How to Optimize Your Facebook Page for Product Sales : Social Media Examiner

By Ana Gotter
June 26, 2017

7K Shares

Do you want to sell on Facebook?

Wondering how to increase product sales without investing in Facebook ads?

In this article, you’ll discover how to organically optimize your Facebook page for more sales.

How to Optimize Your Facebook Page for Product Sales by Ana Gotter on Social Media Examiner.

#1: Choose the Right Facebook Page Type and Category

Every business is different, and how you optimize your Facebook page for sales depends on what you sell and how you sell it. For example, a consultant needs people to book appointments, a restaurant or hair salon wants to drive customers to their physical location, and an ecommerce business sells products online.

Facebook has pre-made page templates to help you promote your products most effectively. To find these templates, go to Settings and click Edit Page on the left.

To change your Facebook page template, go to Edit Page in your Settings.

Pages automatically start with the “default” template but you can change it to any of the following:

Services
Shopping
Business
Politicians
Venues
Nonprofits
Restaurants and Cafes

Before you select a different template, look at the recommended settings for the template (including the order of the tabs). Changing the template will automatically change your call to action (CTA) and the buttons available on the toolbar. Any existing tabs you have that don’t fit into the template may also be erased.

To explore the different templates, click the Edit button to the right of your existing template.

Click the Edit button to change the template of your Facebook page.

In the pop-up box, scroll down to the template you’re interested in and click View Details.

Click View Details to see more information about a Facebook page template.

Review the recommended settings for the template, and if needed, adjust your page manually before you apply the template.

Different Facebook page templates have different CTAs, toolbar buttons, and tabs specifically chosen and organized for the business type.

Only the Services and Shopping templates have built-in Shop sections, which allow you to extensively feature products on Facebook. However, you can manually add the Shop or Services tab to any template.

To do this, scroll to the bottom of the Edit Page section. At the bottom of the list of existing tabs on your page, click Add a Tab.

You can manually add any tab to your Facebook page, even if it isn’t automatically part of your page’s template.

Then choose which tabs to add to your site.

Adding a Shop or Services tab to your Facebook page can help you showcase your products, encouraging more sales.

#2: Select a Sales-Oriented CTA Button

Your page’s Call to Action (CTA) button sets the stage for the main action you want users to carry out. Do you want them to shop your products or call you to book an appointment? Choose the best CTA button for your business.

Choosing the right CTA button for your Facebook page will increase the likelihood that users move closer to converting and purchasing.

To change your CTA button, click it on your page. You’ll then see a ton of different options you can choose from.

You can choose from a large number of CTA buttons for your Facebook page.

While you likely know which CTA to choose for your business, here are some general guidelines:

Select Book Services if your services are fairly straightforward and you want to optimize for appointments.

Choose from the Get in Touch options if your business can reliably and quickly answer on Facebook, and the best way to win over customers is one-on-one communication. Great examples of businesses that would find this option useful include boutique fitness studios, freelancers, and consultants.

Choose Shop Now if (like Book Services) your business sells products that can be bought fairly quickly and without needing a lot of questions answered first.

Add the Shop Now button to your Facebook page to make it easy for users to buy from you.

Opt for Start Order or other customized food delivery CTAs if you’re a restaurant looking to optimize for takeout or delivery orders.

Pick a Learn More option if your products or services are complex, high-priced, or unfamiliar to users. They’ll be more likely to click Learn More than Sign Up if they’re unfamiliar with your business or product; it’s a lower-pressure option.

After you decide on your CTA, you’ll need to set it up. For Contact Us, as an illustration, enter a specific Contact Me page through which users can send you emails.

Finish setting up your Facebook CTA button with links or contact information so it’s fully functional.

#3: Set Up a Shop Section

If you want to sell products more directly from Facebook, setting up a Shop section (if applicable to your business) is the best way to do this.

Go to the Shop tab to create your Facebook storefront. First, agree to the Merchant Terms and Policies.

Agree to the Merchant Terms and Policies to set up your Facebook Shop section.

Next, choose your checkout method. You can choose from two options: allow people to purchase from you through Facebook or by navigating to your site when they click on a product. For this example, we’ll illustrate the latter.

Facebook lets you choose if you want users to check out on Facebook or to send them to your site to check out.

Now fill out the “describe what you sell” section with information about your business and products so first-time users will feel more comfortable buying from you.

Describe your products on your Facebook storefront to help increase sales.

Click Add Products to start adding products to your shop. You can add multiple photos, prices (even an on-sale price), a description, and a link where users can go to purchase the item. Organizing products into collections makes it easy for users to shop.

You can add temporary sale prices to products as needed.

When you add products to your shop, you can have them shared to your timeline automatically. If you add a new product you want users to know about, this can encourage immediate sales. You can edit and share both your products and shop at any time.

You can group individual products into collections and edit them at any time.

For advice about how to fully set up a great Facebook shop, check out some best practices.

#4: Tag Products From Your Shop in Photos and Videos

Many businesses have pictures and videos featuring their products and services. Now you can tag your visual content and posts on the platform with your products, including your cover photo.

When you click on your cover photo, for instance, you see the option to tag products from your shop. Click the Tag Products button.

Make sure you click Tag Products instead of Tag Photo.

Then click on a product in your cover photo. When you start to type in the product name, products from your shop will pop up.

You can tag products that exist in your Facebook shop, which will automatically pop up to tag in the search bar.

You’ll see the Tag Products option whether or not you have a shop set up, but there’s a difference in the tags. If you have a shop, you can tag products like people; when users click, it takes them to the product page you’ve created on Facebook.

When users hover over the image, a “products shown” label appears for the image.

If you don’t have a shop and products listed, users will just see the name of the product when they hover over it. This is still an advantage because users can identify products they like and go searching on their own.

Even if you don’t have a Facebook shop, tagging your products can help users identify them, making it easier to find products on your own site.

#5: Enable Customer Reviews

Enabling reviews on your Facebook page is one of the best things you can do for your business when you want to increase conversions. Customers don’t necessarily trust what businesses say about themselves; however, they do want to hear what actual customers think.

If your business has positive reviews from customers, first-time visitors will be more likely to convert. As an added bonus, some reviewers will even recommend specific products or services, encouraging other users to try them.

Reviewers can vouch for not only your business but also certain products, which can increase sales.

To check that reviews are enabled for your page, go to Settings and click Edit Page. Then scroll down to the Reviews tab and click the Settings button.

In your Facebook page Settings, click the Settings button next to the Review tab.

Make sure your reviews are set to On.

Enable Facebook reviews by selecting On next to Show Reviews.

Final Thoughts

If you want to sell more on Facebook, start by optimizing your business page. Whether people are searching for a business like yours or stumble onto your page after seeing a friend interact with it, your page may be the first point of contact for new users. Because of this, it’s essential to set up your page to nudge users toward conversion at all points of the digital sales funnel.

What do you think? How do you optimize your Facebook page for more sales? What’s helped you increase your conversions? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!