Today, we’ll look at how these 7 Facebook marketing hacks can help you take better control over your Facebook content.
At Relevantly, we have over 15 years of marketing experience - and we’ve learned a lot about Facebook marketing over the years!
Here, we’ll share some of the best marketing ‘hacks’ we’ve used, like sharing videos instead of pictures and using the Pixel. Let’s get started now!
7 Facebook Marketing Hacks
1. don’t rely on “organic reach”
You may have heard it before, but we’ll say it again. Organic reach is dead.
Organic reach is simply the number of people who see a regular, non-advertisement post, image, or video - anything you submit on Facebook.
If you post a picture on Facebook, and 100 people see it, that’s organic reach. If you create an advertisement on Facebook and 100 people see it, that is not organic reach.
In the past, a regular Facebook post had the potential to reach hundreds or thousands of people - especially if you had a decent following.
Unfortunately, that is not the case anymore. Even huge businesses with significant followings have reported steep declines in organic reach.
You can check out this quick video below to learn more about the decline of organic reach - and some tips for what you can do instead!
Find out why organic reach is dead - and what to do about it
Because organic reach is simply not what it used to be, if your business wants to thrive on Facebook, you’ll need to invest in paid advertisements.
The good news is that Facebook advertisements don’t have to cost you that much - and if you create an effective ad, you can easily recoup what you’ve spent in advertising costs.
For example, take a look at the advertisement we recently ran below:
The results from a recent Facebook advertisement
This Facebook advertisement had a small budget of just $200.00. It ran for 24 hours, and resulted in 2,677 landing page views on the targeted website. It also reached over 29,000 people!
When done correctly, Facebook advertising can reach a huge audience - and quickly get results like sales or website clicks.
You may also want to plan out consistent ads or posts on Facebook - posting consistently is important if you want more engagement!
Need help planning your posts? You can download our free Social Media Calendar tool here!
As well, if you are new to the world of Facebook advertising or want to ensure your marketing budget is spent effectively, it’s often best to work with marketing professionals.
When you work with the professionals, they’ll be able to get your ads up and running quickly. They’ll also be able to determine the best ads strategy, create the most successful target audience, and thoroughly analyze your results.
2. share video content
Many recent studies have shown that Facebook video ads outperform image ads.
Databox recently interviewed a number of marketers and asked them questions about video vs image ad performance on Facebook.
From the results, nearly 60% of marketers found that videos drive more clicks than images.
Image source: databox.com
Although there is no ‘one size fits all’ method in Facebook advertising, since we know that videos typically perform better, it’s worth at least giving it a shot for your business!
If you’re thinking about creating your first video ad, Hubspot has a few tips for creating an effective video ad:
Use Square Videos: This goes for images a well. The square size is optimized for both Facebook and Instagram, so it makes sense to stick with this size. Plus, square videos take up more of the page - which means less distracted viewers.
Be Careful of Text Placement: Over 80% of videos are watched without sound, so you’ll need to add captions to your videos (if there is any talking). In doing so, you’ll also need to be aware of where your text is placed - you don’t want it to cover up important parts of your vid!
Use Eye-Catching Images: Facebook is over-saturated with videos. You will want to make sure that yours stands out in the crowd. Use bright, eye-catching images and choose your thumbnail wisely.
3. encourage reviews
According to Sound Strategies, Facebook “is becoming increasingly prevalent among users researching about customer experiences.”
Because of this, you’ll want to ensure that your Facebook business page has reviews for potential customers to see!
A simple email can help encourage customers to leave a review
Not sure how to get customer reviews? Here are some tips to help you get started!
Politely Ask: This may seem obvious, but many times, businesses don’t want to come across pushy, so they fail to ask for reviews at all! It’s okay to politely ask your current or previous customers if they’ll leave a review!
Send an Email: If you feel more comfortable asking over text, you can send a polite email asking if customers will leave a review. This makes this a bit easier - because you can include a direct link to your page!
Offer Incentives: Offering to pay your customers for a review is not recommended, but you can offer a small token of appreciation, like a free coffee or small snack after they leave a review!
4. go live
It might be intimidating to start a live video, but if you’re really looking to increase engagement, this is the way to go!
Studies have found that Facebook users spend 3x the amount of time watching a live video than a regular video.
Check out this great video below to get great tips on how to use Facebook Live effectively.
See how to use Facebook Live like a pro!
Remember, just because you’re making a live video, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t advertise for it!
You can hype up a livestream by creating posts and even ads for the weeks or days leading up to your stream.
5. leverage retargeting
If you’ve already started running Facebook ads, but aren’t satisfied with the results, you aren’t alone.
Around 60% of small businesses feel like their Facebook ads are failing.
Fortunately, ‘retargeting’ is a simple method that aims to remedy this problem. So, what exactly is retargeting?
Retargeting is the process of targeting the users who have already visited your website and then running an advertising campaign directed at these potential customers.
Retargeting is an amazing method because it allows you to target those who you KNOW have shown interest in your products or services.
You aren’t just blindly sending your ad out into the wilderness - retargeting allows you to create an incredibly specific audience; one that is most likely to buy from you!
retargeting allows you to focus on users most likely
to become customers
The best news about this is that you don’t have to do any of the research yourself. The Facebook Pixel does it all for you.
The Pixel is an incredible tool that keeps track of visitors to your website from Facebook and collects a great deal of data on your audience.
If you’d like to learn more about using the pixel, click here - or contact us at Relevantly and we’d be happy to help you out!
6. use audience insights
If you create a Facebook ad and simply submit it with no audience in mind, it’s unlikely you will get any results.
Let’s take a look at the example below.
Example of an ad for a vegan restaurant
This ad for a fictional company is clear about what it’s advertising - a discount on vegan food.
It’s also pretty clear where the company is located from the name (KW - Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario).
Now, if you submitted this ad without any target audience, anyone on Facebook could see it.
People outside of Ontario, outside of Canada - even outside of North America - could see this ad!
That isn’t going to do this (fictional) business any good!
However, if you create a custom audience, you will be able to target a more specific group of people who will be much more likely to eat (and want to eat) at this vegan restaurant.
Example of a simple target audience
Once you create an audience and run a few ads, you’ll get to see “Audience Insights” within Facebook Ads Manager.
The Audience Insights tab will give you even more detailed information about your audience, such as how many men vs women are engaging in your ad, the age demographics, and even your audience’s lifestyle and interests.
You can use this information to further define your audience.
So, for example, after running our ‘vegan’ ad, maybe we find out that women are significantly more likely to engage than men.
In that case, we may create a new audience that only targets women.
7. use facebook messenger auto-response
Facebook business pages often show the ‘response rate’ for the business. That number simply means how often and how quickly, on average, the business responds to messages.
As more and more people use Facebook to shop and learn more about a company, it’s important that your business utilizes Facebook Messenger.
One of the best ways to do this is to turn the auto-response on!
An auto-response can ensure your customers feel valued even when you can’t respond right away
Of course, you won’t be able to monitor your business page 24/7. But with auto-response turn on, your business page will be able to instantly reply to requests.
That means that your response rating won’t go down if you are unable to get to a message as quickly as you normally would.
Plus, you can refer customers back to your website or to a phone number where they may be able to reach you instead - especially if you will be away from the computer for some time.
build your brand with relevantly
“Stop The Scroll” With Effective Facebook Advertisements
If you’ve been inspired to learn more about Facebook advertising after you read all the Facebook advertising hacks above, contact us at Relevantly to learn how we can help you improve your Facebook marketing strategy.
At Relevantly, we have over 15 years of marketing experience, and have kept up-to-date with marketing trends, including social media and Facebook advertising!
If you’re ready to create effective ads and make the most of your Facebook advertising budget, learn how we can help now!
