If you’ve already read the first segment in this beginner’s guide for marketing your business on Facebook, you’ve learned..
- First steps for creating a Facebook business page.
- How to rank for your brand name.
- Setting up your page to encourage “likes”.
Missed it? Click here to read part 1!
Here, we’ll take a look at the baby steps to reach your target audience on Facebook.
The “best time to post” may vary by your audience.
You’ll see a number of suggestions across the web suggesting the best time to post for interaction. While these are a great to start with, optimal approaches may vary by your unique audience. We’ll give you the stats but strongly encourage that you test to see what proves most effective!
According to Hubspot, the best time to post on Facebook are as follows:
- Saturdays and Sundays: 12:00 -1:00 PM
- Wednesdays: 3:00 – 4:00 PM
- Thursdays and Fridays: 1:00 – 4:00 PM
Post often, but don’t go overboard.
Earn that “like” by maintaining a page that they, well, like. For most businesses, posting 5 times in one day (besides Twitter) will result in a reputation for spam. Followers will either “un-follow” or begin to disregard posts.
Data from socialbakers.com found that 5-10 posts per week had the best results. Just like posting too often, not posting enough will lose engagement and the social connection with your followers. Walk the fine line between engaging and irritating!
Consider paid avenues.
A big advantage of Facebook ads is that you have the ability to aim your ads at specific audiences and cut down on costs. On many people’s profiles you can find their interests, location, age, gender, and more. Facebook uses this information for ad targeting.
In this case, defining your buyer personas and who you want to reach ends up saving you money. The more people you target with ads, the more money those cost your business.
On their help page, Facebook boasts the following ways these ads can benefit your business.
Clicks to Website: Send people to your website.
Website Conversions: Increase conversions on your website. You’ll need a conversion pixel for your website before you can create this ad.
Page Post Engagement: Boost your posts.
Page Likes: Promote your Page and get Page likes to connect with more of the people who matter to you.
App Installs: Get installs of your app.
App Engagement: Increase engagement in your app.
Offer Claims: Create offers for people to redeem in your store.
Local Awareness: Reach people near your business.
Event Responses: Raise attendance at your event.
Product Catalog Promotion: Automatically show products from your product catalog based on your target audience.
Brand Awareness: Reach people more likely to pay attention to your brand.
Lead Generation: Collect leads for your business.
Video Views: Create ads that get more people to view a video.
Keep an eye on your bill.
In order to reach your goals before you reach the edge of your budget, plan your ads strategically.
- Always target your unique audience.
- Keep your ad fresh by rotating it every 1-2 weeks.
- Use a strong CTA (call to action).
- Include the your most important part of the message first (link, etc.).
- Find out if your ads are working with conversion pixels.
We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again: define your audience and market to them! Don’t waste money marketing to anyone and everyone. Your audience is special, show them your business knows that by customizing ads to their preferences.
