Facebook marketing is key to extending the online reach of your company. During this blog, we are going to reveal how it works, how to get started, and the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook marketing compared to other techniques.

In the competitive social media marketing landscape, Facebook marketing offers an opportunity for brands to get their message across to the right people. In an interactive way. This is extremely valuable with the increasing number of restrictions that are being put in place surrounding organic content.

What is Facebook marketing?

The Facebook app shown on an iPhone display.

Facebook advertising allows you to reach people based on age, interests, location, gender, job title, and more. Facebook marketing also provides regular updates letting you know how your ads are doing.

Advertising on Facebook allows you to tailor your campaigns based on the specific goal you want to reach, which include the different levels of the marketing funnel. The options are:

Awareness

  • Brand awareness
  • Reach

Consideration

  • Traffic
  • Engagement
  • App installs
  • Video views
  • Lead generation
  • Messages

Conversion

  • Conversions
  • Catalogue sales
  • Store traffic

If you choose to advertise on Facebook, you will have 7 different places where you will have the option to place ads across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network. Placements depend on your chosen marketing objective and include:

  • Feeds
  • Stories
  • Apps
  • Messages
  • Search
  • In-stream
  • In-article

The two methods for choosing your placements

Automatic placement

This is the recommended default option that allows Facebook’s delivery system to allocate the budget for your ads across multiple placements based on where they are most likely to perform best.

Manual placement

Manually choose your placements. There are six different placements you have to choose from, and each one has different areas. Your ads will only be eligible for some of the placement and not all, but that depends on your advertising objective. This will allow you to be more direct and targeted while giving you the option to choose between operating systems and platforms that your ads appear on. For example, if you only wanted to show your ads on Instagram Stories, and for users using only iOS devices, this makes it possible.

Advantages of Facebook marketing

The login display for Facebook's website.

Wide customer reach

Facebook is still the number 1 social network when it comes to the reach that it provides, with over 2.6 billion monthly users, and no signs of slowing down. If you are looking to reach the masses with your messaging, Facebook is the place to do it, especially with the diversity in demographics.

Ads Manager also allows you to remarket to users who have visited your website before, by installing Facebook Pixel code to your website. This allows you to see Facebook users who have visited your page and market to them. There is also a range of Custom Audiences that you can take advantage of, allowing you to reach users who may already be familiar with your brand. Find out more about Custom Audiences here.

Split Testing

Facebook manager allows you to split test your ads to different custom audiences, locations, age segments, and more, all with one single campaign. Not only does this provide valuable data as to what works best, but you can also narrow down what works best for each audience.

You can also see what ads your competitors are currently running, just follow these simple steps:

  1. Go to your competitors’ Facebook page on a desktop computer.
  2. Scroll down and keep an eye out for the page transparency section on the right-hand side.
  3. Click the ‘see more’ button.

Lead generation

Lead ads on Facebook make it a lot simpler for potential customers to submit information to you, no matter the device you or they are using. Customers can request information about services or products, or even schedule appointments, through an ad form that appears natively in your feed. The most effective part of this feature is the fact that customers don’t have to leave the Facebook page to submit the form.

You can read more on how to use Facebook Advertising to get conversions here.

You can link the data generated in Facebook instant forms with apps like Zapier allowing you to send the information straight to your marketing and sales team automatically.

The Facebook interface displayed on a Mac

Creativity

Immersive ad-sets like Facebook’s instant experience ads means users can be instantly transported to an app-like experience. The full-screen interactive concept allows brands to tell a story to their viewers that deliver on engagement, whilst providing opportunities to showcase content marketing pieces that may be lost on a website otherwise.

Conversion measurement

Creating a Facebook pixel allows you to track actions that a user takes after viewing your ads across multiple different devices. Adding a Facebook Pixel to the pages on your site where conversations occur will let you see the people that convert on your website as a result of viewing your Facebook ad.

To implement a Facebook Pixel, simply navigate to the Facebook Pixel tab in Ads Manager and click ‘Create a Pixel’. After that just proceed to follow the instructions on the screen. Then add the Facebook Pixel base code to every page on your website. You can send the instructions directly to your development team, or integrate the process with Google’s task manager.

Cost

In addition to the varied targeting options it provides, Facebook is also one of the most cost-efficient advertising channels. Therefore, if you have a low budget, you can have your ad posted and running for as little as £1 a day. Depending on the objective of your ad, compared to the cost of other marketing channels like LinkedIn, where it costs around £5-£6.

Visibility

One reassuring feature of Facebook advertising is that you have complete visibility and control of your ads and your budget. Since you monitor your success on Facebook, so you know exactly how much you’re spending and the results you have gained from your campaigns.

Disadvantages of Facebook marketing

You can also use the data that Facebook Insights provides to analyse the performance of your paid ads against your organic posts. This will let you make strategic decisions regarding your future posts and ads.

You cannot advertise everything

Some sectors simply aren’t allowed to advertise on Facebook. Whether it be because of the terms of service, or the things that the company sells. This ensures that people using Facebook have a safe and enjoyable time when using the app. Before adverts appear on Facebook, they have to go through a strict viewing process to ensure they are suitable. Which can sometimes take up to 24 hours.

The 20% rule

In the past, if the image you were using for Facebook Marketing was over 20% covered with text, it would not be approved. While this policy has been relaxed by Facebook in recent years. It is still better to not use a lot of text on your images.

You should think about implementing impactful images to capture the attention of your audience. Then adding text to the copy section where it is meant to be. Facebook will make you aware of this and advise you to change the ad.

Facebooks split testing isn’t as good as an expert

Although Facebook Marketing does have a helpful area that will allow you to split test your ads. And in our experience, it is better to manually optimise. As it gives you a better return on your investment.

Competition

There is a vast number of new businesses using Facebook Marketing lately. Meaning the chance of your advert to stand out reduces. Catching people’s attention and getting your ad noticed amongst updates from your friends can be difficult. And does require creative ad-sets which can come at an additional resource cost.

How can Castle help you?

Here at Castle, our social media managers have expert knowledge in a range of social media advertising. Including Facebook Advertisements. Our Facebook Ad specialists have successfully created thousands of leads and generated significant revenue for a wide range of clients. Both B2B and B2C sectors.

If you are interested in Facebook Advertising for your business or want to find out more about how Castle can help your business with social media marketing. Visit our website or contact us on 0330 107 5344 or info@castle.co.uk.