6 Ways to Use Facebook Ads to Generate Growth for your Small Business

If you’re like other small businesses on Facebook, you use the platform to:

  • Provide support and information to both existing and potential customers
  • Drive traffic to your website
  • Raise brand awareness and grow a loyal following

Facebook can be a useful and low-cost marketing tool that helps to generate sales and can result in explosive growth for your company. It’s no wonder that 80 million small businesses around the world use Facebook pages to help promote their brand.

However, just creating a page and typing in your details is not enough. You must spend time marketing yourself on social media to make sure that your page is being seen by enough (and the right kind of) people.

The most effective way to ensure marketing success on the platform is by using Facebook ads to generate growth for your small business.

By using Facebook ads you are not only able to reach more people, thanks to the way in which the Facebook algorithm favours posts that are paid for. But you are also able to target specific groups of people that are more likely to be attracted to your unique product or service.

There are a number of ways you can use paid advertisement features on Facebook to increase your success on the platform. They include:

  • Boosting app engagement and click-throughs
  • Boosting post and video visibility
  • Boosting brand awareness

If you do spend money on Facebook ads, it is important to get things right. That way you won’t waste money on ineffective marketing. To ensure that you are creating Facebook advertisements that have a tidal impact, follow the steps below.

#1 Pick potential customers

When using Facebook ads be sure to build an idea of your target demographic and develop a profile of your ideal customer.

Utilize the editing dashboard to ensure that your strategy is targeted towards the customer you have in mind. You can do this by picking the time, place and relevant interests of your demographic.

Detailed targeting can even focus on potential customers with particular relationship status, age, gender, education type or job titles.

It’s also important to consider the behaviours of your target audience. Ensure that your advertisement is seen by people that are involved in online activities, device usage and buying behaviours that will make them more likely to purchase your goods or services.

#2 Don’t just target new audiences 

It may come as little surprise that the people that will most likely be won over by your Facebook ad campaign, are the customers that you already have.

The paid ad editing dashboard offers you the opportunity to limit your advertisements based on how users have interacted with your business in the past. While you are able to exclude people who have already engaged with you on Facebook it is not always worth opting for this in the hope to attract solely new clientele.

Don’t ignore your warm audience to chase a cold one. Customers that have interacted with your posts or have already clicked on your site are warm audiences, these are the types of people that are more likely to eventually buy into your small business.

Figure out what this demographic is and who these people are and then use Facebook ads to retarget them. If you get this right, your cost of conversion will be a lot lower than it would be if attempting to reach an entirely fresh audience.

#3 Use videos  

Creating videos rather than simply posting to your page is a great way to grab your audience’s attention and increase engagement.

Remember that your audience gets bored quickly so be sure to grab your viewers attention within the first three seconds – don’t take it personally, the average attention span is now believed to be shorter than a goldfish. 

This means it’s also smart to keep your videos short and to the point. Facebook recommends videos that last between 5 and 15 seconds. They explain that shorter videos have more rates of completion, which means your entire message is relayed to your audience.

When it comes to using videos as Facebook ads remember these takeaway points:

  • Get your business name and logo in early – make sure people know who the message is from
  • Optimize the title and description of your advert
  • Remember that most people listen without sound – add subtitles and make sure it could stand alone without audio
  • Make sure it’s aesthetically pleasing, high quality and properly formatted

#4 Try Facebook Messenger ads 

These are advertisements that will show up on the Messenger homescreen. You can even use some of the existing material that you have been using on your regular Facebook ads here. That way you can double up on content and double up on potential reach. If you have a Facebook ad posted on your page that has been doing particularly well, this might work great as an ad in the Messenger app.

Facebook Messenger ads can be used to start conversations with customers and potential customers, you can give them additional details and let them know more about your products and services and you can also drive them directly to your site.

These advertisements can be managed by bots that are able to collect plenty of data included the gold dust that is your potential customers’ email addresses.

To set up Messenger ads choose ‘Edit Placements’ in Facebook’s advertisement manager and opt-in.

#5 Use ads for market research 

Figure out which advertisements are working best for your biggest competition by heading to their Facebook page and clicking on ‘Info and Ads’.

It will show you all of their advertisements and how long they’ve been running them for. If ads have been running for a long time, it’s an indication that they’re doing well. So find lots of examples of these and take extensive notes. Figure out how you can work elements of these ads into your own strategy.

#6 Don’t neglect Facebook Stories

Facebook stories now have a phenomenal 500 million users a day. That’s an audience you should be sure to capitalise on by utilizing ads on the Facebook Stories feature.

When using the feature be sure to keep things simple. You have a few seconds to convey your message so too much detail can overcomplicate things.

Add short copy that effectively gets across your message, this could be a call to action. Finally, run your Stories ad through the Facebook Ad manager.

And lastly, remember it’s a process. Your first ads may not work but the more research you do and the more you try out the closer you are to hitting that social media sweet spot.