In marketing, nothing stays the same for a long time. The tips and tricks that worked a few months ago are now ineffective. This is even truer when you are running your marketing campaigns on the social media, especially on Facebook™.
An Evolving Platform, Learning from Its Mistakes
Unless you lived in a secluded place, without any means of information, you must have heard of the Cambridge Analytica scandal this summer. In short, a research company abusively used Facebook™ user data to create politically oriented ads for the US election campaign. Once this scandal came to light, Facebook™ had to make drastic changes to the way it protects its users.
Two key changes have already been implemented:
A significant change in the algorithm for the visibility of Facebook™ posts
Increased transparency in seeing who creates and pays for Facebook™ ads.
One of the first changes for marketers on Facebook™ was the disappearance of dark posts. Dark posts used to be very helpful to test ads without linking the respective post to a specific Facebook™ page and with the possibility of excluding various users (direct competitors included) from seeing it. Now it is all in the open and promoted posts of all kinds can be traced back to the author.
So, What Can Marketers Do for an Effective Promotion Using Facebook™ Ads?
The changes we presented above do not mean that you should stop creating Facebook™ ads, especially with the big holiday sales season approaching. This is the moment when people are looking for gifts for their family and friends, as well as for great deals for the products they need.
Once the Black Friday rush is over, it is time to start deploying your Facebook™ ads campaigns for Christmas and the New Year. Here are the most recent effective strategies to apply:
1. Use the Most Popular Hashtags in Your Ad Copy
Hashtags are increasingly effective on Facebook™ and they help people find the kind of content they are looking for. Boosted posts and ads should include at least 2-3 of the most popular hashtags Facebook™ users include in their own posts in this period.
These are:
Christmas
Holidays
Gift
Shoplocal
Shopping
Love
Family
Christmasgifts
You must remember to use phrases as a single word, even if the spelling looks wrong, because otherwise only the first word would be treated as a hashtag.
2. Free Shipping Stays Strong as Desirable Benefit
Looking at all the discounts your competitors offer, you feel that you would make no profit at all from your holiday sale if you were to match them. However, you can trump all these discounts with the two magic words: free shipping.
People love hassle-free shopping during the holiday rush. They don’t want to spend time calculating how much they have to pay for shipping – in fact, they don’t want to pay for shipping, no matter how much they save with the discount. They are willing to take up an offer with a smaller discount, if they can have free shipping instead.
3. Use the Latest Ad Templates and Overlays
Facebook™ wants to stay friends with advertisers. They understand that their latest rules came as a blow for many of them, so the social media network decided to give them something as a peace offering: attractive, easy to use holiday themed overlays and templates for ads.
These will help you tremendously when it comes to customising your visuals (photos and videos) to give them the holiday spirit. All you have to do is pick a template, upload your visuals and write the copy. The magic happens in a few easy clicks and your Facebook™ ads will have that irresistible Christmas look.
4. Create a Solid Posting Schedule to Support Your Advertising Efforts
Facebook™ is now focused on content engagement and relevance for its users. Engagement means likes, shares, comments, mentions and sending to Messenger. This means that you should also work on your socialising skills on your Facebook™ page as much as you work on your advertising strategy.
Relevant boosted posts are just as effective as an ad and you also benefit from the social proof given by the number of engagements it generates.
5. Include Facebook™ Marketplace in Your List of Ad Placements
Getting in front of your potential customers is the key – and the solution is getting creative with ad placement. All the brands place their ads on the newsfeed and the right column on Facebook™, so the competition is crushing. What makes Facebook™ Marketplace attractive as an ad placement is the fact that people go there because they want to buy something.
Since building shopping intent is half of your work as a marketer, you can say that you have twice more time and budget to reach your sales goal with Facebook™ Marketplaces ads.