If you think back on advertising over the years, today’s most effective methods are drastically different from the years of print, billboards, and even radio. Google and Facebook are two of the biggest online advertising platforms, offering different ways to engage and entice new customers. Still, for some businesses, Facebook advertising may seem overcrowded and complicated. 

Despite its massive growth and continuous changes (the aftershock from the infamous iOS updates which are still being felt), Facebook advertising remains a popular option for businesses worldwide. With everything that’s happened over the last few years, it can be hard to decide if you should take the plunge and try this marketing in an effort to increase your revenues. Let’s discuss how effective Facebook advertising is and how you can make your marketing dollars count using the platform. 

Do Facebook Ads Work? 

If you’re new to Facebook advertising, you may wonder if these ads are worth investing your time and money in as we head into 2023. With Instagram and TikTok becoming increasingly popular with the younger generations, is Facebook even relevant in marketing today? 

According to studies, Facebook, now called META, remains the dominant social media source for individuals from 25-54. On average, bringing in billions of users monthly. Since most users spend at least 50 minutes a day on the social media platform, Facebook continues to be an effective source of successful advertising. 

Despite a slight decline in the third quarter reports for 2022, META advertising revenue remains in the billions. And the future remains promising for META Ads, as the platform has seen a 2% increase in monthly active users and a significant increase in overall ad impressions. The recent decline in revenue can also be attributed to the reported cost-per-ad decrease, which can be helpful for small to medium businesses. 

Of course, the ultimate return varies from business to business: ad quality, your business industry, investment dollars, and other variables all impact your exact ROI. The only way to understand the impact of META ads on your business is to hire a good digital marketing agency to create a campaign and track your results. 

Creating a META Ad Campaign That Brings Positive ROI

While you should leave your marketing strategy to professionals, understanding how your ad campaign works is a good idea. Facebook can offer your business a positive ROI, but only if you plan and execute an effective campaign. Building effective META Ads is different from using the platform in general. You’ll need to take the proper steps to get the best results. 

Here are some tips to help you get started:

Set Specific Goals for Your Campaign

META Ads are based on specific objectives, broken into stages that come together to create an effective marketing funnel. You’ll need to prioritize your objectives and build ads around your goals to get the best results. This will also allow you to gauge your ROI effectively. 

The numerous options bring opportunities for all industries to find marketing success with META Ads. With advanced ad options available, you’ll need to choose the format that best complements your goal. Boosted posts, follower polls, contact forms, interactive ads, video ads, and carousels can all be used to get the results you desire. Your digital marketing agency can determine which option best fits your business to bring you closer to your marketing goals. 

Target Audiences Precisely

One of the most significant advantages of using Facebook advertising (though this has seen a major change due to Apple allowing users to opt out of tracking) is that the platform allows you to target audiences more precisely than other platforms. No matter what you’re selling, you can create an ad audience that puts your ads in front of the people most likely to follow through with a purchase. Recent advances will work around the app tracking issues including sending data directly from the website server to target more exact potential customers.

While Google Ads target keywords, META Ads understand better who is searching for your products and services. You can create an effective marketing campaign that identifies your ideal buyers and targets users who fit the criteria. Ads can be designed to target specific demographics, locations, and interests. The more you test your campaigns, the more you can refine your strategy to deliver your ads more accurately and maximize your results. 

Monitor, Analyze, and Adjust

Unlike other marketing options, META ads aren’t a “set it and forget it” strategy. Ads should be constantly monitored and reviewed to ensure you are on the right path to your goals. It’s rare to build a campaign that produces instant results. Instead, you’ll need to monitor your campaign, analyze results, and optimize your ads to bring you closer to your goals. 

Optimize Your Marketing Dollars

Running a successful Facebook advertising campaign is all about optimizing your marketing dollars. Most campaigns gain traction after just a few days but only run for a few weeks before new ads are created. Digital marketing agencies work fast to optimize your ads, focusing on those with the most reach and engagement and eliminating those without. They’ll use ad dashboards that focus on performance and provide a clear snapshot of how your campaign is working. 

Since Facebook users are now bombarded with advertising 24/7, the average user doesn’t want to see the same ad over and over. Remember, most people use social media platforms to connect with friends and family or consume fun and exciting content. Since they aren’t there to be sold to, you’ll need to be creative with your strategy. You’ll need to generate engaging content, striking images, and captivating videos to keep their attention. With the right team, you can deliver relevant content that optimizes your marketing dollars, which is vital to your campaign success. 

Take Your Facebook Advertising Campaign to the Next Level with Digital Marketing Experts

Although Facebook advertising may seem complicated and overused, the right campaign offers endless options. Facebook remains a relevant and effective advertising option for businesses with multiple goals, from lead generation and brand awareness to conversions. Taking advantage of this powerful platform can undoubtedly bring your marketing strategy to the next level. Contact Keyword Performance today to get started on Facebook ads that will bring you remarkable advertising success through 2023!

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Find out What Customers Want

Some businesses always perform well around the holidays, but in many cases, trends change from year to year. Find out what’s popular this year and ask your past customers what will be important to them in the upcoming holiday season. You can send them a formal survey or simply ask people to comment on social media. Use the information you gain to guide your content marketing strategy for the holiday season.

Create Relevant and Optimized Content

If you created holiday content in previous years, review it and see if you can repurpose it. You might be able to make some minor changes and updates, but if trends or customers’ needs have changed significantly, it might be more logical to start from scratch.

Want to promote a handful of specific products? Create content explaining their features and benefits to attract customers. Holiday gift guides are a simple and straightforward way to highlight products you want to sell. Explain why a particular item would be perfect for a parent, a friend, or another important individual.

You should also focus on regularly posting fresh content. Each piece should offer new pieces of insight or advice. If you plan to post a series of articles, make sure they are arranged in a logical sequence.

Many people love the holidays because of the festivities and decorations. Incorporate images of holiday parties, presents, and people spending time around the dinner table with family and friends. If you can afford to do so, create your own images instead of using stock photos.

Conduct keyword research to find out which terms are most important to customers this year. That will help you optimize your content so it will rank well in search engines.

Use Social Media Effectively

Brainstorm ways to use content marketing on social media to reach a wide swath of customers. Post content on multiple platforms, such as your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other places where you have had success reaching customers in the past. Monitor the results to see which content performs well and which doesn’t live up to expectations so you can make changes as necessary.

Get Expert Help with Content Marketing and Other Services

With so many companies competing for holiday shoppers’ dollars, it can be particularly challenging for small businesses to gain an edge. This is why creating an effective content marketing strategy is essential. Keyword Performance can help you with content marketing, blog writing, search engine optimization, and social media – and so much more!  Contact us today for a free, no-risk assessment. 

The post Small Business? Use These Tips for Content Marketing Success this Holiday appeared first on Keyword Performance.

Managing your business’ social media accounts can be overwhelming, especially if you are not familiar with the latest trends or what works and what doesn’t. You can do a lot of the right things to increase your awareness but you also can do some not-so-right things that can have a damaging affect to your brand.

I don’t mean to scare you! So below, I have provided some basic best practices for social media.

1. Conduct an Audit of Your Current Social Media Presence

Take a look at your current followers, trends, content, and competition. This will help you understand who is already interested in your product/service, what kind of content those followers are interested in, and what your competitors are doing. If you are creating your social media profiles for the first time, look at the followers of your competitors and learn what you can about them.

2. Develop Your Target Demographic

You started your company because of the needs or wants of people who would be interested in your products/services; therefore, you should already have an idea of who should be targeted through your social media channels. If you’re unsure, consider age, location, gender, race, interests and income. Learn as much as you can about your audience so that when creating your content, you post something that will interest them.

3. Post Content That Your Audience Cares About

My favorite (because in my opinion, it is the most fun)! Now that you have an understanding of your current social presence and know who you should be targeting, it’s time to produce your content! Your content can be images, videos, blogs, interviews, company news and much more! Keep it original. Your content should be specific to your company and relevant to what your followers are interested in. Don’t be afraid to search for hot topics in your industry and post about them; just remember to put a spin on it and make it your own! Try to take your own photos to match the topic of each specific post. Between the quality of the camera on your smartphone and the filters you can use, you can make your photos look (semi) professional!

4. Expand Your Reach By Following Potential & Existing Customers, Partners, & Organizations

Many businesses often make the mistake of just posting. Now you might be wondering: what’s the problem with this approach? Isn’t content king? Yes, content is important, but if you don’t have any followers, then nobody will SEE what you’re posting. Remember that social media was originally made as a socializing tool. So, if you want to build your followers, then you have to socialize! Start by following potential and existing customers, partners, groups, and organizations. Approaching people in this way will make them take notice. Once you have their attention, engage with them! Share, like, and comment on posts that are interesting or noteworthy. Take a genuine interest in what they’re doing, and react to it accordingly. In time, they may start to engage with you too.

Don’t stress out over having the perfect social platform. Take your time learning about your demographic and what will interest them. This will help you build your platform organically. Overtime, there are other things that you can do to increase traffic on your page but let’s start simple. If you keep these four basic tips in the back of your mind when managing your account, you will be on the right track to building an engaging social media platform for your small business!

About The Author: Shay Cronin, MBA

Shay is the marketing manager of Cheshire Fitness Zone and Orange Pediatric Therapy. Shay attended Sacred Heart University where she received her B.A. in Marketing and her Masters in Business Administration. Shay specializes in social media and experiential marketing. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, friends and two dogs, trying new restaurants, running and the occasional Netflix binge.

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