After watching my clients try various options on Facebook, I’ve worked out through much trial and error that there are really only a few ways to properly manage Facebook marketing that I’d recommend.
You’ll hear a lot of talk about how Facebook is a branding or brand awareness tool. Great. What that means is that people have found that it mostly doesn’t convert to real dollars. If that’s you, and all you want is brand awareness, great. You’re lucky you have expendable marketing dollars. But some people prefer to milk more out of their ad dollar, and don’t want brand awareness. They want conversions. And Facebook can do that if you play your cards well, and spend only in the right places. You actually can get some bang for that buck.
I don’t recommend marketplace ads (paid ads in the sidebar) as they generally convert rarely and draw very little traffic. People try to avoid reading the ads in their sidebars anywhere they go, including Facebook. Think about it. You’ve developed sidebar blindness yourself, I bet. Add to that, that Facebook is a passive audience – not actively looking for your goods at the time – so with sidebar ads in a passive venue? You’re probably going to spend a lot to get not much back. I don’t recommend anything in the sidebar for that reason. If you’re going to advertise on Facebook, go with something that blends in with the trusted content – the feed.
For this reason, I recommend promoted posts and pages primarily.
1. Create good content on your website that you can then post to Facebook as a post on your page or profile. A promotion, sale, freebie, buy now, anything. Nothing too high ticket, unless it’s very unique or interesting to the raw prospect. Make sure you title this well, include everything on that one page that a person would need to know to buy or convert in an easy manner from that page. Where people are willing to click farther into the sales process in a motivated buyer situation, such as a search-generated lead, remember Facebook is a passive audience. Make it easy, fun and simple to sign up. If it’s a squeeze page then it better be for JUST an email address, and it needs to follow those rules.
2. Post about it to your Facebook page for that company. Post about it yourself.
3. Keep doing this. When something generates a more than usual level of interest, turn it into a promoted post. This is easy to do – it’s in the various options for your post. Choose your various money and audience options, and send it out into the unknown. It will work better if you only promote posts that have first been field tested amongst your own page likes.
4. Every so often, I recommend that you sponsor your page or a post on your page for new likes. Let Facebook choose people who might be good to know, or, if your existing likes are a better option, choose to show to friends of existing likes. If you’re going to do this, make sure you don’t mind throwing that money into a completely branding-motivated endeavor. It will not result in immediate conversion, but it will likely increase the size of your future audience, so can be a good investment.
Nota Bene: In the long run, and for a slightly higher quality fan base (people who like you), you’re better off spreading likes through Facebook offers that are behind a like-wall sent out to your email list, and otherwise chatted up, since it doesn’t cost you anything to gain those likes.
That’s my advice to try to help you avoid throwing money into the ad types that I’ve never seen pay off. One client invested about $70,000 before he came to me, and now spends less than $1000 for more than double the results, simply by improving how savvy he was about the ad types as well as his understanding of how to talk to a facebook user.
Primary advice on how to talk to a Facebook user in your ads?
- Speak plainly and naturally. Don’t use “marketing speech”.
- Don’t try to sell them the whole enchilada in one go. Stick to one offer, one idea, one status. Bite-sized offerings work better here.
- Read your own copy over as a viewer. Don’t post it unless you’d click on it yourself.
- Show it to a viewer. Show it to your best/worst critic. Try out their advice.
- Read the Facebook pafes that you’ve liked from an advertiser’s perspective once in a while. Pay attention to what the people who are succeeding talk like. What’s their cadence? Attitude? What are their tactics? Would that work with your brand?
- Offer contests (per the rules only!!!) that actually pay out well for small things. People WILL enter a Facebook contest even for an eyeshadow compact. I’ve seen it.
- Consider creating branded apps that make sense with your products. Wrap it around the concept of your products, or don’t even let that ship sail. App development takes money – don’t throw it away unless you know your market would like it.
- If you have a detailed customer interface on your website, think about turning it into a Facebook app.
- Make it easy to sign up, sign on, log in, order up through Facebook. These can be in page apps, but will only do you anything if you integrate them into a process that shows up in people’s feeds.
Meanwhile, back on the ranch… (on your website)
- Make it easy easy easy to share your products and services on Facebook either broadly or in a message- – don’t try to control that process too much or people will rebel. If they think it was their idea, the word of mouth is much more effective than anything you can pay Facebook for.
- Make is easy easy easy to share your posts.
- Make sure your website is set up to work well with open graph – it means making it so that it’s “social media friendly” – but get a programmer’s help. Facebook’s open graph code needs to be done right, don’t let it obscure your page’s real code too much.
Don’t forget to always consider whether what you’re doing would make sense without the buzzwords, gimmicks and without the super new-ness of social marketing. If you wouldn’t do it in a postcard mailer campaign, or if doing so at your actual stores would be ridiculous, it might need to be rethought. Facebook isn’t as far from reality reality as you think.
And mostly remember that Facebook is a passive audience, it’s not a driven buyer-built audience. And that whatever you post may show up repeatedly to the same person. Also remember that your ads can get rated and demoted based on passive user info. If no one likes you, you’ll stop showing up. So play nice and be engaging.