs to see, your business video might be unique and engaging and your carousels could be what causes people to buy.
But without the right, proper specifications, all your hard work will never pay off.
Facebook-much like all social media-is pretty adamant about the specifications (or specs) of the ads. You need to use that to your advantage. If you’ve got 90 characters to use on your copy, use them all if your brand supports it.
If your industry likes short videos better than long ones, then a short video is what you should go for.
What you don’t need to do, is create an ad that will be too small, too large, that will look like it’s got broken elements and so on and so forth. I don’t think something like that would look very appealing to prospects.
Track and Optimize
You need to track everything, every metric that counts, and optimize accordingly. But these are easier said and done. Because you simply cannot be sure.
What metrics count? What do you need to track? Is, for example, customer churn your biggest enemy? This is an answer only the goals you’ve set and your target audience could give you.
Just steer clear of the vanity metrics. I know you’re dying to see your Facebook ad campaign rocking the stage, but those metrics won’t do you any favors.
Vanity metrics are those that may seem big and important, but don’t really portray what you’re after and won’t give you any definite information when it comes to the performance of your Facebook marketing endeavors.
The number of ad impressions means nothing to a lead generation campaign if you’re not generating leads, for example.
Track the metrics your goal adheres to. It’s simple as that. And optimize according to the data you got from your A/B testing efforts.
Don’t feel bad or discouraged if the data is not what you wanted. This is what A/B testing is for, to save you time from raking your brain and making a decision.
Takeaway
So, as you can see for yourself, Facebook marketing is anything but dead nowadays. You just need to be smart about it and not beat around the bush.
Create ads and make infographics according to specs, be smart about your copy and always track and make changes accordingly.
Lastly, create landing pages where necessary and urge your prospects to share your content around. You’ll definitely nail Facebook marketing for 2020 in no time.
