Facebook is the largest social network today, and with more than a 1.6billion active users each day, and 2.85billion users every month, it is the most popular social network. If you are like most small businesses, you simply cannot afford not to have a presence there.

In addition to this, the world is gradually going digital, and increased consumers are going online, it is becoming compulsory to have a strong social media presence if you want to remain competitive.

Facebook is a platform where people can create profiles, share information such as photos and quotes about themselves. The platform consists of several features such as newsfeed, timeline, messenger, wall, events, likes, comments, and reactions, groups, notifications, and others.

Therefore, all Facebook users encompass their demographics when they create their profile, which is why Facebook is great if you want to target a specific group of people. Whether you are trying to reach teens or the elderly, Facebook’s advertising is highly targeted, and you can target your audience by location age, gender, interests, and other factors.

In addition to this, Facebook advertising is affordable for small businesses. The average Facebook ad costs just $5.99 per thousand impressions, and you can also set and control your budget, so you do not face unexpected marketing costs.

Another reason Facebook is a valuable marketing tool is that it helps you measure your results. The free Facebook insights tool lets you track the results of your marketing campaigns, including ads and organic posts.

You can get information in detail about how much your customers are engaging with your business on Facebook, such as the number of likes you got this week and how that compares to last week, the type of engagement you received, and which ads drove traffic to your website.

Facebook is a valuable promotion tool to attract new customers and to connect with them, as well as offer key information about your business. 95.8 percent of respondents have reported Facebook as one of the top drivers of return on investment out of all the social networking platforms.  

However, there are challenges, such as standing out in your follower’s news feeds.  

Using Facebook for business can be difficult because of its rules and algorithms which are constantly changing and updating, However, with the right strategies put in place, Facebook can be an extremely effective tool for your marketing efforts.  

 So, keep reading to figure out how you can overcome these challenges, and to see some important dos and don’ts of Facebook marketing. 

 But, firstly, let us start with how to set up your Facebook business page. 

For those of you who do not already know, the Facebook business page is a free web page that companies can set up on Facebook to grow their internet presence.

Like a personal profile, your Facebook business page can send and receive messages, get notifications, post updates, and like, comment, and share other pages and content.

Over time, many businesses have developed a presence on Facebook meaning that you will need to have a strategy in place to help you stand out from the crowd and draw significant attention to your company.

If you create a Facebook page for your company, you will experience some of the following advantages:

• List your basic contact information
• Engage new and long-time customers
• Get to know your audience
• Lessen your marketing costs
• Boost your web traffic
• Improve SEO

To create a business page on Facebook, you need to have your profile first. This is because each page on Facebook is attached to a personal account.

It’s easy to create a business page and customise it with photos, your businesses hours, upcoming events, and more!

Once you have created a personal profile, the process of creating a Facebook page for your business is super easy.

Here are some simple steps to follow:

1. Login to your Facebook account
2. On the homepage, click ‘pages’ in the sidebar
3. Click ‘create new page’
4. Enter your page name, select a category, and write your description
5. Scroll down and click ‘create page’
6. Add your profile picture and cover photo, and then hit save

Once your business page is set up, that is just the start! You will now want to expand and grow your page properly to attract customers.

You can do this by adding apps, and other interactive features!

The next few steps are slightly more advanced, so they are described in more detail. However, you may prefer to reach out to a digital marketing agency to guide you through the process if you are unsure.

You want to give your page it is the best chance, don’t you?

Anyway – here are the next few steps.

One of the first steps involves creating a customised welcome tab, which will be the first thing new visitors will see when they visit your page, as well as being an excellent opportunity for you to engage with your audience.

It used to be that you could install this feature from an app, but that is no longer the case. You will have to use the Facebook developer tools.

Now, you can create a custom tab, and rearrange where it appears in your list of tabs.

What you should include in this section should be the goals of your brand, or mission statement. If you are currently doing a giveaway, you can add that too, and finally, embed your email subscribe form so people can sign up directly from your page.

This step involves enhancing the user experience for your audience. Adding applications to your page will make it easier to manage and make it an interactive and fun place for your audience.

Facebook page apps can help your brand and business page stand out.

Examples of what Facebook apps allow you to do include creating polls, adding e-commerce, setting up blog feeds, and even meetings.

Facebook’s family of apps includes Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and more. Some will be connected to your page automatically, but others may need to be added.

An app to consider that will help you improve the quality of your content is Adobe Spark. It allows you to design Facebook page covers for free and has more features if you become a Spark member.

Or if you decide Adobe Spark is not for you, Animoto and the Promo Republic are great alternatives.

You should also consider apps that will help you with your surveys, polls, or promotions. Some good ones are, Wishpond, Wooboox, and SurveyMonkey

After you have created your customised and interactive page, it is important to then ensure you are interacting every day with your audience to grow your community.

You want people who are interested in the types of products, services, or content you share to find your page, right?

There are a few ways that you can achieve this.

• Share your page on your newsfeed
• Invite friends to like/share your page
• Post the page in groups that already have a large number of members
• Comment on other posts
• Share great content

Growing your presence on Facebook is not a challenging task, but it also does not happen overnight.

If you stick to all these things, it will not be long until you notice growth!

Whilst you follow each of these steps, it is easy to forget things, make mistakes, or not even realise you are missing something.

Therefore, below are listed some important dos and don’ts to abide by to ensure that you give your Facebook page it is the best chance, and to avoid commonly made mistakes

Researching your audience is a wonderful way to gain insight into what grasps their interests as well as their buying behaviour.

It is important to do this because unrealistic assumptions and marketing do not go well together and knowing who your audience is and what they want is key.

The amount of likes that your Facebook page receives is one small measure of success. It is more important to target your potential customers and post the most relevant content for them.

You can start by nurturing engagement with your current customers.

This involves posting a call-to-action on your website which asks your customers to follow your Facebook business page.

Also, when you set up your Facebook page, make sure that you chose a simple and easy web address. This can then go on business cards, flyers, and brochures, and is more likely to be remembered by viewers.

Your profile picture is one of the first things that users will notice when they come across your profile.

No pressure, right?

Just as logos are meant to represent brands, profile pictures represent company pages, and views should have a positive feeling when they look at it!

Logos are the most common option for profile pics, but in the case where this may not be the right choice, you should choose your best headshot and use that instead.

It is advised not to use a product or building location because it is likely that these things do not define your company.

Your ‘about’ section is shown beneath your profile photo.

The main purpose of an ‘about us’ section is to inform the reader about your company and what it does.

You want your customers to be able to access this and have all the information that they need about your brand and company. Having a good bio also helps when people are searching for your brand, so remember to include keywords.

It is one of the first places that users will look when they come across your page so make sure you display relevant and enticing information about your company.

By this stage, you should have an idea of what to publish based on your chosen goals and objectives and done extensive research into your target audience.

These three things are immediately visible when users view your page. So, if you want to maximise engagement then you need to ensure that all your messaging matches up through all three of these features.

A dummy Facebook account is an account where someone is pretending to be something/someone that does not exist.

Dummy accounts violate Facebook’s terms and conditions. To avoid mishaps, set up different publishing settings for each of your employees on your page.

Facebook provides several targeting tools which you can use to categorise your organic posts by age, gender, education, etc.

Once put into categories, you can ensure that each post is reaching the right audience depending on the type of content.

There is also software available that you can use.

Sprout Social enables you to quickly create content, schedule posts and attach visuals all on one platform. You can also dig into the Facebook Insights data to track the performance of your posts.

The results of organic posts tend to snowball, which means that the more organic reach that you have, the faster it grows. You will find that good organic reach will give you much better lead generation.

Posting the right amount of content can be difficult to achieve.

If you post too infrequently, your audience will forget that you exist, if you post too often, your audience will find you annoying and see you overcrowding their feed.

A better approach to posting is to aim for consistency, to create a plan, and stick to it.

For example, if you decide that you want to post twice a day on Facebook, you know how much content you need to create to fill that schedule.

Posting consistently, say twice a day, rather than constantly is a better approach. It will keep you fresh in your customer’s minds and ensure you achieve continuous growth. You may also want to share content from other leaders within your industry and customer base to create some buzz.

Spend your time crafting higher-quality Facebook posts instead, and remember, always post quality over quantity.

This brings us to the next point, scheduling your posts in advance gives you more time to think about what you want to say, which will improve the quality of your posts.

To maintain this, it is an innovative idea to create a content calendar.

Although this means investing more time into your posts upfront, it saves you putting in the effort and prevents any stress later. It is especially useful for special occasion days, for example, international woman’s day, if you already have an original and witty post at the ready.

A content calendar can also be useful for spotting any gaps in your content or conflicts.

Once you have these metrics, you can use these to tailor your content to post more of what has been successful and less of what has not

If you want to reach as many users as possible, you need to promote your brand using a variety of media.

If you are not using multi-media, you are missing a huge opportunity to improve your customer engagement.

Your content can receive up to 94% more views if you use compelling visual elements and graphics in your posts, and Facebook campaigns that make use of visual content generate 65% more engagement after only a month.

In a market that is already so saturated with ads and content, to stand out you have to take a multi-media approach to create your content.

Video content is the most successful for marketing purposes because it is versatile.

It is no longer restricted to pre-recorded clips and can now live-streamed, virtual reality, and 360 perspective videos, which offer a much more interactive experience to your users.

In fact, due to the global pandemic of 2020, many businesses went digital to maintain social distancing. Normal face-to-face meetings were turned into Zoom calls and live concerts were turned into live streams.

As a result of this, there has been a huge increase in the usage of live streaming on social media. Facebook noticed a massive rise in live streaming especially in the Covid-19 hotspots such as Italy.

As time has passed, people have grown accustomed to this new way of interacting without having to leave their homes. Therefore, live streaming will continue to be popular amongst social media users and you should adopt this as part of your Facebook marketing strategy.

By posting during the right time of day, you will receive more likes, shares, and follows, because it enhances traffic to your page.

Research has shown that posts published between 1-4 pm receive the best clickthrough and share rates.

Research shows that the best day to post on Facebook is Wednesday, and the best times are between 11 am and 1 pm.

The use of hashtags on Facebook has been somewhat of a mystery. A recent post from social media Today said that posts without hashtags performed better than posts with hashtags.

However, this may not be the case if you use your hashtags correctly.

Social media networks are slowly becoming search engines which is something to bear in mind when creating posts and choosing hashtags.

So, use hashtags on Facebook but put thought into what ones you use exactly, think about how people may be searching for your content topic.

The most important attribute of good customer service, according to customers themselves, is a fast response time. Up to 42% of customers who complain about social media expect a response within an hour.

Regardless of whether your audience posts negative or positive comments, ignoring them only creates potential anger and disappointment.

Despite this, research of a total of 1000 companies showed an average response time of 12hours and 10 minutes, which is far too long.

There is various customer service software that is available.

To get better ROI, promote content that you already know works.

This type of strategic advertising can expand your reach and attract more people to your page.

The last thing that you want to happen is for your posts to blend in with everything else that clutters up a customer’s feed.

You are never going to stand out if you are assuming that a strategy that works well for one industry will work well for yours.

You should always test out your assumptions first.

Facebook has always been a place for people to connect and share their experiences through photos and videos. However, social media has progressed to so much more than that for businesses.

Facebook is no longer just a marketing platform; it has become the ideal platform for a customer service channel and lots of brands have started to use it to deliver customer service.

A wonderful way to engage in customer service and spark conversation with your customers is to ask questions!

Questions can also include feedback. For example, if you are planning to launch a new product, ask what they think about it and if there is anything you can add/improve.

You will find that customers become much more invested in your brand if they feel like they had a say in the production and outcome of your products!

When it comes to creating the perfect Facebook business page, there is not a finish line! Setting up your page is just the start; you should continue to add to it and make improvements all the time.

Hopefully, this article helped you to gain some insight into what it takes to start a Facebook page – good luck!

Facebook is the social media platform known for being easy to use, simple and well-connected.

It’s no wonder it had 1,562 million individual daily users in 2019, according to Statista.

Digital marketers return to this platform time and time again, despite the constant updates and changes Facebook puts in place.

In a world where there are so many social media options and endless ways to market your brand, you must ask, how effective are Facebook ads?

This involves publicly running ads on the social media platform and often includes images and a call-to-action link to the brand’s website or Facebook business page.

A call to action is usually something like ‘sign up’, ‘shop now’ and ‘learn more’.

Facebook ads are compatible with all devices and often appear in multiple different places, often in the news feed or on the right-hand side of the homepage.

76% of users look for interesting content on Facebook and content consumption on Facebook has increased 57% since 2014

Facebook gathers voluntary information from its users, like name, age, location, and interests.

This information is used to target specific ads to certain audiences, including products they’d like to buy, events in their area, and apps they might download.

Genius, right?

All without Facebook having to lift a finger.

Often, we hear claims that Facebook is outdated, unused and that there are better platforms out there.

Yes, you may see your mum posting pictures of flowers and family holidays; it is true, Facebook is one of the oldest social media platforms.

We say, ignore the haters!

Facebook remains the most profitable platform to date, generating a revenue of $86 billion according to SearchEngineJournal, 2021.

So, they must be doing something right, right?

The social media giant continuously provides updates whilst keeping the roots of its platform the same.

Facebook knows that user experience is the most important thing, and its platform reflects that.

Don’t get us wrong, Facebook has its flaws, but they still manage to remain the top dog.

For Facebook advertising to be effective you need to know how to use it.

Make it work for you!

You need to create an ad that resonates with your desired target audience.

First, consider the focus.

The Facebook Ads Manager will ask you to choose an objective for your ad campaign, which tends to fall into three categories: raising awareness or interest, drawing consumer attention to your product/service, and conversions.

Facebook will ask you to create your audience so the algorithm can target your ad to specific individuals rather than the masses.

Decide on your budget and away you go!

Yes!

Well, they can be if they disrupt the user experience.

YouTube ads are hated by everyone and for good reason.

YouTube ads tend to interrupt the flow of the user experience.

It stops the user from being in control and creates an interrupted stop-start experience for the user.

So annoying, right?

There is an exception.

Facebook ads work smarter and harder than other social media ad platforms.

Facebook and Instagram weave ads into the flow of the user’s feed, creating a natural, controlled experience for the user.

The user can choose to look at it or scroll past it.

Similarly, TikTok ads are trend-focused and in-feed ads.

This tactic works because often the user does not know they are watching an ad until the call to action appears. By then they have watched most of the ad and can still choose to scroll past it. This keeps the user in control.

This creates a better user experience and means the user will be more likely to click on the call to action.

Clever, huh?

When creating an ad campaign, consider the objective.

What do you go on Facebook for?

To shop? No.

To listen to music. No way!

To catch up with friends and family? YES.

Cold advertising won’t work.

Putting up an ad and expecting instant results is the main reason most Facebook advertising campaigns fail.

It’s random to expect ‘cold’ people to purchase a product.

Think about it. If you are looking at your friend’s holiday pics, why would you click on a product ad?

It feels out of place.

So, what do I do?

You build a campaign with different objectives that create awareness, nurturing, and conversion.

Sound tricky? Here’s some help:

Creating an engaging ad is crucial.

It’s all about user interaction.

Make an ad that is a puzzle or that makes them laugh.

This will give the audience a purpose in your ad, piques their interest, and then leads them to your website.

This creates what is known as a custom audience.

Ever feel like ads follow you around?

A custom audience is created when ads are retargeted.

Retargeting ads are when a user has been on a particular website and leaves the website, ads for what they were looking at pop up.

For example, if you were on our website looking at our Email Marketing services, then left the website, ads for those services will appear on other platforms.

This will help you define your demographic audience based on their interests.

Once you have gained the attention of your audience, you can begin to turn them into leads.

Sending your custom audience-specific ads for them, based on what they previously have been browsing on your website.

You can create ads that are specifically targeted to the audience to make them more likely to buy your product.

This is typically a giveaway, discount code, checklist, or eBook.

After the nurturing stage is complete, you need to sell, sell, sell.

Sending your new leads offers or simplified versions of your product.

Make them an offer they can’t refuse!

The goal is to get them to purchase your product or service.

Once they see your great offers, they will be more likely to regain interest!

It is not simply enough to have a target audience and objectives.

You have to get creative with your ads!

With the rise of TikTok and Instagram reels, content has become faster and more accessible.

These days, ads must be dynamic, engaging, exciting, and under 15 seconds.

Consumers now absorb information at a faster rate than ever before, so your ad must reflect this.

Trying to come up with an ad idea that has all these features isn’t easy, but this is how many advertising strategies fail.

Remember, your target audience should be at the forefront of your mind.

You have to know your target audience to have successful Facebook advertising.

Many ads fail and people blame the social media platform.

However, it is not always down to the platform.

Your ad content has to come from you; Facebook is just the vehicle to get your ad there.

There are different types of Facebook ads, and you should consider which one is the best for your brand.

Single image ads are really good if you are starting and want to keep things simple.

Often, one clear image stands out more than a lot of images and is less confusing for the user.

Remember! Always make sure to use your images.

Facebook gives you the option to browse stock images but using your looks more professional.

If you want to use multiple images, this will create a carousel.

A carousel allows you to scroll through multiple images.

This is particularly effective with e-commerce and is often used to showcase products. It also gives you more space for advertising and allows you to include videos.

Even though this may look swish, the carousel ads are better for more established companies; when starting, it’s better to keep it simple!

Other things to consider are emotion.

What do you want your audience to understand or gain from your ad?

And…what type of impression do you want to give?

Think about these questions when making your ad to tap into your audience’s mindset.

This is a great way to ensure your Facebook ads will be more effective.

Tracking the progress of your ads is important.

Why?

It can provide you with a lot of useful information which can be used to adjust the current ads and create better ads in the future.

You will be able to see what your audience likes about your ad and how they respond to it based on a few different factors.

There are several steps to measuring how successful your Facebook ads have been.

Firstly, Conversion rate ranking measures how your expected conversion rate compares to other Facebook ads targeting the same audience with similar objectives.

This helps you identify how likely a user will follow through with a call-to-action, like purchasing your business.

Cost per click (CPC) measures how much on average a click from Facebook to your website will cost.

If your cost per click rate is high but your click-through rates are low, this means that users are clicking on the ad’s call to action, but they are not completing a purchase.

This may mean your ad does not appeal to the advertised audience enough to make them want to buy, meaning you may have to re-think your ad strategy or target a slightly different audience.

Click-through rates (CTR) as previously mentioned, are the percentage of users that click on your website after seeing your ad. The higher this percentage, the more effective your ad is.

The cost per action shows how well your ad is generating actions and how much it costs you.

This feature is very useful to Facebook users as they can control how much they pay for a certain action. For example, the average amount you would pay for link clicks compared to impressions.

Facebook advertising is not a ‘set and forgets’ platform.

You need to be responsible for your ad; it is vital that you constantly monitor and review the progress of your ad over time.

Why?

It is unlikely that your ad will get instant results as it requires self-optimisation which will save you money long-term but may cost more at the beginning.

This way you can adjust the ad depending on how well it performs to your target audience.

Knowing how your ad performs to your audience is a great way to understand their wants and needs.

Monitoring your Facebook ads can also help you narrow down your target audience.

Facebook advertising is a highly powerful tool that has proved to be extremely effective when used correctly and will increase your ROI.

Listen up!

Combining email marketing with a social media advertising strategy is a clever way to gain more traffic to your website.

Showcasing ad content on marketing emails and newsletters is an effective way to increase your click-through rates.

It’s a game-changer. Seriously.

This will also help find your target audience and consumer base as well as create brand awareness.

Often, email marketing and social media marketing are compared to each other but combining the two has proved to be highly effective.

Why not give it a go?

This proves that Facebook advertising seems to be a good investment.

Social media is the most popular form of communication now and communicating your brand or business to consumers is one of the best ways to gain a valuable return on investment.

Different social media platforms may work better for different businesses and brands; however, Facebook advertising has proved to be the most powerful so far.

It is important to do what makes sense for your brand.

Facebook advertising can be highly effective if you do it right.

With the highest number of users and profits, it is unbeatable.

The key is knowing your audience better than Facebook does, having creative ad content, and monitoring your ad progress.

These are the best ways for Facebook advertising to be effective to you.