Facebook dominates as the world’s most favored social media platform. It boasts the largest user base, enjoys a balanced age distribution, and sees the highest activity among social media apps.

Image source This popularity makes it a prime advertising platform and offers a reliable backup plan given current privacy limitations: targeting ads based on on-platform engagement. Historically, these campaigns trailed website traffic and conversion campaigns in effectiveness. However, they’ve become the new darlings of the advertising world. Let’s explore why and how to use them to outperform your rivals.

Why Prioritize On-Platform Facebook Engagement?

The digital advertising scene has undergone a transformation in recent years, particularly concerning user privacy and third-party tracking. Measures like GDPR and recent iOS updates have made it increasingly challenging to monitor user behavior and gauge Facebook Ads campaign performance. One solution to counter these restrictions is to harness the power of Facebook itself and its user engagement (as featured in our post-iOS Facebook strategies). Because users agree to Facebook’s terms and conditions, and third-party tracking is not involved, all behavior and engagement tracking remains comprehensive and precise. While not a complete replacement for website-driven traffic, on-platform Facebook engagement deserves a place in your online marketing strategy. With that in mind, let’s delve into ways to enhance your marketing through Facebook engagement.

Strategy #1: Capitalize on Engagement-Centric Campaign Objectives

One of Facebook’s strengths (in my view) is its ability to optimize campaigns toward specific goals using its campaign objectives. When setting up a campaign, you define your focus, and Facebook strives to deliver. Below is a current list of campaign objectives:

• Awareness: Brand Awareness, Reach
• Consideration: Traffic, Engagement, App installs, Video views, Lead generation, Messages
• Conversion: Conversions, Catalog sales, Store traffic

1. Engagement-Driven Campaigns

The objective most dedicated to engagement is aptly named “Engagement,” residing under the “Consideration” category.

This campaign type allows you to prioritize page likes, post engagement, or event responses. The aim is to encourage users to interact with your brand entirely on the platform, leveraging Facebook’s interaction metrics: shares, likes, reactions, comments, etc. Like a website visit, these actions demonstrate engagement and increase brand familiarity. While not directly tied to monetary value like online sales, they remain a valuable component of the buyer funnel (learn about building a full-funnel Facebook strategy here). Free guide » 7 Essential Facebook Advertising Tips for every advertiser.

2. Video View Campaigns

Video View campaigns let you optimize for either ThruPlay or 2-second continuous views of your Facebook video ads.

Facebook (and I) recommend ThruPlay for videos under 15 seconds, as it maximizes completed views. For videos exceeding 15 seconds, it prioritizes users most likely to watch at least 15 seconds. While this may seem brief, consider the typical duration you spend watching Facebook or Instagram video ads. My guess is it’s usually under 15 seconds. However, those surpassing 15 seconds likely hold your interest. Capitalize on this behavior by placing crucial information early in your video to make an impact even for shorter view durations. Speaking of, we have a relevant post! Explore these 11 Ways to Enhance Your Facebook Video Ad with a Compelling Hook.

3. Messaging Campaigns

Besides video views or page and post engagement, utilize Facebook Message campaigns to initiate or reignite conversations with users on the platform.

Think of it as a direct chatbot interaction with your business, minus the added step of redirecting to your website. Choose your preferred platform for these conversations: Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram Direct. Simplify customer contact points. PPC expert Brett McHale explains how to create effective Messenger ads in this post.

4. Lead Generation Campaigns

Similar to Messaging ads, Lead Gen forms capture user data directly on Facebook, eliminating the need for users to visit your site beforehand.

Facebook lead gen ad forms offer extensive customization options, too detailed to cover here. Learn about customizing Facebook lead ads here or watch this video. The key benefits of Facebook lead ads include:

• Form submission without leaving Facebook.
• Direct integration of lead data with CRM or marketing automation platforms.
• Auto-populated answers to streamline form completion.
• Customization to ask nearly any question. Facebook lead generation campaigns are a favorite method for targeting Facebook users, offering value for almost any business. Importantly, they contribute to building first-party data in a landscape where third-party data is becoming scarce.

Strategy #2: Retarget Those Who Engage with Your Page

Facebook retargeting isn’t limited to website visitors. You can retarget users who interact with your page. Page engagers are more valuable than non-engagers as they demonstrate prior interaction with your brand. Focus on cultivating a connection, as you would with a website visitor. For website traffic, we create audiences and target those cookied by the Facebook pixel (which has lost significant potency). Engagement audiences allow us to retarget based on whether users engaged on Facebook (or Instagram) and how they engaged.

This list presents various audience types you can create on Facebook. The initial set comes from your sources, encompassing Website visitors, Customer uploads, App activity, and Offline activity. The more extensive bottom section (“Facebook Sources”) details engagement-only audience sources. There’s a lot! I delve into utilizing these sources in my post on Facebook ad targeting in a privacy-first world.

• Video
• Lead form
• Instant experience
• Shopping
• Instagram account
• Events
• Facebook page
• On-Facebook listings Choose sources based on your campaign types from the previous sections or your organic Facebook engagement. For lead generation campaigns, create lists based on users who opened, opened and submitted, or opened but didn’t submit your form.

Opting for the Facebook Page source yields a more comprehensive list, shown below.

Create audiences based on factors like:

• Current page likers or followers
• All page engagers
• Page visitors
• Engagers with any post or ad
• Those who clicked a call-to-action button
• Those who messaged your Page
• Users who saved your Page or any post. …and target them for nurturing or exclude them for tailored messaging. Treat these audiences like website visitors. If they visited your page but haven’t made a purchase, utilize Catalog campaigns to encourage buying. For those who liked several posts or watched multiple videos, deploy a lead gen form for newsletter signup. Just because interactions occur on Facebook doesn’t diminish their value.

Strategy #3: Audience Expansion with Lookalikes

We’ve explored generating engagement through campaign objectives and retargeting those who take action. But how do we use these user lists to find new customers? The answer: lookalike audiences.

Facebook’s signature targeting tool, lookalike audiences, allows you to leverage almost any audience list to locate new users similar to those in those lists. If you observe strong performance from page likers, create a lookalike audience and target them similarly in a new ad set or campaign. This allows you to reach users resembling your Page Like audience while comparing their performance to the original list. Unsure about “good performance”? Utilize our free Facebook Ads Performance Grader! A word of caution with this strategy: remember funnel building and patience. If you’ve spent years cultivating a large Facebook page following through relevant content and community engagement (the essence of Facebook marketing), followed by retargeting for website purchases with positive results, you might assume creating a Lookalike of those Page Likes and replicating the strategy is a winning formula, right? Yes and no. While leveraging the Page Likes Lookalike for audience building is valid, don’t overlook the years of brand connection established with those users before pushing for a purchase.

Instead of directly targeting the Page Likes Lookalike with a bottom-funnel call to action, prioritize using the Lookalike to generate actual Page Likes first, then retarget based on that secondary engagement. This approach takes longer than jumping to the bottom of the funnel, but online marketing shouldn’t be a shortcut around strong branding and customer relationships. It should enhance them.

On-Platform Interactions Are Back—Leverage Them!

For a while, on-platform interactions were sidelined in favor of the seemingly quicker revenue path of website traffic and conversion campaigns. While these still hold their place in most buyer journeys, they shouldn’t be your sole focus. Utilize on-platform engagement to your benefit. Understand how it influences customer purchasing behavior and lean into it. By doing so over the next few years, you’ll gain an edge over competitors and foster stronger customer relationships. To recap:

1. Use engagement-focused campaign objectives
2. Retarget page engagers
3. Expand your audience with lookalikes