Advertising works best when people see it. That's a fairly obvious sentiment but with the world being more digital than ever, it's harder to figure out how to get audiences' eyes onto your ecommerce brand's ads.
Facebook might be one of the biggest public audiences on the web today, with more than 2.9 billion active users at the end of Q3 2022. But it's not just the volume of users that makes Facebook such a great place for brands to find their audience.
On Facebook, users engage with their interests in an interactive way. This gives you a wealth of data you can use to identify and reach out to the people who are likely to be interested in what you offer, and users can reach out, engage with, and build a relationship with your brand.
Advertising and marketing your brand through Facebook can be tricky, and it requires you to build a strategic approach to best use the resources Facebook has to offer. This guide will get you started in no time.
Know your goals for your brand’s Facebook ecommerce presence
Every brand is different, so the first step in building your Facebook strategy is to work out what it is you want to achieve. Do you want to increase sales? Drive website traffic? Generate leads or encourage more people to follow your page? Set clear objectives so that every decision you make around your campaign ties back into them.
The main goals that can be achieved with a brand's Facebook business page are:
Increase brand awareness for potential customers
Increase brand engagement with existing customers
Increase sales & conversion
Best practices for making Facebook ecommerce successful
Once you know your goals, there are a few best practices you should consider to make sure your brand stands out on Facebook. Here are some tips:
Create engaging content
While advertising is essential, the content you share with Facebook users should also be engaging and relevant. Focus on creating stories that showcase your brand's personality or share helpful information related to your business and product.
Post regularly
Posting consistently will help keep your brand top of mind and ensure that followers don’t forget about your page. Depending on the time of year or special events, you can adjust this frequency to reach users when they’re most likely to be paying attention.
Post all types of content
Don’t limit yourself to just one type of content; mix it up! Some users will be more interested in watching stories, while others like to read text posts. Make sure you're taking advantage of the four main types of Facebook content:
Engage with your audience
Engagement is the key to success on any social platform and Facebook is no different. Make sure you’re responding to comments from your followers, even if it’s just a simple “Thanks!” or “We appreciate your feedback.” This will help foster relationships with customers, and encourage trust in your brand.
Repost and boost other creators
The creators you follow on Facebook likely have an engaged audience who could potentially be interested in your brand. Reposting or boosting their content is a great way to help new audiences discover your brand and grow your page’s following.
Engaging and boosting their content also builds a relationship with the creators who may be interested in your brand and likely to post more about it.
Decide on a balance between organic vs. paid social media strategy
Organic content is a great way to reach out to existing followers, while paid campaigns can help you reach new consumers and drive more engagement. If your budget allows, it’s best to dedicate some resources toward both organic and paid strategies.
Organic social media
Organic social media refers to content that is posted without paying for it. This includes your own posts, as well as other creators’ content that you repost or boost. While organic content isn't paid to Facebook, you still have to pay someone on your team to create content, post regularly, monitor your page, and respond to comments.
Another drawback of relying on organic content is you are at the whim of the Facebook algorithm. Facebook decides what content to boost, and they want to sell more paid advertising, so the reach of organic content has been declining.
Paid social media
You can pay for extended promotion and reach on Facebook so your posts will be shown to more people. This is the best way to reach new customers and can be used alongside organic social media strategies.
Paid social media is more targeted. You have control over who sees your content, and it drives better results than organic content. You can also pay for ads to appear in other apps or websites within the Meta umbrella, including Instagram.
Use Facebook ads to extend your brand’s reach
Facebook ads can be published across many different parts of the app and site, including Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Messenger. While agencies have reported that image and short video ads are by far the most successful ad formats on Facebook, you can experiment with different types of ad to reach different audiences.
Capture leads with conversational ads
Conversational Ads are an interactive, lead-generation-focused type of Facebook Ad that enable users to engage with your brand without leaving the app or website. They allow you to grow your subscribers list in your business’s CRM outside the app so you can use SMS marketing in addition to social media posts.
Use prospecting campaigns to reach new potential customers
Prospecting campaigns are specifically designed to reach new audiences who have not already interacted with your brand on Facebook. This type of campaign allows you to target very specific demographics and interests, so you can be sure that the people seeing your ad are likely to be interested in what you're offering.
Prospecting campaigns can target users who are similar to your existing customers, or you can use Facebook’s precise targeting options to reach out to people who may be interested in what you offer.
Use retargeting campaigns to encourage your existing audience
Retargeting campaigns are a great way to nurture your existing customers and encourage them to come back for more. These ads target people who have already interacted with your brand in some way, such as by visiting your Ecommerce website, shopping with your Ecommerce store, or engaging with one of your social posts.
These campaigns remind potential paying customers that you're still around and encourage them to come back and buy. Use retargeting campaigns to educate your customers on new product launches, discounts, or free trials you may be offering at the time.
Take advantage of other social media strategies
Facebook also offers other ways of promoting your online store besides ads. Giveaways, influencer partnerships, and even the Facebook Shop are all ways to reach more customers and make more sales
Run giveaways and contests on your Facebook page
Use giveaways and contests as a great way to increase engagement with your brand and capture leads. You can set up these giveaways or contests on your Facebook page and give away prizes such as vouchers, discounts, or products. This allows you to generate interest in your product while also capturing valuable customer contact info.
Partner with influencers to reach their audiences
Partner with influencers in order to promote your brand's products on Facebook. Influencers have an established audience that you can tap into, and becoming partners with them allows you to access their followers and reach new potential customers.
Set up a Facebook shop to create an online store
Facebook Shops are a great way to sell products directly through the Facebook app and website. They are used by everything from small businesses to big brands to move more inventory.
You can use the shop feature to set up a storefront on these platforms and sell things through the app. Facebook shops make it easier for shoppers to find and buy products without leaving the app or site.
Facebook Shop also has a built-in checkout feature, making it easier than ever for buyers to make purchases. Additionally, you can use Facebook Ads to promote your shop and drive more sales.
Use data to improve your Facebook advertising
It's important to track the results of your Facebook campaigns in order to improve them. By tracking metrics such as impressions and engagement, you can determine which posts are performing well and tweak your strategy accordingly. Use Facebook Insights to gain further insights into how people are engaging with your Facebook page and Facebook shop.
Perform and use audience research
Facebook allows advertisers to target their ads based on interests, demographics, location, and more. This helps you reach the right people with your message and increases the likelihood that they will take action. Audience research can be done through surveys, focus groups, and other methods, or you can use Facebook’s Audience Insights to gain insights into your page's followers.
Gather data from Facebook’s analytics tools
Facebook offers tools for analytics, like Facebook Analytics, that you can use to track and measure the success of your campaigns and gain insights into how users are engaging with your content and which posts.
The metrics you should be tracking for your ads are:
Impressions - this is the number of people who saw your post in their Facebook News Feed.
Clicks - this is the number of people who clicked on your post or
ad.
Engagement - this is the number of people who liked, commented, or shared your post.
Conversions - this is the number of people who took action after seeing your ad. This can be anything from making a purchase to signing up for a newsletter.
Facebook Pixel is a tracking code you can install that allows you to track user behavior on your website. You can also use Facebook Pixel to create Custom Audiences that let you target people who have already interacted with your website, and Lookalike Audiences that let you target people who are similar to your existing customers.
Use Facebook as part of your ecommerce marketing strategy
Facebook is just one part of your marketing strategy, however. It's important to integrate your Facebook presence with the rest of your marketing and find ways to connect with your customers outside of a single social media platform. Using tools like conversational ads that bring you leads you can reach out to via text and email is equally important to growing your business.
Try growing your ecommerce brand’s email and text lists with a conversational Facebook ad today!