Facebook remains the most used social media platform in 2023. Now, with almost three billion active users every month across many demographics, it’s the perfect place for enterprises to grab someone’s attention. In fact, over 200 million small businesses worldwide use Facebook to market their offerings.
However, with the competition getting a lot fiercer every day and paid content and advertising becoming the primary means to get a post in front of a target audience, can small businesses really still use Facebook for bringing in leads and turning opportunities into sales?
The answer is yes, but only if you have the right strategies in place. Here’s what you can do with a limited budget:
Identify the right audience for your ads with Facebook Insights
Facebook’s ad targeting tool seems to be the perfect way to get the highest possible return on investment (ROI) for your Facebook ads, but it’s not always a straightforward job. Proof of this is that 62% of small businesses fail with Facebook ads due to factors such as not targeting the right audience.
That leads us to the question: If not working with Facebook advertising agencies like Adacted, how do you find the right audience so you don’t pour money down the drain out of your already limited budget? Staying within the Facebook platform, you can utilize its own analytics tool: Audience Insights! It’s accessible through the Ads Manager and has two analysis categories: current and potential audience for both Facebook and Instagram. These show metrics such as follower gender and age range, top countries, top cities, and top pages.
Creating detailed buyer personas and developing more compelling copies and creatives become possible and easier to do with these insights. The tab for insights on potential audiences also has this filter button that allows you to build segments and narrow your audience further for more targeted advertising. Still, don’t forget to perform A/B testing for findings comparison and validation!
Boost your posts
Let’s admit it: Facebook ad campaigns can be very expensive, especially if you don’t get it right in the first few tries. If the goal is only to see whether a post can go viral or if one of your posts is performing well and you’d like to show it to more people, consider boosting it instead.
After a few days, if you see that the boosted post has reached the target audience and is getting ample engagements, you can add more budget so more users will see and interact with it.
In addition to helping your post perform better and reach more of your target audience despite not spending a significant amount of money outright, boosting posts is ideal for small businesses because it’s easy to do.
Of course, most small business owners are new to social media advertising and may not have enough knowledge yet to create effective Facebook ads. Boosted posts can be a great start since this marketing feature allows you to promote existing content on your page with just a click of a button. No need for extensive research (unlike what’s required with Facebook ads) and all options are seen on one screen.
Publish highly engaging posts
Now, let’s talk about getting your brand in front of your target audience organically. The most important thing to keep in mind is Facebook’s algorithm, which prioritizes posts from pages (business-related or not) that users have had meaningful interactions with already. It means engagement with your current and potential followers is crucial.
Some tactics you can try to increase engagement on your page are:
- Asking a question: Compared to most other post types, Facebook users are more likely to engage with questions. That’s not surprising since a question has long been known to effectively drive action. People naturally try to find answers every time they hear questions. So, a thought-provoking post related to your product or service is ideal.
- Post more videos: Visual content is a crucial component of their overall marketing strategy. The most effective visual content type is video. However, keep in mind that Facebook favors ‘native videos,’ or ones that users upload to the platform directly rather than as YouTube links. You should also try going live, which gets more engagement than any regular video.
- Post at the best time: While there’s no ‘right’ time to publish a post on Facebook in terms of engagement, there’s definitely a ‘best’ time. As per Sprout Social, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Wednesdays are the best times for the highest engagement, so please take note of that.
The tactics mentioned above are only some of the many engagement strategies that you can try. At the end of the day, the most important thing is simply engaging with your audience to reach more of them.
Create a Facebook group
As previously mentioned, Facebook’s News Feed algorithm has drastically changed, resulting in the decline of organic reach. Creating a Facebook group lets you resist the change. It offers a direct way to connect with your customers and fans. Through this, you can offer clear value, build trust, and even get instant feedback about anything related to your product or service.
What makes Facebook groups even better than only relying on a business page is that group members get notified when you post something new, so there’s a higher chance they’ll see your post. Once you’ve established a strong enough relationship and provided enough value to your community, you can pin a post regarding your offer to drive action, all for free.
Conclusion
Facebook brand advertising is no small task for small businesses. The lack of budget and low number of fans to start with make it very challenging. However, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. With the right mix of paid and organic marketing, Facebook can help you increase brand awareness, nurture customer loyalty, and find new clients.
