The importance of Facebook marketing cannot be overstated. Founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, the social network continues to grow and now has over 1.4 billion users. More than a billion of these users access Facebook via mobile devices. In Germany, around 28 million people use Facebook's diverse and free offerings, with nearly 70 percent online daily.

The proportion of mobile users is steadily increasing and now represents more than three-quarters of the total user base worldwide. In addition to personal use, Facebook offers very interesting opportunities for social media marketing and communication—not only for businesses but also for organizations or public figures such as musicians, artists, athletes, and politicians. They have various ways to present themselves on Facebook and to develop into thought leaders within their target audience.

Five Steps for Successful Facebook Marketing

1. Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads are ideally suited for generating new likes. For this form of advertising, various goals can be defined. Facebook Ads are especially interesting if you have so far received little engagement in the form of likes, resulting in minimal traffic or interaction on your website.

To clarify: A Facebook advertisement (Facebook Ad) is only shown to Facebook users who have liked other relevant pages and belong to a specific demographic group. These data can be configured when setting up Facebook Ads, allowing you to target and reach relevant user groups. This increases the likelihood that the ad will directly appeal to or find the defined buyer persona.

Here is an overview of possible Facebook Ads campaigns (Source: Facebook).

Facebook campaign types in list form

The Nine Types of Facebook Marketing Campaigns in Detail

1. Promote Your Posts: This campaign type allows you to promote posts that you have shared on Facebook. This helps bypass the algorithmic restrictions of organic reach for page posts. This means that people who would not normally see your page or posts due to the algorithm will still be shown your content. This is particularly important for giveaway posts or other announcements that should be seen by as many people as possible.

2. Boost Your Page: This campaign aims to increase the number of fans for a Facebook page. In fact, this ad option is one of the best and most effective ways to generate more fans and quickly build up a fan page.

3.Drive People to Your Website: This campaign type is useful when you have a new web project or offer that you want to promote broadly and quickly. It allows you to direct Facebook users to your own website and increase your traffic there. This is especially important for lead generation.

4. Increase Conversions on Your Website: With this campaign type, you can increase sales and revenue for products on your website. It is well-suited for introducing new products or generally promoting your product range. It also helps in acquiring new leads (addresses, newsletter sign-ups, etc.).

5. Get More App Installations: If you offer an app, you can also promote it on Facebook. Run a campaign, define your target audiences, and an ad field will appear where your app is presented.

6. Increase Interactions in Your App: The same principle applies if there is low interaction within an app. In such cases, running an ad campaign on Facebook with this campaign type can be beneficial.

7. Drive More Participants to Your Event: Are you hosting a customer event or seminar? Or organizing a trade show? With this campaign type, you can increase the reach of your Facebook event and attract more people.

8. Encourage People to Take Advantage of Your Offer: This campaign type allows you to highlight offers supported by Facebook ("Facebook Offers"). For example, you can promote a voucher or a 2-for-1 deal at a café.

9. Get Video Views: Videos play an increasingly important role in marketing. Facebook recognizes this and allows you to specifically promote your own videos. This is a great way to showcase product demonstrations, for instance.

These possibilities and options are helpful in many areas of social media marketing and inbound marketing. Setting up such campaigns is relatively easy and quick to execute

What You Can Achieve with Facebook Ads in Facebook Marketing:

• Facebook Ads: With over 1.7 billion daily users, Facebook allows you to reach almost everyone. At its peak, even television couldn't achieve this.

• Facebook Pages: A Facebook Page gives your business a constant presence on Facebook. People can quickly learn about your company and connect with you easily.

• Messenger: Automate responses and create Messenger bots to connect with customers and address their concerns.

• Instagram: Share visual stories about your company and encourage people to take action.

• Audience Network: Extend the reach of your Facebook and Instagram ads to other mobile apps and websites.

• Atlas: Gain insights into the performance of your ads and the people you've reached, including information about the devices used, browsers, and channels.

2. Post as often as possible

To continuously increase your reach, you should post new content daily. A good guideline is to aim for four posts per day, which you should maintain over time. Those who are worried about overwhelming their Facebook fans should know that each post is only shown to a portion of the users.

3. Timing is key

The day or time at which you should post varies depending on the company and the target audience. The four posts per day guideline should be strategically spread throughout the day. Timing is an essential component of your Facebook marketing that should not be underestimated.

Quelle: kissmetrics.com

As the above graphic shows, Saturday is usually the day with the highest reach, making it an ideal day for posting for many Facebook users.

Quelle: kissmetrics.com

The specific time of day is less important than choosing the times of day when the number of active users is higher than at other times. In the example shown in the graphic above, this is typically around lunchtime on Facebook.

4. Images and Quotes

Facebook marketing thrives on content. Images are among the most liked and/or shared content on Facebook. Especially effective are images that work well in content (e.g., with quotes) or that are visually striking, perhaps due to high contrast or black-and-white design.

The suitability of images and quotes depends on your industry or the relevant buyer personas for your business. Besides thoughtful and informative quotes, humorous quotes also work well— and, of course, cat pictures are known to perform exceptionally ;-)

5. Analysis Tool

At the beginning of any successful social media strategy is the systematic analysis of the target audience. A central component of this social monitoring is listening online—known as social listening. This involves tracking all relevant social media platforms and collecting and analyzing relevant comments or mentions in blogs, forums, and news sites.

Facebook makes professional Facebook marketing relatively easy and manageable at this point by providing its own analysis tool (Facebook Insights). In addition to this tool, you can use independent social media marketing tools such as Buffer or Hootsuite. Moreover, marketing automation software or HubSpot's social media tool can analyze your likes, shares, and comments, creating transparency that allows you to track how fans are responding to your posts.

You should use the results from these analysis tools to further improve your content in the future and thereby build social proof.

Conclusion:

To efficiently utilize the diverse commercial opportunities that Facebook offers, your efforts should be strategically planned. You will need to invest a lot of working hours, bring in good expertise and creative content, and allocate an adequate media budget to achieve your goals.

But it's worth it: A network of 1.4 billion people can help your business grow and positively present itself—provided you follow and implement the tips we've given you.

As the platform evolves dynamically and constantly changes, Facebook requires a flexible approach in your company, especially one facilitated by modern Agile Marketing. Only with an agile approach, broad team competencies, and a high willingness to learn and make mistakes will you be able to fully exploit the constantly shifting potentials.

So, are you ready to become a social influencer with Facebook marketing?

We'd be happy to tell you more.
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