An introductory guide to Facebook digital marketing in 2023

With more than 2.89 billion active monthly users, Facebook is far and beyond the world’s most popular social media platform. Everyday users love the platform because it helps them stay connected with friends and family members. However, you can use Facebook for much more than sharing funny stories or checking up on grandma.

The dynamic platform is an excellent marketing tool that businesses can leverage to connect with thousands of potential customers. This process is known as Facebook digital marketing.

Companies of all sizes are looking for talented individuals to manage their digital marketing campaigns. If you are interested in a digital advertising career, you’ve come to the right place. This introductory guide will teach you everything you need to know about Facebook digital marketing.

Table of Contents

What is digital marketing on Facebook?

The phrase “Facebook digital marketing” is a broad term that refers to the various ways businesses can advertise via a social media platform. There are several different types of digital marketing on Facebook that we will discuss a bit later. For now, let’s focus on businesses’ basic strategies to connect with their target audience.

Common Facebook digital marketing strategies

Whether an organization is using paid ads or organic posting tactics, its digital marketing strategy must address three core components, which are as follows:

• Frequency
• Quality
• Consistency

When advertising on Facebook, it is vital that companies strike the perfect balance in terms of frequency. They should display ads and make organic posts often enough to keep their followers engaged. However, posting too frequently can cause friction with their target audience, which may prompt some users to unfollow the page.

On the contrary, posting content for the sake of being “active” is a terrible idea. Poor quality content is a major turn-off for prospective customers. Companies must ensure that their posts and paid ads are engaging.

Lastly, businesses must be consistent with their Facebook digital marketing efforts. For instance, let’s say that a company wants to post organic content three days per week. They should post these materials on the same days and at about the same time each week.

Sporadic posting will negatively impact the visibility of the Facebook page and will make it more difficult to build strong connections with consumers.

Types of Facebook digital marketing ads

Facebook has plenty of options that companies can use to advertise their business. They can post organic written content, display images, and create videos. By using the carousel format, advertisers can display multiple images or videos in a single ad. They can include a separate description, call to action, and headline on each image.

Another hugely popular way to advertise on Facebook involves “going live.” When a company is launching a new product or running a sale, team members can livestream the event to generate excitement amongst consumers.

They can also do a livestream Q&A session, which is a great way to gather user feedback and demonstrate that the company cares about its customers.

Objectives of Facebook marketing

As with other forms of digital advertising, companies can set custom goals for their Facebook marketing campaigns. These objectives may include generating more leads or increasing sales.

Advertisers track the success of their campaigns by measuring key metrics relative to their specific marketing objectives. A few common metrics include impressions, clicks, and sales.

An impression occurs every time ad content is displayed on a user’s screen. For instance, if a user sees your ad on their smartphone and later views it again from their tablet, this will count as two impressions.

Many companies prefer to track clicks instead of impressions because this is a more meaningful metric. If a user actively interacts with an ad by clicking on the link, then they have some level of interest in the product or service being marketed.

The company that created the advertisement will be charged every time a person clicks on the marketing content. This billing format is known as a PPC or pay-per-click campaign.

What Are the different types of digital marketing on Facebook?

Facebook digital marketing can be grouped into two broad categories, which are as follows:

Organic advertising

Organic Facebook advertising follows many of the same basic principles as SEO marketing. However, instead of creating content that is optimized for search engines, you are trying to increase user engagement on a social media platform.

Organic social media posts should be brief and eye-catching. A short line of well-written text paired with a captivating image is a great way to pique the interest of prospective clients.

The downside to organic Facebook marketing is that building a large following takes time unless one of your posts goes viral. If a company can make a post go viral, the business can accumulate thousands of followers virtually overnight.

Paid marketing

There are several different types of paid Facebook marketing that companies can leverage to connect with their target audience. Some of the simplest options include video or image ads.

Facebook can display these ads in a user’s news feed or on their stories. Video ads can also be incorporated into lengthier Facebook videos “mid-stream.”

Facebook also offers several paid marketing tools that are designed specifically for mobile devices. One such option is known as a poll ad. A poll ad incorporates an either/or style poll question with an image or video-based marketing content. Marketers can build a link into each answer choice that will direct users to the company’s website.

Lead ads are another form of Facebook digital marketing that is only available when users are accessing the platform from a mobile device. This type of paid marketing encourages users to provide contact information.

Many companies use lead ads to acquire newsletter subscribers, expand their mailing list, or sign up consumers for a free trial.

How does Facebook advertising work?

Before you can launch a digital marketing campaign on Facebook, you must first create a business page. Once the business page is up and running, you can select the “Facebook Ads Manager” menu to launch your first campaign.

When creating your campaign, you will be prompted to select an objective. In total, Facebook’s advertising tool offers 11 distinct objectives, which include the following:

• Brand awareness
• Reach
• Traffic
• Engagement
• App installs
• Video views
• Lead generation
• Messages
• Conversions
• Catalog sales
• Store traffic

You should select an objective that best aligns with your goals for a specific ad. If you select a conversion-oriented objective, like lead generation, then you will only pay when a user takes a pre-determined action. However, if you set your objective as “store traffic,” then you will pay for impressions or views.

After selecting your objective, you must name your campaign and declare if it fits into any category, such as politics. Next, you must select a budget and advertising schedule. You should set a schedule that coincides with the habits of your target audience.

Once your budget is set, you must select your target audience. Facebook allows you to create detailed targeting protocols that will help you more effectively connect with the right audience.

After your audience is defined, you must choose your ad placement. You can select the automatic placement option or limit your ad to a specific platform, device, and location (e.g., feeds, stories, etc.).

The final step to creating your Facebook ad is to set brand safety protocols. Facebook allows you to choose between full, standard, or limited inventory filters. If you select the limited inventory filter, your ads will not appear within or near content that includes mildly suggestive topics.

The full inventory filter is the most inclusive, which means that your ads will appear near any content as long as it is suitable for monetization.

What is Facebook Business Manager?

Facebook Business Manager is a user-friendly tool that helps you manage your business page. Facebook also offers a Facebook Business Suite, which allows you to manage your Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook accounts from a single platform.

As a digital marketer, you can create separate ad accounts for each client that you serve. The tool includes data analytics capabilities as well. This functionality makes it easy for you to organize data based on your specific reporting objectives.

Tracking your results

During the ad generation process, you will also need to create a Facebook pixel. The pixel is a piece of code that allows you to remarket to high-quality leads and track conversions. Without the pixel, you cannot collect tracking and remarketing data.

In addition to pixel-based tracking, you should monitor your results using Facebook Business Manager’s built-in tools. Cumulatively, these tools will provide you with valuable insights regarding your campaign.

Changes in Facebook digital marketing for 2023

In 2023 Facebook will continue to be a major player in digital marketing. However, as with all tech, it also continues to evolve. Here we will explore some trends and updates you should be on the lookout for.

Video is still king

Social media video advertising has seen a major surge in popularity in recent years, with businesses of all sizes jumping on board to take advantage of its visual storytelling capabilities. Facebook, in particular, has emerged as a leader in this space, with its investment in features like Facebook Reels, and its status as a top player in terms of live content consumption. According to Hootsuite, it is second only to YouTube.

As the capabilities for creating high-quality video ads continue to evolve, we expect to see an even greater level of competition among brands on Facebook. It’s an exciting time for marketers to get creative and make a big impact with their video advertising efforts.

Savvy marketers can leverage Facebook live, stories, carousels, and in-stream video ads to create more engaging and effective video ads. As the demand for quality video content continues to grow, marketers must learn new skills and adapt their strategies to meet consumer expectations. We will likely continue to see innovation from Facebook in this space, which will only further cement the platform as a leader in video advertising.

Group Potential: Why brands should start utilizing Facebook Groups in 2023

If you aren’t utilizing Facebook Groups for your brand’s marketing strategy yet, it’s time to change that. In 2023, Facebook is ramping up its functionality and providing better tools for admins to manage their groups. Integration with Instagram and the addition of Reels for groups gives brands many creative ways to get their message across to current and potential customers.

You might think, “But I already have a Facebook page; why do I need a group?” Let me tell you, the Groups feature remains one of the most active parts of the platform and provides a highly engaged audience for brands. It’s like having a VIP lounge for your customers to hang out, discuss, and interact with your brand in a more intimate setting.

In 2023, Facebook Groups has even more potential to increase awareness, drive conversions and build relationships with customers.

Facebook Messenger Marketing: The rise of the chatbot

You can level up your marketing game with Facebook Messenger and the power of chatbots. Engage with current and potential customers in a one-on-one setting, building relationships and driving sales through personalized promotions and coupons. Keep the conversation going 24/7 with an automated chatbot, providing lightning-fast responses and improving the overall customer experience. With AI and machine learning, you can offer a tailor-made shopping experience for each customer while tracking engagement and fine-tuning your marketing strategy.

Imagine being able to greet every new customer who reaches out to your business with a personalized welcome message while simultaneously providing them with all the information they need about your products or services. And, when they inevitably have questions, your trusty chatbot is there to provide lightning-fast support. But it doesn’t stop there; using cutting-edge AI and machine learning, you can now deliver highly targeted promotions and coupons based on customers’ individual browsing and purchasing habits. So, if a customer is a repeat buyer of a particular category, boom! They get a special discount on that category. Talk about a win-win for both you and your customers, this approach will drive sales and improve customer satisfaction.

Backend Upgrades: Advantage+ suite of tools

In 2023, Facebook is embracing machine learning and automation for digital marketing management. With the introduction of Meta’s Advantage+ tools, businesses now have access to a powerful suite of software solutions that can help them optimize their digital marketing efforts on Facebook. By offering all of its automated tools in one place, Facebook seeks to spare users from needing to switch back and forth between different tools. These tools include a variety of features, such as advanced audience targeting, enhanced campaign management, and in-depth analytics that are intended to help businesses reach the right audience, increase engagement, and drive conversions.

Utilizing a range of demographic, interest, and behavioral data, companies can craft campaigns that strike a chord with their intended viewers, leading to superior performance. Furthermore, Advantage+ boasts a revolutionary feature known as “Advantage+ creative”, which automatically tailors ad content to each individual viewer, ensuring they are presented with the version most likely to elicit a positive response, resulting in optimal ad performance.

Another feature of Meta’s Advantage+ tools is “Advantage audience,” which creates a personalized audience based on your Page details and automatically adjusts over time to help you reach more relevant people with your ad. “Advantage audience” allows businesses to reach beyond their current base of customers by identifying and targeting “lookalike audiences”—groups of people who are similar to those already spending money with the company. This feature will help businesses to improve their campaign performance and reach the right audience more efficiently. Automating and monitoring the audience will help businesses stay updated and reach the most relevant people with their ad campaigns.

Meta’s Advantage+ tools also allow advertisers to:

• Easily create, manage, and track the performance of Facebook advertising campaigns
• Set budgets, optimize bids, and track the results of campaigns in real-time
• Test different ad formats, target audiences, and other variables to determine the best approach for reaching the target audience
• Improve the performance of campaigns and reach the right audience more efficiently.

The Advantage+ tools elevate ad performance with creative flexibility, robust stability, and granular reporting insights.

Meta’s Advantage+ tools will significantly impact Facebook’s digital marketing in 2023. These tools will help businesses reach and engage their target audience more effectively by providing them with advanced targeting and campaign management capabilities. Additionally, the advanced analytics features will allow businesses to gain deeper insights into their campaigns, enabling them to make more informed decisions about optimizing their campaigns and improving their return on investment.

Key Takeaways

In 2023, Facebook will continue to be a major player in digital marketing, with video advertising remaining king, groups becoming more valuable for brands, Messenger marketing taking off with chatbots, and the introduction of Meta’s Advantage+ tools to help businesses optimize their digital marketing efforts.

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