Facebook is one of the oldest and most successful social media platforms. It was founded in 2004 by a team of intelligent, talented, and ambitious roommates studying at Harvard University, and this team of young lads was led by Mark Zuckerberg, who is now the icon of this digital-native generation.
Facebook has been in the game for more than 17 years, and it continues to be ahead of all the other social media platforms. The reason behind this is that Facebook has always updated itself according to the changing times and needs of the world.
For the longest time, Facebook was used only to stay in touch with friends and family, build communities, and share and receive information. But today, it has turned into one of the go-to destinations for brand marketing. And like any other great idea, this one too received great criticism initially, but with the addition of more advanced marketing tools and features, Facebook marketing proved itself useful.
However, even today, there are several myths and rumors around this concept, and we are here to debunk the major ones so that more people can reap the benefit of this incredible platform without falling prey to misinformation. Let’s do it right, shall we?
Before everything else, what is Facebook Marketing?
Facebook marketing is a type of social media marketing pertaining to only one platform- Facebook. It involves using multiple tools offered by Facebook with the sole intention of marketing your brand to Facebook users. Facebook marketing is usually approached in order to establish a strong social media presence of the brand, which will cause more people to discover it, engage with it, and ultimately help grow the brand’s loyal customer base. Facebook marketing has been adopted by several brands.
The reason behind this is that the platform thoroughly supports brands by providing them with all the necessary tools like Facebook Ads, Analytics, and so on.
However, several myths exist that question the abilities of Facebook Marketing. Out of all of them, we have chosen three of the most widespread and significant ones to debunk so that you are not misinformed.
Myth no.1: Facebook ads are not effective
There is a huge myth revolving around Facebook ads implying that they are not effective and bring no real-time benefit to the brand. To reason with this myth, let me tell you that people usually think that Facebook ads have no practical usefulness majorly because they are not informed sufficiently. The process of Facebook ads doesn’t just involve creating an ad post and publishing it.
There are some technicalities involved, and a fair amount of knowledge about social media marketing is required to truly ace at Facebook ads. Once you start understanding the entire process of placing an ad on Facebook, which will, of course, take some time and experience, you will notice a significant rise in the conversion rates.
Indeed, the Cost-per-click is on the lower side, but it is essential to realize that by framing the right ad campaign and publishing it at the right time, you can fetch yourself incredibly high-quality clicks that add real value to your brand. As a matter of fact, most of the other advertising platforms don’t offer such a huge variety of tools to place ads and target the audience.
Facebook Ads have an upper edge over all other advertising methods because it allows precise target marketing, which enables businesses to reach their ideal and most interested audience. We will talk more in detail about targetting the audience on Facebook further in this article.
Myth no.2: You cannot target your audience on Facebook
This is the second biggest myth about Facebook Marketing, which states that businesses cannot target their audience efficiently on Facebook. Now, the reason behind this myth’s existence is, once again, just the lack of knowledge and awareness about how the ads work and how you can target the audience. Anyone with a decent amount of experience in promoting businesses through Facebook ads will tell you that there is no platform better than Facebook when it comes to actively reach your target group. Facebook has developed its advertising segment so well and has thoroughly matched with the requirements of businesses, no matter how big or small.
To back our statements with facts and figures, let me tell you that there are not one, not two, but seven distinct sectors to target your audience. When you frame an ad campaign, your business can practically select the following factors among your target group:
Demographics: age, sex, marital status, income, affordability, etc.
Location: country, state, region, zip code, etc.
Hobbies and interests: based on the pages they follow and communities they are a part of.
Engagement: the kind of people, pages, and ideas they engage in.
Behavior: based on the consumption pattern of the people.
Connections: the people they interact with and their interests.
Automated optimization: by inserting the location and demographics, Facebook will automatically plan the ideal audience.
With all these ways of identifying and reaching your specific target group, it is fair to say that Facebook did a pretty solid job designing its advertisement segment so that businesses reach their target group in the easiest way possible.
Other than that, influencer marketing which comes under the umbrella of Facebook marketing, is yet another highly effective way of reaching the targeted audience of a business. All you need to do is collaborate with an influencer whose target audience matches yours so that you have a readily available group to attract. And yes, influencers on Facebook have been highly successful in bridging the gap between businesses and the audience. They have a reputable social media presence and the power to influence hundreds of people at a time.
Myth no.3: Facebook Marketing is expensive
Facebook ads are assumed to be expensive because it is a recorded pattern that the prices tend to increase at the time of highly competitive shopping seasons. However, it is important to realize that you can set a specific amount that you wish to spend per day. The beauty of marketing through Facebook ads is that you can never spend more than you have to. You can set a fixed amount for each day, and the profit you earn depends entirely on your targeting skills, market knowledge, and brand’s propositional values. To be fair, if you have enough knowledge and experience and understand how to make your campaign work in the market, an amount as little as 5$ per day can also fetch you a great return.
Apart from that, if you compare any other way of advertising, you will notice that you won’t be getting so much versatility, reliability, and flexibility in designing and promoting your campaigns at such little cost. So, even if Facebook marketing may not be the mainstream or high-end form of marketing your brand and its products, you should know that it is an ideal place to get started. Instead of making heavy investments at the very beginning on other forms of marketing, you can consider starting off on Facebook itself by procuring basic beginner-level knowledge about the hows and whys of social media marketing.
Here are some tips for Facebook marketing:
- Schedule your posts well in advance.
- Time them according to your target audience.
- Establish your brand propositions and promote them.
- Maintain regular interaction with your audience.
- Stay relevant by incorporating trends.
- Post consistently but not too much.
- Use the analytics tool to study your audience.
- Develop a voice of your brand to connect.
- Create maximum amount of visual content.
- Learn from the social media experts.
Conclusion
With so many useful tools and so many upgrades, it is fair to say that Facebook did a wonderful job developing an easy-to-use and affordable way of marketing for all levels of businesses. Several myths exist around the idea of Facebook marketing, but most of them prevail due to a lack of knowledge and experience. But now that you know the truth behind the major myths, make sure that you use this information to its full potential by marketing with a solid blend of intelligence and creativity.
