Facebook was founded 16 years ago, and in this time has grown from an application made in a dorm room to a social media giant used by millions and millions of Facebookers. It has become one of those mediums many can’t live without and so has Facebook marketing.
It started as a social network, to share pictures, stories, and ideas. Over time it’s evolved into a platform where businesses can be built. Almost instantly becoming household names overnight if… the marketing is done effectively that is.
Many say Facebook is old news and a lost cause, and your marketing efforts should be placed elsewhere. While others say the exact opposite. Who should you believe? In this article, we will analyze both arguments and leave the decision to you.
However, it is always in your best interest to do research and make educated decisions after speaking with experts and those who are performing well in your area of interest. Portside Marketing can improve your chances of performing well in marketing, with branding-development, SEO, and website design which helps with Facebook Marketing.
Facebook Influence
The fuel that has led Facebook to such high internet and global status is information. Facebook marketing is all about understanding information. And what better place to market than where most of the online visitors are. Even the non-techy types are scrolling through stories, and images on Facebook.
But here’s the thing, Facebook doesn’t sell any products. So how are they so dominant? What caused their meteoric rise? Ads!
In 2009 Facebook acquired a yearly revenue of $764 Million dollars. Remember… just five years earlier Facebook was launched on a Harvard campus in a dorm room. Now it was creating revenue in massive amounts all from advertising.
The Power of Information
We live in the information age and whoever owns the information owns the power. And if you understand how to use that information you will be able to advertise and be effective. In 2016 only seven years later the social media powerhouse confirmed a $27 billion dollar year. That is a staggering thirty-four hundred percent increase. All in under a ten-year span.
Consider for a moment that this is no magic trick, there is no secret sauce. It is a strategy and they are using advertisements to make money. Many say they have an unfair advantage, but the speculators are not able to prove why.
The truth is, Facebook has great planners, and people who monitor and test new features and ads all the time. And you can be just as effective with the proper planning and help.
How Effective Is Facebook Marketing?
This is a loaded question, it really all depends on you. Ask yourself this question, how can a place that has millions of people that visit every day not have anyone who wants to buy something? We as people like to buy things and that will never change.
According to a study by social sprout 34% of FB marketers want to increase brand awareness, and 21% hope to increase customer engagement. That’s over 50% of marketers that are saying they want more customers to know they exist and engage with there brand.
Furthermore, about 9% want to get more return on investment with Facebook ads while 11% specifically want more leads and sales.
When you read these percentages what does it mean to you? Hopefully, you are noticing that over 50% of FB marketers have specific goals for there brand. Meaning, brand awareness, and customer engagement are different for each business. And, specific to what they want awareness and engagement to mean.
Then we see only 11% specifically desire more sales.
So could we argue over 50% of marketers on Facebook are seeing effective results? Absolutely! Effective marketing depends on what you want. Clearly not everyone wants more leads and sales. So when you hear the question is Facebook marketing effective? Ask yourself based on what criteria? Doing this will help you be accurate in your decision to agree or disagree.
It’s All About Specifics
How specific is your marketing strategy on Facebook? This question is the golden rule for effective marketing. Every dollar counts, and each business will see different results depending on how finite the plan is. Portside Marketing has an award-winning team that knows what to look for and how to organize your marketing strategy so things are crystal clear. Then we match those strategies with you company logo, website and search engine optimization keywords to get traffic flowing.
Facebook as a hyper-targeted custom audience feature, leading advertisers to lower customer acquisition costs by as much as 73%. This clearly shows you Facebook marketing is effective and can improve your ROI. It’s all about specifics and targeting your audience correctly so you can improve your conversion rates.
Facebook And Facebook Ads Are Different
What happens to many businesses is they fall into a trap. They think that advertising on this platform is the same as using it in leisure. This can’t be further from the truth. Facebook advertising is extremely sophisticated and one of the most – if not the most, comprehensive advertising tools available at the moment. It is consistently underestimated.
Consequently, this leaves novices feeling that it’s ineffective. They feel it’s no longer useful. This illusion occurs since typically with software things become outdated faster than an ice cube melting on a Texas summer day. But this is Facebook, and everything involved with this brand is completed with the highest of sophistication and quality. They will always improve and be relevant.
Strategies To Improve Your Marketing
Learn how to track your traffic and who is coming to your website based on your ads. You can also install software created by Facebook to allow you to target those who have visited your site and engaged with your brand.
You can see who visits what page and more. Facebook Pixel is a wonderful tool, but often set up incorrectly and ridiculed for not working. It always comes back to knowledge and getting the proper help.
Next, is building your campaigns around your specific objectives. You can actually build your marketing around goals you have. Facebook allows you to do this and market based on what your priorities are.
As we mentioned earlier, you can target your audience with maximum precision. You can create audiences that you want to target based on specified metrics regarding demographics, online shopping behavior and so much more. If you’re new to marketing with Facebook you can see how confusing and overwhelming it can become. This goes for a beginner and individuals who think they understand how the platform works but can still benefit from help.
Always Keep an Eye Out
Facebook marketing is not a one and done process, you always want to monitor your efforts, review your progress, and make adjustments accordingly until your ad is optimized for your audience.
There are so many ways to use Facebook marketing to improve your business. It’s inexpensive and way cheaper than using Google Adwords. It’s hard to imagine for several successful business owners that Facebook’s ability to be effective is actually a concern for some.
Facebook marketing is effective for businesses that continue to learn and get help when they realize they need it. The ineffective myth becomes a reality when confusion on how to run a successful campaign becomes consistent.