As you may have noted, we have covered lots of topics related to Facebook™ advertising so far. This is because one – Facebook™ is the largest social media platform with the biggest number of monthly active members, and two – because the Facebook™ Ads Manager and insights tools are the most advanced of all the social media platforms, allowing marketers to effectively target qualified leads.
Today we will talk once again about targeting but, as you have observed from the title, in a more detailed and advanced manner. We are talking about directing ads with the highest conversion rate at people who are really going to click on your ad and buy your products. Now, we didn’t say that it’s guaranteed to happen, because no one can make this kind of claim, but you have the highest possible chances if you apply these strategies.
Without making a long and boring introduction (hopefully you’re still with us) let us see some top notch targeting strategies for your Facebook™ ads.
1. Target Your Fans’ Friends
There is so much discussion whether Facebook™ page likes still matter – and here is a reason why they still do. Every once in a while you should launch an ad campaign targeted at people who are friends with your Facebook™ page fans. The logic behind this targeting is quite simple: when the ad is displayed, it will be accompanied by the message “X (the friend) likes this”.
This is the highest form of validation, like a seal of approval for the social media world. If your friend liked a product page or a company page, then they must have bought the product or done business with the company and they were happy with their choice.
2. Target People Who Visit a Specific Web Page
This kind of targeting works like a reminder ad, for people who visited your catalogue page or “how to order” page but did not take any further action, for instance. When they log in to Facebook™, they will see an ad for a product with a catchy and reassuring CTA, such as “1-click purchase” or “Free delivery for X AUD purchase”.
In many cases, people abandon online shopping carts because they did not understand the shop’s delivery and order processing procedures, they could not find an instant shipping costs estimator and do not wish to complete a transaction without full knowledge of what they have to pay. By targeting their behaviour on your site, you can understand what their problem is and fix it with your Facebook™ ad.
3. Target by Life Events
This is one of the best types of targeting methods if your products are addressed to specific needs. For example, if you sell baby products, one of your targeting filters must be “became parents in the last 12/24 months”. Thus, people who have publicly shared the birth of a child during this interval will see your ad and most likely will purchase one of your products.
4. Target by Paged Liked
In the Facebook™ search bar, type “pages liked by people who like X (your page name)”. Now, this is not an ad targeting per se, but it gives you valuable insights on what your page fans like – what their interests and hobbies are, what games they play, how much they shop (by the number of brand or product pages they liked), how active they are and what their family and social status is.
Based on these findings, you can then build Lookalike Audiences in the ad creation tool, by inputting all these characteristics, behaviours and interests you have identified.
5. Target by Email Segments
Your mailing list is a gold mine in terms of Facebook™ advertising – but only if you know how to use it. Segmentation is the key word. You should break down your list by loyal customers (create a separate category for active brand advocates), new opt-ins, customers who used to be very active but now are slackening in their purchases, and so on.
This segmentation allows you to send the right ad, at the right moment and to the right person. It also prevents you from wasting money on ads, such as in the situation of adding to your custom audience everyone in your mailing list, even those who have just made a purchase (it is quite unlikely they will make another one just a few days afterwards).
As you can see, there is a lot to be said about the power of targeting in Facebook™ ads. And we will keep posting such articles whenever we have something useful and relevant to share with you.