Six Facebook Marketing Tips From the Pros
Are you wondering what Facebook marketing tactics the pros are using?
We asked top social media pros to share their hottest Facebook marketing tactics.
In this article you’ll discover the latest tactics the pros use to boost their Facebook marketing.
#1: Use ActionSprout for Email Acquisition
John Haydon
Most marketers know the real battleground on Facebook is in the news feed, not on Facebook pages. In fact, very few Facebook users actually visit Facebook pages. Instead, they interact with page updates in their news feed.
The problem with most Facebook page apps is that they require the user to visit the Facebook page. For example, a photo contest requires that users visit a custom tab on the company’s Facebook page to upload a photo and submit a contest entry. In essence, they have to LEAVE the news feed, their home away from home, in order to participate in the photo contest.
ActionSprout removes this potential barrier by letting you put the acquisition action in the news feed.
For example, someone can “Sign” a petition, “Support” a project or “Demand” a challenge (as shown below) in the news feed.
Notice the Demand in the news feed.
When they click the action (Sign, Support, Join, etc.) in the update, they are they redirected to a single page to complete the action (Facebook authorization).
ActionSprout isn’t meant to replace custom tabs. Rather, it’s best used as a powerful addition to custom tabs. A tactic you should try, but also measure.
John Haydon helps nonprofits change the world with smarter marketing.
#2: Boost a New Product Announcement
Scott Ayres
Boosted posts on Facebook are still quite effective—especially for small businesses. Even though most experts in the field of Facebook marketing advise not to use the feature to advertise on Facebook.
A small local business page in my hometown boosted a post to announce the arrival of a brand-new huge water slide.
Use boosted posts to announce a new product.
The company spent $20 on the boosted post and as a result immediately got flooded with messages and phone calls inquiring about it. They chose to target fans and friends of fans.
The reach and engagement on the post were fantastic, reaching over 4,500 people on a page with 1,000 likes!
The reach and engagement on this particular boosted post were amazing.
Not only did the post get great engagement, it generated 8 reservations for $300 each for the slide within 7 days! That equates to revenue of $2,400 for just $20 in Facebook ad spend using boosted posts!
In addition to the initial increased reach and engagement, the next few posts on the page saw an increase in the average organic reach due to the activity on the boosted post.
An increase in organic reach was seen.
Just because many teaching social media to others say boosted posts are bad, that doesn’t mean they aren’t effective and don’t work. Especially for small businesses. Question everything and test tactics and techniques for yourself!
Scott Ayres, co-author of Facebook All-in-One for Dummies and “Ambassador of Awesome” at Post Planner.
#3: Use Website Custom Audiences
Christian Karasiewicz
As Facebook moves into a pay-to-play model, marketers are going to have to find better ways to reach fans.
While you can run Facebook ads targeted at specific fans on Facebook, one of my favorite Facebook marketing tips is to use Website Custom Audiences instead.
With Website Custom Audiences, you can still run Facebook ads through Power Editor; however, this time you can target people who’ve visited your website (or even a specific page on your website) when they head back to Facebook.
Create a Website Custom Audience in Facebook Power Editor.
This can be especially useful for a number of reasons.
For example, let’s say I’m reading a guide on YouTube channel art on your website. If you’re running Website Custom Audiences, when I head over to Facebook, instead of just seeing your normal Facebook page posts, you can target me with a YouTube channel art template to download.
If I’m reading an article on Facebook pages, you can target me on Facebook with a link to a training course about Facebook pages.
While these are just a few examples of ways you can use Website Custom Audiences to improve your Facebook marketing, there are many more useful strategies for marketers available.
The key takeaway is to get creative with your targeting. This way you can generate more leads and ultimately better customers with your Facebook marketing efforts.
Christian Karasiewicz is a social media marketing professional and founder of FB Marketing University.
#4: Power Up Your PR Efforts
Maggie Patterson
With everything Facebook offers for marketers, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that it’s also a tool that can support your brand’s PR or publicity efforts. The reality is that journalists rely on Facebook to source stories and Facebook itself actively promotes the platform as a “Rolodex” with 1 billion contacts for reporters.
Where your company may have relied on a press release in the past, you can now share your story on Facebook. It provides a low-friction way to report the facts in the case of breaking news or to provide comment on emerging issues that will help get your story to the media and your public faster.
Find and follow journalists via Graph Search.
To research members of the media, Facebook Graph Search is a powerful tool. You can quickly find out who works where, what publications/websites your fans may read or follow anyone with a journalism-related public title. By searching journalist + the name of the media outlet, you can easily find potential contacts.
Create an interest list for media monitoring.
Actively monitoring the Facebook page of your target media can also be a productive way to position your company as a source for stories. Many media outlets will solicit sources via social media. You can create an interest list of your main pages in one place to monitor them on an ongoing basis.
Maggie Patterson is a communications and content strategist who works with small businesses to help them master content, PR and social media.
#5: Use Audience Insights
Ben Harper
By understanding your audience, you can optimize your content strategy, target your advertising better and generate more return on investment.
Using Facebook’s Audience Insights makes this much easier for all brands, as it gives you the ability to see what your audience engages with and likes. You can profile your target audience in much more detail than ever before.
Audience Insights will give brands far more information about their audience.
Without data-led understanding, you’ll know whether to post more photos, if that contest really worked and the right kinds of topics to post about.
Invest the time in understanding your audience, and they will be more receptive to your content and advertising messaging.
Ben Harper is one of the co-founders of Datify, a data-driven marketing company based in the UK.
#6: Split Test Facebook Ads
Andrea Vahl
Facebook advertising is becoming critical to your marketing efforts and to use it effectively without wasting money, you need to find your perfect keywords.
The way to do that is to split test a variety of audiences. Split testing is just taking a portion of your advertising budget and running ads, while varying only one thing at a time and then comparing the results to see which ad performed the best.
The structure of Facebook ad campaigns have changed a bit and you can only turn on and off the ads automatically at the Ad Set level. I structure campaigns to run one ad below each ad set so I can easily turn them on and off at set times.
Run one ad below each ad set.
Many people ask how large the target audience should be, but it can depend on a lot of factors so there isn’t one perfect answer.
I’ve had clients who’ve benefited from targeting a very narrow audience, as well as targeting a wider audience. Split testing is the only way to answer that question.
Split test to find your best performing ads.
Determine how well the ad performs by watching the one that gets the cheapest clicks for whatever your goal is. If your ad was driving people to your website, the best ad will receive the cheapest website clicks. If you can, create a conversion pixel to see which ad converts best on your website.
Split testing doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive and will save you a ton of money in the long run. If you can test 5-10 different audiences at $25-$50 for each ad, you’ll have 2-3 perfect target audiences for your future ads.
Andrea Vahl, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies, also uses her improv comedy skills to blog as Grandma Mary, Social Media Edutainer.
What do you think? What’s your best Facebook marketing tip today? Please share your thoughts and comments below.
