Facebook remains the top dog in the social media world, holding the #1 position as the go-to platform for friends to connect and share experiences online. Beyond its role as a social hub, Facebook has become a powerful platform for businesses to engage in marketing efforts. It allows for interaction with customers and offers various self-promotion tools.

This article explores seven methods to leverage Facebook for marketing success.

Whether you’re a corporate giant or a small local shop, Facebook offers potent marketing tools. It’s a prime location to keep your customer base informed, build a strong brand identity, and expand your reach.

1. Maximizing Your Facebook Business Page

A Facebook page is an invaluable, free marketing tool for businesses of all sizes. These pages allow businesses to showcase their identity – going beyond simply listing products and services. Businesses can share links, visuals, and posts on a customizable page, giving a richer sense of the business’s personality and character.

Your Facebook business page is an excellent platform to cultivate your brand identity and showcase your human side. Don’t be afraid to let loose and show some personality! Humor is always welcome.

Ultimately, you should carefully consider what your target audience wants to see. Share engaging images, links, videos – anything that connects to your business and would resonate with your target audience. Utilize Facebook Insights to understand what content performs best.

For instance, a footwear store could post humorous videos of dogs strutting in tiny shoes. They could also share informative content like articles on accurate foot size measurement or the best shoe inserts for different foot problems. A balanced mix of humor, educational resources, and updates about your store is ideal.

Free guide » 7 Fundamental Facebook Advertising Tips every advertiser should know.

2. Facebook Advertising: Leveraging Classic Ads

Facebook provides its own advertising platform with Facebook Ads, strategically positioned in the side columns of the site. These traditional ads, known as Marketplace Ads, consist of a headline, body copy, an image, and a clickable link that directs users to a Facebook page, a Facebook app, or an external website.

Integrating Facebook advertising into your marketing strategy is a potential method for boosting page likes and driving website traffic.

Facebook advertising offers several advantages:

• Targeted advertising based on demographic data such as age, location, education, and interests.
• Budget control features.
• A/B testing capabilities to compare different ad designs and setups.
• Built-in performance tracking tools.
• Location-based advertising options, perfect for local businesses.

Facebook doesn’t disclose information about their ad click-through rates (CTRs), so the true effectiveness of Facebook ads remains unclear. However, our infographic comparing Facebook Ads vs Google Display Ads revealed that Facebook ads typically have a CTR of 0.051% and an average cost-per-click (CPC) of $0.80. It’s important to note that the actual advertising cost can fluctuate significantly based on the chosen targeting options and the level of competition within your industry.

Using Facebook advertising to increase “Likes” can be highly beneficial. When a user likes your page, they effectively become followers, and your posts will show up in their news feed. This increased visibility leads to more users interacting with your brand and content, potentially fostering relationships that could transform into future conversions.

RELATED: 45 Fabulous Facebook Advertising Tips

3. Engage Your Audience with Facebook Contests

Hosting contests, sweepstakes, or promotions directly on Facebook is another effective tactic for growing your fan base and boosting brand awareness.

However, be mindful that Facebook has specific guidelines when it comes to running contests. You can’t directly use the mechanics of the platform contests can’t be hosted through Facebook (soliciting likes as entries or requiring answers in the comments is prohibited). Businesses must use a third-party app for creating their Facebook contest and then direct users from their Facebook page to the app.

Numerous paid and free tools can help you achieve this. Shortstack provides a selection of free contest templates if your page has under 2,000 likes. Pagemodo also has a free option. Many third-party Facebook contest apps offer limited-feature free versions.

4. Reach More Users with Facebook Promoted Posts

Facebook Promoted Posts offer page owners the option to pay a fixed fee to ensure their posts reach a wider audience. This strategy increases a post’s reach and impressions, maximizing visibility.

Some businesses question the need to pay for their followers to see their posts. After all, if a user has liked your page, they should automatically see your posts in their feed, right? Not necessarily. This assumption implies that users are constantly glued to their Facebook news feeds, which isn’t realistic (nor healthy!).

While a follower might see your post if they happen to be browsing their feed when you post, it’s not guaranteed, especially if their feed is overflowing with other content. This is where Promoted Posts come into play. They increase the chances of your content appearing in a user’s feed. Promoted Posts are displayed to existing fans, with the option to also target friends of fans.

Setting up Promoted Posts is straightforward - just click the button below any of your page posts.

While the flat rate simplifies the process, Promoted Posts lack the granular targeting options available with other Facebook ad formats.

5. Leverage the Power of Sponsored Stories

Sponsored Stories are a unique type of Facebook ad that highlights a user’s interactions, such as a Facebook like, to their friends.

This ad format leverages the effectiveness of “word-of-mouth” marketing. When a user sees that several of their friends like a particular page, they’re more likely to take notice. The aim of Sponsored Stories is to encourage users to replicate their friends’ actions. Advertisers can choose to display friends’ “likes” to gain more page likes, showcase friends who have “claimed this offer” to drive offer claims, and so on.

Although actions like liking a page or claiming an offer are automatically posted in a user’s news feed, these posts can easily get lost in the stream. Sponsored Stories enjoy prime placement, appearing in news feeds and the right sidebar. Importantly, Sponsored Stories are also the only ad format available on mobile devices.

The application of Sponsored Stories extends beyond likes and offers. They can be utilized with any Facebook Open Graph app. For example, if a user’s friend has just installed “Scramble With Friends,” Sponsored Stories can alert users to their friend’s activity, inviting them to “challenge them,” “play with them,” or other similar calls to action.

Facebook asserts that Sponsored Stories see 46% higher CTRs and have 20% lower CPCs than standard Facebook ads, making them a compelling strategy for marketing on the platform.

Creating Facebook Sponsored Stories is simple through the Facebook ad create flow. However, Open Graph Sponsored Stories with tailored calls to action require advertisers to use a third-party provider.

6. Unleash the Potential of Facebook Open Graph

Facebook Open Graph enables businesses to tag a user’s action within their app. Every day, billions of interactions are shared through Facebook Open Graph.

Businesses can develop third-party apps that connect with users and post notifications on Facebook when a user engages in a specific action within the app. Facebook’s Open Graph allows for innovative and interactive options beyond the conventional “like” and “comment” actions. Posts can prompt users to “listen,” “taste,” “read,” encouraging creativity in user engagement.

Almost every time a website or app prompts users to log in using Facebook, it has the potential to utilize the Facebook Open Graph for enhanced connectivity.

Spotify exemplifies how Facebook Open Graph can be a powerful marketing tool. It all begins with a simple Facebook login prompt.

Immediately following this, a permission request is presented, which many users readily accept without much consideration. In fact, I discovered that I had unknowingly granted permissions to 130 apps, 95% of which I had no recollection of.

Once permission is granted, Spotify gains the ability to share the songs a user is listening to on their friends’ news feeds.

Pic borrowed from Justin Lafferty of AllFacebook.com

Notice how users are presented with several options. They can like the song their friend is listening to, listen to it themselves, or mark it as a favorite within Spotify.

Such Open Graph actions stand out from the usual clutter of a user’s news feed due to their unique nature.

Many Facebook games leverage Facebook Open Graph actions, posting updates when a user levels up or unlocks an achievement.

Farmville. Oh joy.

Open Graph actions are being recognized as a novel form of consumer storytelling, harnessing the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Open Graph posts resonate more deeply with users because they originate from a trusted friend rather than just a brand, solidifying their position as a cutting-edge marketing tool on Facebook.

7. Explore the Benefits of Facebook Exchange (FBX)

Facebook Exchange (FBX) empowers advertisers to utilize ad retargeting on Facebook through a real-time bidding system. Advertisers can target audiences based on their web browsing history. For instance, if a user visits a product page on a retailer’s website but abandons their cart, the retailer can use FBX to display an ad for that same product on Facebook.

While Facebook retargeting ads were initially limited to the side columns, they are now permitted to appear within news feeds, the most valuable space on Facebook. This development is highly advantageous for FBX advertisers as response rates within news feeds are significantly rates for news feed ads are 10 to 50 times.

But how do Facebook Exchange ads actually perform? Interestingly, the CTR for Facebook Exchange ads is 40% lower compared to other web retargeting ads, like those offered by the Google Display Network. Other retargeting ads are also more budget-friendly, with price per unique click costing 80% less than Facebook retargeting ads. However, when considering cost-per-impression and cost-per-click, FBX ads are noticeably cheaper. Ultimately, the financial benefits depend on your specific business goals. These figures are also subject to change as FBX ads become more prevalent in news feeds.

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