Is it worth it for a small business to invest in Facebook campaigns? In terms of user numbers, yes. Although they have been on a slight decline in Finland since the peak of spring 2018, more than half of Finns are still on Facebook.
The advantage of Facebook is that, in addition to reach, you don’t pay for potential and promise (as with traditional newspaper advertising), but for real impact. However, homework must be done well. Facebook rewards you for targeting your content to people who are interested. This means you pay less for screens and clicks.
Please note that your privacy does not have to be Facebook active. There are those of us who are critical of Facebook, even among the experts at Digiport. So forget status updates and checking your friends’ holiday photos in your feed, the right address is Facebook Business Manager! For example, check out the Hootsuite article for practical instructions on how to get started with Business Manager.
And did you know that Facebook also offers an ad search engine to help you find great ideas for your own campaigns?
An effective Facebook campaign takes the following four basic things into account.
A compelling offer. Distinctive, useful to customers, tangible, entices action. Free shipping until the end of the month, -20% off these products, etc.
A clear target audience. More on this in the next section.
Attractive promotional image or video. Relevant and interesting content. A video is likely to get better results from your advertising campaign.
Take your user straight to the right page. A dedicated landing page to which your ad leads.
There are four levels of targeting, in order from lowest engagement to highest: website visitors, business page likes, direct mail opt-ins, and existing buyers. Your goal in marketing is to build a customer through these stages.
Continue by installing the Facebook Pixel tracking code on your website. Why? It collects data on your behalf about each visitor to your page and what they’ve done on your page: for example, whether they’ve made a purchase, read an article or filled in a contact form.
The audience of a small business may not necessarily be in the thousands. This is where lookalike audiences come in – people who are similar to people who have visited your site before. Target them with your campaign.
Set a goal and a budget. The ROI (return of investment) of your campaign is calculated as follows: if you invest €150 in a campaign and get €1500 in additional sales, the ROI is (€1500 – €150)/€150 * 100%, or 900%. A minimum return of 3x can be considered.
Do an A/B test with images and offers: which option works better? Test, experiment and above all, check out the results data provided by Facebook. You might learn more about your customers in a few weeks than a competitor in a decade.
IT expert Miia Kosonen and IT expert Petri Janhunen (Xamk) are leading the Lead with Knowledge training for companies in the Digital Stairs project.