Social Solutions: Facebook Social Ad Strategies
Social Solutions: Facebook Social Ad Strategies
It's nothing new - Facebook has created a business platform to help businesses of all sizes reach existing and future customers.
Social ads allow businesses to advertise to both prospective individuals and brand loyalists (current customers/clients) on social media platforms. Facebook alone garners 2.8 billion monthly users worldwide. This statistic alone is reason enough to give Facebook advertising a try!
Even if you are not confident in creating marketing ads, digital marketing is a tool that should be leveraged for every industry. Unlike traditional marketing for television and print media, the typical digital marketing campaign won't drain your advertising budget.
Are you interested in learning more about social media ads? Keep reading to learn more about specific Facebook ad strategies.
Explore What a Social Ad Looks Like for Your Business
Before you invest time and money into creating a social ad strategy, you'll first need to better understand your desired outcomes and goals. There are over 60 million business pages actively adding content. Of those, only about 10% take advantage of paid advertising.
One reason for the low number is people become frustrated when their ads do not turn into sales, so they give up.
To avoid this frustration, do your research, outline your desired outcomes/goals, and be realistic. Success takes patience and the willingness to experiment until you find the right winning strategy, or as I always say - the sweet spot.
Develop a Strategy
To develop a strategy, you'll first need to decide on a social media campaign approach. Are you looking for more followers? Do you want to make x amount of sales from the campaign? How long are you willing to wait for results?
To get some motivation and spark ideas, look at the Facebook News Room. This is the Facebook Business Hub with case studies and ideas that allow you to see social media ads examples at work. You can get some great ideas and tweak them to fit your business model.
If you're still unclear, consider speaking with a social media strategist is a good start.
Research What Your Competitors are Doing
Are you a business in a competitive market? Give yourself permission to look in on what your competitors are doing. Please do not copy their social ads, but rather see what's working and how you can incorporate a new approach that's unique to your brand into your social media campaigns. The idea is to see what is working and what is not working with this research step.
For example, see how often they run ads? What is the engagement? How are they interacting with people when they comment. What are the calls-to-action, and where are the social ads directing people to once they click a CTA button?
Invest in Professional Images and Videos
Creating content is one of the hardest parts of handling your own social media. Learning how to create the right content for your audience and measure your success is an entire career. Keep branding in mind when you develop content! Your brand is a personality that should stay consistent throughout each post. Whether your brand is a personal brand, hybrid like Beyond Big Blue, or a full-on business entity, keep it simple and consistent.
When you hire a professional, they will work with you to create the most impactful content that blends your message and their expertise.
Create Your Ideal Customer Avatar
We've mentioned the target audience, but what exactly is it? Facebook social ads allow a business owner to narrow down the audience that will see their ads and call-to-action.
You can get as specific as professions, hobbies, interests, and behavior. For target audience profiles to be beneficial, you must have a customer avatar that fits your ideal audience.
I always tell business owners to consider who their ideal audience is, where they hang out (in-person and online), and then what messaging will literally grab their attention aka speak their language! To add the value-adding cherry on top, consider an offer or a lead magnet that they can't turn down.
A lead magnet is a marketing tool that generates leads by offering a resource in exchange for a prospect's contact information. Lead magnets can be ebooks, guides, checklists, Canva/Adobe Lightroom templates, access to a webinar library, a beginner's guide to ABCD, or similar value-add items. 
To help with this step, offer a survey to your existing customer base to learn who they are, what they do, and why they buy your products. Also, be sure to check out your Google Analytics for more insights on your website visitors' demographics/psychographics, time on site, bounce rate, and more metrics.
Set a Budget with Desired Outcomes
Budget, budget, budget! Small business owners know too well that a budget is a requirement in everything you do. Simply put - budget is king. Social ads are no different. The awesome thing about Facebook is they allow you to create a budget as small as $5 a day, and up to the maximum amount you want to spend.
Repurpose Content Like a Boss
Facebook allows users to stream Live. Live streaming videos can then get repurposed into multiple social ads. Take the best parts of the video, use editing tools to add text and enhancements, and then post as social ads.
Video can also be repurposed into image stills, which work great for your organic social media posts as well! If you don't have a digital library of assets, well, now may be a good time to start doing so!
Have a Clear Brand Strategy
It's important to reiterate that social ads are not just about selling a product or service. You can create ads to market your brand. Why? Studies show that consumers are more likely to buy from a brand they know and trust.
Creating social ads geared towards brand recognition allows business owners to get to know their social media followers on a deeper level.
It's Time to Up Your Social Marketing Game
It's time to get ahead of the game and see how a social ad campaign can benefit your business. People can't buy your product or service if they don't know it exists. With these valuable tips for creating a social media ad strategy, you're well on your way to getting discovered by a new audience.
At Beyond Big Blue, we are obsessed with helping businesses uncover their digital marketing potential.
Do you want to learn more about what we can do for you? Click here to contact our team and get the conversation started.
