While just about every social-media platform comes with an integrated ad system, Facebook still reigns supreme as the most advanced and targeted ad systems around.

For a brand, posting on Facebook is never enough, especially for a new brand still trying to find its footing. Sure, you can even go ahead and pump in some of your marketing money to drive even more people to your website or page, but unless you’re smart about it, that will get you nowhere.

The only way to make the most out of Facebook’s ad system is to develop a killer Facebook marketing strategy – not an easy feat but doable.

Facebook Marketing Strategy: Why Do You Need One?

Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform – with 2.23 billion monthly active users.

Every day, more than 1.5 billion users sign into the platform to browse through their news feeds, read news, look at the cute pics people post, and engage with each other on groups and celebrity posts. 

That’s a whole lot of people you should be targeting daily. 

The problem is, you’re not the only business eyeing for them. Tens of thousands of other businesses took a jump on you and are already advertising on the platform.

The Idea of developing a Facebook marketing and advertising strategy can be intimidating if this is your first time. But once you get to understand your goals and the things you wish to accomplish, you’ll realise the benefits far outweigh the burden of creating one. 

28+ Killer Tips on How to Nail Facebook Marketing

Here are 28 killer tips to help you nail your Facebook marketing strategy:

1# Leverage Chatbots

It’s time you thought about marketing on Facebook Messenger.

This comes as an excellent opportunity for your brand to start interacting with your customers and prospects at a personal level.

Chatbots are designed to mimic human interaction. Think, an automated way for your brand to give personalised attention to every single one of your consumers. 

There are tools and resources to help you out with setting up a chatbot campaign. Additionally, a tool like Octane AI comes with an already configured chatbot system for an even easier setup process. 

2# Optimise Your Facebook Ads by Increasing their Relevancy Score

Facebook ads aren’t getting any cheaper. 

It’s upon you to figure out how to make the most bang for your buck. You can start by optimizing your ad and making sure it reaches the right group of people at the right time.

Facebook uses relevance score to help you keep track of that. Once your ad hits 500 impressions, they’ll generate a relevance score, running from a scale of 1 to 10. 

A relevance score predicts your Facebook ad success. A lower relevance score hardly generates great results.

Ads with higher relevance scores (8+), on the other hand, tend to deliver a fantastic cost per action (CPA). 

For this, you want to make sure your relevance score stays as high as possible.

3# Create an Email List

An email list isn’t just limited to sending emails. 

You can also use it to create Facebook lookalike audiences. 

For those who don’t know, a lookalike audience is a custom audience whose interests and demographics are similar to those of your existing customers.

It’s designed to dissect your existing customers and look for commonalities. It then leverages this massive treasure trove of data to connect the dots and find you highly qualified users or customers that you wouldn’t have otherwise reached.
To learn more about lookalike audiences and how to set up one, here’s an article you might want to read:

• How to Use Lookalike Audiences on Facebook?

4# Use Third-Party Data to Improve Your Campaign

Learn to use third-party data such as Google Analytics to create custom audiences, remarket, and stay on top of your customers’ mind.

While at it, you want to maintain a keen eye on things like “rate of return visits” to the different pages of your website, especially your homepage and landing pages.

5# Thing Big, Think Long-term

When working on your Facebook strategy, you have to forget about the small wins and learn to think long-term. Plan ahead.

You have to start by figuring out what type of seasonal campaigns work best with your business or products.

Take note of upcoming holidays and industry trends. 

Next, visualise the big picture. Where do you see yourself in, say, the next five years?

Now think contextually and make sure your campaign aligns with these trends and all of your short-term goals.

6# Look into Your Customer’s Journey

Take a deep look into your customers’ purchase journey and make sure you understand everything.

You have to understand what makes them tick at every stage of their buying journey. 

This should help you with budgeting, retargeting, and prospecting. It should also help you optimise your sales funnel. 

For instance, if your sales cycle is short, then it would be best to dedicate more of your marketing budget to attracting and designating new customers. 

For a lengthy sales cycle, then perhaps you should consider spending more on remarketing. You also want to create multiple touchpoints to increase the chances of your customers converting. 

7# Incorporate Videos

Videos are attention-grabbing.

And now that Facebook offers native videos, then perhaps you should consider using native advertising as a non-disruptive way to market your products or services to potential customers.

Wondering why it’s referred to as “native?”

Well, that’s because it comes integrated right into the Facebook ad system. 

It’s simple: just learn to create educational and entertaining videos and make them part of your Facebook marketing or advertising strategy. 

8# Try and Test Everything

There’s nothing wrong with experimenting with the different types of Facebook ads – videos, static ads, carousel ads, infographics, etc.

Find out what works best with your target customers and the specific campaign you’re running.

9# Update Your Profile and Cover Photo

How you portray your brand online can either make or break your business. 

You have to take charge of how you portray the different elements of your brand.

While your page profile picture can remain static, you should be updating your cover photo frequently to showcase seasons content, new products, and the latest development in your business. 

10# Leverage User-generated Content

User-generated content is an incredible marketing strategy.

And did you know that 93% of consumers specifically seek out this type of content before making any purchase decision?

Well, user-generated content makes your company more credible and more likely to be trusted by prospective customers. 

Use user-generated content to increase your brand trust and establish an online community of happy customers. 

11# Use Automatic Ad Placement

The good thing about advertising on Facebook is that they have different ad placements that you get to choose from – in the news feeds, instant articles, right column, instream videos, and suggested videos.

For the clueless, ad placement is where your ad is displayed.

Bear in mind that not all ad placements generate the same results. As you’re soon to find out, some ad placements perform better than others. So, it’s upon you to experiment with different ad placements until you find the sweet spot.

Alternatively, consider selecting automatic ad placement. If you’re running the campaign with conversion in mind, then automatic placement is how you ensure you’re getting the best results.

12# Take Advantage of Facebook Pixel

This is one Facebook advertisement feature that you do not want to ignore.

We suggest you begin by installing Facebook pixel on your website if you haven’t done so already.

Installing Facebook pixels allows you to track your customers’ actions as they interact with your website. You can then use this information to retarget your website’s visitors based on the information they clicked or the products or services they checked out. 

Facebook Pixel is pretty common with most marketers out there. The problem is that most of them haven’t gone past installing the codebase.

While this may make a great start, there’s more to Facebook pixels than that. For instance, by adding an event code, you can use them to accurately determine key KPIs, such as cost per lead and cost per purchase.

A classic example is where the event code is added to your “thank you” page, the last page your visitors are directed to after completing a specific action.

13# Create a Facebook Group

Organic reach is no longer an effective marketing strategy on Facebook.

As it turns out, only a tiny fraction of the people who like your page get to see your posts. 

However, things are a little bit different with Facebook groups. For one, Facebook doesn’t restrict group posts from being seen.

There’s a fair chance your posts will be read by lots of people. Think about something valuable within your niche, and start a group that will bring all the interested parties together.

For example, if you run a digital marketing agency, you can start a group about digital marketing in your region. That way, anyone interested in digital marketing either as a service or a topic of discussion is free to join the group.  

14# 10% of Your Ad Budget Should be Allocated to Brand Building

Note that marketing isn’t all about generating leads and making sales.

Sometimes you have to think big. Think about your long-term brand building strategy.

A simple strategy would be to try and allocate10% of your marketing or ad budget to brand building. 

By brand building, we mean building a loyal following. You Can Use the CBR (Content, Brand Awareness, and Repeat) Method to build your brand.

• Content

The C in CBR stands for Content. 

And not just content, but epic content.

Think about all the brands that are doing well in your industry. The chances are they’re well-known for creating and promoting high-quality content.

It’s not about churning out content but creating epic posts. Luckily for you, creating epic Facebook posts isn’t as hard as some people love to assume. 

How to Create Epic Content

First, you have to decide on whether you’re going to entertain or educate. What you choose will depend on what industry or business you’re involved with.

If you’re a service-based business, then it would be best for you to centre your content around educating. 

You’re an expert in your field and probably know a lot of things that your target audience may find helpful.

For a product-based business, then you want to focus more on the entertainment side. Think of the brands that run entertaining ads on TV. That’s the direction to take. 

Use videos where possible. 

The secret to creating epic posts is to try and give each piece enough time. Apply your creativity to every piece you create.

You might end up producing less content than you should. But it’s better to err on the side of quality than quantity. 

• Brand Awareness

The B in CBR stands for Brand awareness. 

Your job doesn’t end with you producing epic content. You have to figure out how to make it visible. How are you planning to make people see it?

It gets a little bit complicated with Facebook. First, organic traffic is no longer as effective as it used to be. Plus, there are too many advertisers on the platform nowadays.

You also have to note that Facebook isn’t going to place your content in people’s feeds for free. Not when people are willing to pay for it. 

How to Create a Brand Awareness Campaign on Facebook

The good thing about advertising on Facebook is that they already have an ad campaign objective that’s specifically for brand awareness.

Facebook calls it brand awareness.

This campaign is designed for marketers that want to make their audience recall their ad campaign. 

You can use it to make people recall your content and brand. People that remember your epic posts will want to also check out the new releases you make. 

You can start by identifying a new target option and focus on promoting your content to this audience segment again and again until they get used to it. 

• Repeat

The third and final set of CBR is Repeat.

You’re to simply rinse and repeat, with different content and different target audience in mind.

CBR is how some of the successful brands you know managed to grow their brands to where they are now.

Suffice it to say it’s the fastest and most efficient way to grow your brand.

Do it right, and you’re likely to grow a large brand in a matter of weeks. 

And the longer you continue to use the CBR method, the more impact it’s likely to have on your brand. 

15# Use Carousel Ads to Sell Your eCommerce Products

eCommerce products sell so much better with carousel ads. 

In a study conducted by Digital Day, carousel ads are ten times better than regular ads, especially for eCommerce products.

With carousel ads, you get to display multiple images of your products, and a link for action. 

They’re engaging, versatile and more likely to be clicked by the user. They outperform regular, static ads by far.

16# Don’t Completely Ignore Facebook Page Likes

Facebook page likes might not be as effective as they used to be, but that’s not to say they should be completely side-lined.

If not for anything, then you want to get the likes for your brand image. It’s simple: your business isn’t going to look credible if it only has a couple of hundreds of likes.

Try to target 100K+ page likes to look like an established online presence. That should help you out with conversion.

So, how can you quickly acquire hundred of thousands of likes on Facebook? Here’s how you can easily get 100K pages like on Facebook:

• You can begin by asking your friends and family to like your page. Remember to also ask your staff to help you out on the same.
• Use your brand logo as your page profile picture
• Fill out all the requested information while setting up your profile
• Use high-quality images for your cover photo
• Add a Call to Action on your page. Ask your page visitors to like your page if they haven’t done so already
• Publish two to three posts per day. Whatever you do, it’s important to make sure your page stays active
• Take advantage of popular and trending hashtags
• Make your content short and entertaining
• Run a paid ad inviting your target audience to like your page. Just head over to the Facebook ad manager and select “page likes”. Be creative with the graphics and content you use to invite people to like your page. 

While this may sound tempting, don’t make the mistake of buying Facebook page likes. The last thing you want is to have your page dominated by dormant, bot-generated likes that bring no value to your business other than inflating numbers. 

17# Connect Your Facebook Ads to a landing Page

Don’t just send people to your homepage or the product page. Instead, create a landing page for each of the Facebook Ad campaigns you run. 

A Facebook ad is nothing without a landing page.

At the end of it all, you’d want your users to click on your ad and be directed to a page where they’re to take action.

Even more important than the ad itself is the action that follows after the user clicks on your ad.

18# Lowest Cost Bid Strategy

This is something most Facebook advertisers don’t know.

But there are two Facebook ad bidding strategies:

• Target cost bidding strategy
• Lowest cost bidding strategy

Target cost bidding works great with long campaigns or if you’re looking to scale your campaigns.

The lowest cost is Facebook’s default ad bidding strategy. 

Having experimented with the two bidding strategies, we can confidently recommend that you go with the lowest bid strategy.

19# Be Mindful of the Ad Frequency

You don’t want your ad frequency to be too high or too low.

If it’s too high, then expect your campaign results to drop off.

An ad frequency is the terms used to refer to the frequency or the average number of times a particular ad has been served to a target audience. 

You’re likely to see diminishing returns once your ad frequency hits  2.0 – 2.5.

If your ads stop performing well, the first thing you want to check is your ad frequency and make sure they’re not higher than that.

Here are two reasons your ad frequency may get this high:

• When your ad budget is too high
• When your target audience is too small

It’s simple logic: when your ad budget is too high and your target audience is too small, then the Facebook ad platform may be forced to serve your ad to the same audience more than once, hence the high ad frequency.

So, how do you deal with the issue of ad frequency?

After seeing your ad results drop and establishing that the issue was a result of a higher ad frequency, here’s what you should do to combat the problem:

• You can begin by changing your ad creative. If you were running a simple image ad, then you might want to change it to a video ad and vice versa. This should help you overcome ad fatigue. 
• Try targeting a Different Audience

If you have a killer ad creative that you wouldn’t want to change, then perhaps you should consider targeting a different audience with the same ad.

A better approach would be to use lookalike audiences. 

Alternatively, try looking at the page likes section. All you need to do is head over to audience insights (with the Ads manager). Next, enter the demographics details of your target audience.

Choose a winning targeting option. 

The next thing you want to do is to navigate to page likes and ta-da! You’ll see the targeting options to experiment with. 

The problem with this option is that it’s likely to generate an audience overlap. For this, you want to exclude the original targeting option to make sure you’re targeting the right audience.

Important Tips for Optimising Your Business Page

The most important first step to running an effective Facebook marketing strategy is making sure you’ve optimised your page:

Even if you’ve already set up your business page, the following tips should help you review everything and make sure the page is effectively optimised:

20# Optimise Your Business Page Profile Pic

Here’s how you optimise your page profile picture:

• Use your company’s logo as your profile picture
• Make sure the pic is high resolution and that it doesn’t get pixilated or reduce in quality when shrunk in size
• Make sure the picture is 180px by 180px

21# Optimise Your Cover Photo as well

You also want to optimise your cover photo.

Here’s how you ensure your cover photo generates the maximum impact:

• Use the correct size of cover photo (828px by 315px)
• Make sure your cover photo blends with your profile pic in terms of colour scheme and everything
• If you’re planning to use a video cover, make sure it’s under 60 seconds

For example, you may use engaging photos of your products to showcase your offerings. 

22# Add a Compelling Call to Action (CTA) the Cover Photo

Your business with a cover photo doesn’t just end with you uploading one. There’s a lot you can do with the cover photo space provided, including adding a compelling call to action. 

You have three CTA options to choose from: 

• The page Like Button: This is a great CTA option if you’re looking to grow your audience. It’s how you request your page visitors to consider liking your page. All that the visitor has to do to like your page is click on the like CTA button shown. 
• The Follow Button: Quite similar to the like button, only that it gives your audience members more control over the type of content that they’d wish to see in their newsfeed. 

They can use it to prioritise your page content or place it among the first thing that shows up in their newsfeed. They can also use it to be notified whenever you post something new.

• A Custom Button: Facebook also allows you to add a custom CTA button.

To use this button option, all you need to do is head over to your business page and click on “Add a Button.”

A window will pop up, prompting you to specify what type of button you would like to use for the CTA.

You’ll be provided with a few options to choose from – Book Services, Get in Touch, Learn More, Make a Purchase, and Download App. 

Under each button option, there will be other more specific CTA options to choose from. So, go through each list and choose the most appropriate CTA option for your business or offering.

From there, Facebook will direct you on how to include the steps that you wish to see your visitors undertake after clicking on your CTA. For instance, you can link the button with your website or landing page for redirection after clicking on your CTA. 

23# Fill Your Profile Bio Completely

The last step to creating your business page is making sure you’ve filled out your bio completely.

Note that Facebook has one of the most extensive bios compared to other social media networks.

Here’s the information you’ll be prompted to fill out:

• The date your company was founded
• Your company’s mission statement
• Your website’s link
• Your contact information (email, phone number, and address

The next part of completing your bio is walking your target audience through what you do or what you’re offering. 

In which case, you’ll be asked to provide the following information:

• A brief “about us” 
• Company overview
• General information about your company or business
• A list of all the products or services your company is offering

The last part you’ll be required to fill out is “story.” Here, you’re to talk about what inspired you to start the business. 

What are have you overcome? What problems have you solved? And, most importantly, what makes you different from other similar businesses?

24# Organise Your Content Using Facebook Tabs

You can organise your page content using Facebook tabs. Do this to make it easy for your page visitors to find the information that brought them to your page in the first place.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when using Facebook tabs to organise your page information:

Add pre-made tabs: Facebook allows you to add pre-made tabs to your page.

To access these tabs, go to settings ~> Edit Page ~> tabs. 

 You have the option of using default tabs, where Facebook gets to automatically choose the right tabs for you. 

Otherwise, you want to scroll to the bottom of the page and choose “Add a Tab.”

Building Custom Tabs: Alternatively, use Facebook’s page and admin edits to build custom tabs using the Facebook developer’s page.

Note that this option requires no coding skills. Fortunately, Facebook has detailed tutorials on this to help you get started.

If your engagement, reach, and shares are low, that could mean your target audience doesn’t really like your content.

However, there’s a trick for figuring out what type of content strikes a chord with your target audience.

Here’s what you want to do:

• Go through analytics to find out what type of content performed well in the past
• Experiment with different content and track their performance – images, videos, infographic snippets, and Facebook live. 

Reshare all the post that perform well. You could even use a tool like CoSchedule to re-queue some of the posts. 

25# Mix Up Linked and Unlinked Posts

Here’s the thing: Facebook likes to keep users on the platform. That’s why posts without links have been known to perform better on the platform. 

It’s common sense: by making people engage with your posts on Facebook, that means they’ll stay around for longer as opposed to directing them outside Facebook to your website or blog.

If you’re looking to drive traffic to your website or blog, then stick to primarily posting links.

However, if you’re looking to generate brand awareness then you want to mix up both link and unlinked posts. 

That should help you boost your reach and keep your visitors longer on your page. 

26# Use Social Calendars to Plan Ahead

Learn to plan ahead. 

Luckily for you, you have social calendars such as Hootsuite to help you out with this.

27# Use Simple Language 

Copywriting isn’t the same as literature. 

You could be a poet in real life. While using flowery language might get you accolades in the academic or journalistic world, things are the complete opposite in the copywriting field.

What you want to do is make your Facebook ad as easy as possible for everyone to understand. Aim for a 5th-grade level of English, unless otherwise. 

When someone sees your ad, they should be able to tell at first glance:

• What the ad is all about. What exactly are you offering?
• How’s the offer likely to benefit them?
• What do you want them to do next?

28# Be Upfront with Price

When selling a product, you want to be upfront with the price. That’s because your customers will want to know how much the product costs. 

If it’s a sale, they’ll want to know what percentage are they getting off? 

This should save both of you time. It will also see to it that you’re engaging with people who are ready to buy.