Facebook advertising is one of many options to get in front of your audience. The question is: should you use it? This post will highlight points of consideration before you jump into Facebook advertising.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
We will cover the following topics:
- Is Facebook advertising the right fit?
- What are your goals with Facebook advertising?
- What is the customer journey?
- What are some technical considerations with Facebook advertising?
Is Facebook advertising the right fit?
This is a question I receive often. I frequently ask: “Why do you want to advertise on Facebook?” The answer typically is: “I want more business” or “I want to sell more stuff.”
That inevitably leads to even more questions. The core of the matter is that you cannot simply have the equation of:
I want to sell more stuff x my ad budget = more sales
Everyone wants to sell more stuff. However, Facebook advertising is but one of many potential touchpoints in the overall customer journey. If you are ready to really dive into what you want Facebook advertising to do for you, then please keep reading.
If you have the Google pay-per-click or pay-per-lead mentality, then Facebook advertising may not be the right fit for you.
What are your goals with Facebook advertising?
If you made it this far into my article then we are going to go through some important exercises. What you need to do with your team is identify what you want Facebook advertising to do. It could possibly be one or more of the following:
- Increase traffic to my website
- Create awareness of my brand
- Provide an overview of a product or a service
- Answer a consumer question or need that you have researched
- Boost awareness of an event
- Boost traffic to a featured article
Notice how none of the goals I outlined had anything to do with ‘buying your stuff’? Could any one of those goals eventually lead to that ultimate goal?
YES!
Are you still with me? Let’s keep going.
What is the customer journey?
Now that you have identified your goals you are on a much clearer path on how to attain those goals. You are now putting yourself in the shoes of your prospective customer. Depending on the product or service you sell you could have as many as five, eight, ten, fifteen, or more touchpoints in the customer journey. Let’s review what those could look like.
I am a customer and have no idea about you or your product. You have done your due diligence and created a targeted ad on Facebook for me to see in Facebook Marketplace. I am scrolling through Facebook Marketplace and I see your ad, your product, and your company name.
I don’t do anything at this point. I gave it a casual glance and moved on.
I am on Facebook Marketplace a fair bit and I keep seeing your ads and your ad variations every time I am there. So let’s say I have seen your ad four times now.
It has been captivating enough that I decide to click on it. Now I am seeing for the first time more about the product and what it’s all about. But at this point I am still not convinced I need to buy. So I click out of the ad. I have taken note in the back of my mind the website that is referenced when I clicked on the ad.
I am moving on with my life and maybe days or weeks go by. I still see your ad in Facebook Marketplace. Now all of a sudden there is a need or a want in my life that could coincide with your product. I may not see the ad at that moment but I remember your website.
So now I am on your website. And I see not only what you had in your Facebook ad but also your other products and/or services. So I start clicking…touchpoint, touchpoint, touchpoint.
I am not done yet. Next I decide to Google “Reviews for XYZ product”. I want to see what other people are saying about you. Touchpoint, touchpoint, touchpoint, and touchpoint.
I am still not done yet. I call up my best buddy because they are someone I trust and would appreciate their advice. Touchpoint.
Now I am getting close. I still may decide to go and check out your social sites, your customer service policy, and other relevant items related to your product/service. Touchpoint, touchpoint, and touchpoint.
All of the above came potentially from a Facebook advertising campaign. This is one of the most important reasons why you need to have clear goals and an understanding of what your potential customer journey should look like.
What are some technical considerations with Facebook advertising?
For all things business-related to Facebook, you must be thoroughly familiar with their business platform. This is where you manage your Facebook page, events, and for this discussion, your Facebook ads.
If you are doing this in-house, the platform will take some getting used to. But overall this is where the technical setup of your Facebook ads begins. They walk you through all of the critical steps. If you have gone through my goals analysis above, the opening segments of setting this up will be very straightforward.
What is really important to determine ahead of time is what your media will look like. Are you using static images, or video, or both? Facebook will take you through all of the placement options so you will need to have in mind what kind of content you want to serve to your prospective customers.
This ad guide from Facebook on image, video, and text requirements will put you on the right track.
We use Canva for a lot of our basic graphics needs. If you are doing this in-house then this is a great platform to build all kinds of media in the exact size that Facebook requires. You do not need a degree in media design to use this. It’s that simple.
Now we move on to your website. I would definitely recommend you install the Facebook Pixel on your website. This is another whole topic on its own. The short story is that it is a must. The Facebook Pixel allows you to track customer behavior on your website as it relates to your ads.
The data compiled will help you understand your consumer behavior. It will help you create better ads and more targeted ads. It will also allow you to engage in retargeting campaigns.
Retargeting campaigns for some may seem a bit creepy since you feel like you are being stalked by a website but that is what the tech is for. Retargeting campaigns have defined that a consumer has been on your website and clicked on a particular page or product and therefore has a potentially higher interest in said product.
Bringing it all together
Companies that will take your money and make a Facebook ad campaign are plentiful out there. Be careful about working with a partner if the conversation solely focuses on your ad budget. That is simply nowhere near the mark of what should be discussed in that meeting.
A solid marketing agency will take you down the journey that this article has, and beyond. If you decide to do this in-house then this article has given you the fundamentals to get started
