Social media platforms rise and fall, but Facebook exists as a constant in the social landscape. With billions of users, it’s the largest and the most active social platform to date. Even the sheer number of users alone makes it essential for brands to establish a presence there.
But how can you make the most out of it? What is Facebook marketing and how can you leverage it in your overarching marketing strategy? We asked our trusted experts to share their views on the subject.
Table of Contents
- What Is Facebook Marketing?
- The Benefits of Using Facebook Marketing
- Digital Marketing on Facebook: Is It Worth it?
- Social Media Marketing on Facebook: Creating a Strategy
- Facebook Marketing Examples
- Social Media Marketing on Facebook: Get the Most Out of Your Presence
- Social Media Marketing on Facebook FAQs
What Is Facebook Marketing?
Social media marketing on Facebook refers to the process of promoting your brand or business along with its products and services on the platform, by using the Facebook Business Page. By optimizing your page to the fullest, you can create a second website for your brand on the platform, where you can directly sell or advertise to your target audience. Facebook enables you to leverage both organic promotions and paid advertising to maximize reach and engagement.
As such, your brand can create an entire sales funnel with a well-planned strategy, allowing for a full customer experience from awareness to brand advocacy.
The Benefits of Using Facebook Marketing
There are several exceptional reasons to embrace Facebook marketing in 2024. Below are just a few of them.
- Improved visibility for your brand
- Better content marketing
- Connecting with your audience
- Venturing into eCommerce
- Easy performance tracking
Improved Visibility for Your Brand
With roughly 2.9 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social platform in the world. And while 72.6% of them primarily use the platform to keep in touch with family and friends, 53.8% also mention that they actively use Facebook to research brands and products. This presents a great opportunity for building awareness, creating rapport with users, and even closing sales.
Better Content Marketing
Facebook enables you to use different content formats to their fullest potential and in turn, create engagement. While engagement will depend on the industry you are in, there are plenty of options to explore and an abundance of possibilities to fine-tune your content marketing efforts.
Connecting With Your Audience
Facebook Analytics lets you tap into rich data pools that provide you with insights into your campaign performance and audience behaviors. These two critical factors enable you to tailor your campaigns and your content to satisfy your prospects’ needs and your own marketing goals.
Facebook also has sophisticated market segmentation tools, that can help you categorize your audience based on:
- Demographics
- Geographics
- Income & interests/lifestyle
- Behavioral
In addition to segmentation and audience research, Facebook can also help you create more “human” relationships with your audiences. Community management enables you to gather data first-hand to actively engage with your audiences and create a more profound sense of involvement with them.
Venturing Into eCommerce
According to data, Facebook can help with significant brand amplification. As 62% of US social commerce buyers use the platform regularly, utilizing Facebook as a fully-fledged marketing channel can yield great returns on your investment.
You can also establish your online store on Facebook and leverage another Meta platform — Instagram — to reach even more people.
Easy Performance Tracking
Facebook offers a comprehensive suite for tracking your performance and other analytics. You can see the number of people who engaged or saw your posts, click rates, total number of likes, and more.
You can also check out your video stats and see how your users interacted with your video content, like view duration, number of views, and more. Lastly, it also allows you to track eCommerce metrics such as click-through rates, customer demographics, product views, and conversions.
Facebook Pixel lets you track off-platform performance, as it can help you track people who left the social channel and ended up on your site.
Digital Marketing on Facebook: Is It Worth it?
Facebook turned 20 in February 2024. Trend and tech-savvy entrepreneurs may wonder whether investing in an “old” platform makes sense or whether they should create a commanding presence on more “youthful” platforms such as Instagram or TikTok.
But according to our experts, Facebook still holds relevance. Bryan Phillips, Head of Marketing at In Motion Marketing, believes the platform is essential to your strategy if your audience spends time there.
“It's crucial to know where your target demographic is active and allocate your resources accordingly. Facebook remains effective for certain industries and demographics, but it's essential to keep evaluating its relevance for your specific audience.”
Krystal Dispo, Social Media Manager at Crunchy Lemons, points out that Facebook will remain a marketing cornerstone for years to come.
“Facebook continues to have a massive and diverse user base, making it an ideal platform for reaching a wide audience. Its sophisticated targeting capabilities allow businesses to reach specific demographics, interests, and behaviors, ensuring more effective and efficient ad spend. The integration with Instagram and WhatsApp enables seamless cross-platform marketing, maximizing reach and engagement.”
She also adds that the platform evolves with the times and trends.
“Facebook continually updates its features, such as AI-driven ad optimization, eCommerce tools like Shops, and enhanced analytics, helping businesses stay competitive and innovative. Additionally, Facebook Groups and Pages provide unique opportunities for businesses to build and nurture communities, fostering brand loyalty and engagement. Despite emerging platforms, Facebook's extensive reach, robust tools, and continuous innovation make it a cornerstone of digital marketing strategies.”
Tony Paris, Owner of AppWT, shares a similar perspective.
“While the platform has matured, we've seen shifts in user demographics and engagement patterns. However, Facebook's vast user base and sophisticated targeting options still offer significant opportunities for businesses. We strongly recommend adopting strategies to align with current trends, such as focusing on video content, leveraging Facebook Groups, and utilizing Facebook Shops for eCommerce businesses. It's also crucial to stay informed about privacy changes and algorithm updates that may impact your marketing efforts. Despite the rise of other platforms, Facebook's integration within the Meta ecosystem and its continued innovation in advertising tools make it a platform we must pay attention to in comprehensive digital marketing strategies.”
Social Media Marketing on Facebook: Creating a Strategy
There are several factors you should take into consideration when developing your strategy. If you’re creating your strategy from scratch, consider the following tips to get off the right foot.
- Set up your marketing goals
- Define your target audience
- Use highly engaging content
- Use ads to generate leads
- Use interactive tools
- Measure performance
Set Up Your Marketing Goals
You can use Facebook for a myriad of purposes. To ensure you don’t get lost in the process, assess what your goals would be on the platform. Are you here to create a vibrant community, boost conversions, or increase awareness?
Consider your main goals and create a strategy around them.
- Boosting brand value: According to Sprout Social, 68% of people follow brands on social to learn about new services or products. Facebook is an invaluable tool for building brand awareness both in the sense of nurturing relationships with existing clientele and building new connections.
- Be there for your customers: Building a community allows you to respond to your customers’ queries and needs. You can learn about their preferences, how they use your products or services, and potentially, what kind of improvements they would like to see in them.
- Improved sales: One way of improving your sales is to improve your targeting. A well-planned marketing strategy can help with that, as the platform’s analytics and campaign tools can help you fine tune your campaigns.
Define Your Target Audience
As discussed, Facebook enables you to target highly specific audiences with the help of the Facebook Audience Insights tool.
It provides valuable general user information and specific subsets, like people who have interacted with your page via comments, shares, likes, or following. The tool enables you to learn more about their demographics, location, and content preferences.
By creating highly specific marketing campaigns, you will be able to optimize your paid campaigns and increase organic growth with the help of more follower-centric content.
However, as Maciej Fita, Owner of Brandignity, says, campaign success will also depend on your niche.
“It all depends on the industry. We worked with a yacht broker not long ago where action photos of actual clients using the boats triggered immense engagement. For a B2B, sometimes, answering pain points that are difficult in an industry, can work very well too.”
He also points out that Google Ads might be a better option for running lead-generation campaigns. Still, running them on Facebook is also essential, as it complements a well-rounded digital marketing strategy.
Regarding the role of Facebook in converting followers into loyal customers, Fita says that businesses should focus more on brand synergy and be consistent and engaging on every channel, rather than solely concentrating on one platform.
Use Highly Engaging Content
Content is king in digital marketing and the same rule applies to Facebook. Driving engagement is a result of creating a compelling content strategy that encompasses necessary audience research and creativity.
Facebook enables brands to use different content formats, from simple text posts and images to videos, stories, reels, and live streaming. This makes for a wide palette of tools to reach out and create a relationship with audiences.
For instance, over 2 billion Facebook users watch videos monthly on the platform, which also means that these people watch 74% of non-skippable, in-stream video ads all the way through.
In addition to embracing video or in-video ads, here are a few more tips you can use to get the most out of your content strategy:
- Variety: Using all the different formats Facebook offers enables you to experiment and always come up with something new for your followers. Different content types can also turn FB’s algorithm in your favor.
- Experiment with themes: Throwback Thursday, social media trends, weekly polls, and other running gags can help you be consistent with your calendars, but also enable your audience to have something to look forward to.
- Customer feature: User-generated content can help you build social proof and deliver click-through rates that are four times better than those from generic company-created ads or content.
Content calendars are also essential for effective content marketing on Facebook. They ensure you engage with your followers regularly and have a steady presence in their feeds. Calendars also let you schedule your posts in advance, enabling you to pick the best posting times, and freeing up your social team’s time to experiment with other creative content ideas.
Use Ads to Generate Leads
Creating an overarching strategy that covers organic and paid tactics will help engage current followers and build relationships with leads. As such, for paid campaigns, you can opt to boost organic posts and run traditional ads.
Boosting organic content enables you to focus on clicks and overall engagement. These ads appear as organic posts, while the campaigns created in FB’s Ads Manager are more lead-generation-oriented and have a more profound “ad feel.”
According to Paris, lead generation on Facebook tends to be just a starting point, meaning that leads may need a little extra push to become converting customers.
“Facebook leads can vary widely in quality due to the platform's broad targeting capabilities. While Facebook’s detailed targeting helps reach specific demographics, some leads may still be less qualified compared to those from highly specialized channels. They may be less immediately ready to convert compared to those from channels with more direct intent, such as search engine marketing (SEM) or email marketing. Facebook is often used for brand awareness and engagement, which means leads might be in the earlier stages of the buyer’s journey. Since these leads might not be as immediately ready to purchase, building relationships through follow-up content, retargeting ads, and personalized offers can help move them further down the funnel.”
Francesca Broggi, CEO and Owner of Ayana, says that the right targeting can make running ads on Facebook a worthwhile investment.
“Leads generated from Facebook marketing can be highly effective due to the platform’s advanced targeting capabilities. Compared to other channels, Facebook leads often have a lower cost per lead (CPL) and can be more ready to convert due to precise targeting. However, the quality of leads can vary based on the industry and the specific campaign.”
Broggi also adds that Facebook has the tools to turn both leads and followers into loyal customers. Regular engagement, community management, exclusive offers, and quality content can all build trust and rapport with followers, who will ultimately consider making a purchase.
Marsha Forester, Director of Marketing and Operations at Downstreet Digital, says that the sophisticated retargeting options on Facebook can help bridge the longer consideration periods and can help nurture leads over time, making them ready to convert.
Use Interactive Tools
Chatbots and other automated solutions can help you remain engaged with your audience. They can take care of common queries, enabling your social team to focus on more complex customer support questions or other social-related tasks.
Bots can also help your followers or customers by recommending them new products. They can show targeted ads to people browsing your Facebook store and recommend similar products on Messenger too, based on previous interactions.
As chatbot technology improves, they are becoming more valuable for brands and consumers expecting swift answers. 69% of users wait no longer than 24 hours for an answer. With bots, that timeframe can be drastically reduced to minutes, doing wonders for your brand’s customer service and engagement.
Measure Performance
By being on top of campaign performance and overall brand presence, you can determine your ROI and see whether your approach is on the right track or needs a few tweaks. By regularly checking your analytics, you can see how your followers respond to your content and which formats they engage with the most, giving you a better idea of what’s working and what needs to be dropped.
Performance tracking and analytics enable you to squeeze the most out of your budget, and generally, make smarter marketing decisions on the platform.
Facebook Marketing Examples
Before wrapping up this article, let’s take a look at a few brands that have excelled with their marketing campaigns in one form or another.
BMW
The Bavarian car brand has more than 20 million followers on Facebook. To achieve such success, BMW has implemented an image-driven content strategy that features its latest models, time-tested classics, racing success, and rich history. The company also takes advantage of user-generated content to build rapport with users who tend to have a special connection with the brand — a connection that carmakers usually exploit when creating automotive ads.
BMW shows that stunning images don’t have to be expensive. User-generated content can often speak for your brand. A focus on seeking ways to engage with your audiences so they can remain up to date about your latest products and industry news is essential.
Wendy’s
Wendy’s also focuses on engaging social content. Their Facebook feed is a mixture of static, video, and user-generated content to create and maintain momentum around their food and specials. They are also quick to respond to every comment, only fueling further engagement.
The company actively shares conversation-sparking posts too. Audiences know and anticipate engagement with the brand, enabling Wendy’s to build customer loyalty and trust through effective social media marketing.
This example shows how a brand persona that matches the brand’s values can drive engagement on Facebook. Interactive content and prompt responses do wonders for customer care and improve customer delight.
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut uses the social channel to post mouthwatering videos and photos of their pizzas. They also use their Facebook page for promoting announcements and establishing community engagement by actively running polls and contests.
Pizza Hut demonstrates that good (in this case, delicious) products are enough to engage users. For a well-rounded strategy, they also leverage their followers for content creation, enhancing customer experience and the brand’s social presence.
Social Media Marketing on Facebook: Get the Most Out of Your Presence
Effectively managing your social media presence can be a complex and overwhelming process, especially if you don’t have a dedicated team to take care of the ongoing workflows. However, if you opt to partner with a seasoned agency, you can leverage their knowledge and experience, ensuring growth on your channels. Such partnerships grant you more free time, letting you focus on your business, which, in turn, will only further improve your social efforts as your business expands offline.
Social Media Marketing on Facebook FAQs
1. Can you do Facebook marketing without help?
Yes. You can either opt for a trial-and-error approach or use different marketing courses to gather knowledge about marketing on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger to cover Meta’s every asset.
2. How can you use Facebook for marketing?
You can use Facebook for marketing in various ways. You can create simple branded posts, build a community for your customers and followers, run ad campaigns, promote services or products, or turn your page into an online store. Smaller brands may even use their business app as a website alternative.
3. How can you improve your Facebook marketing?
Boosting organic posts and running paid campaigns is the fastest way to create awareness on Facebook. Interacting with communities and groups also pays off, especially if you regularly publish content.
