So, we assume you have taken a leap of faith and have shifted towards the ever-changing “entrepreneurship” route. Buckle up now, you have a lot to learn and reflect on. Along with the freedom, mobility, and the choice to grow at your own pace – there’s a lot of uncertainty to be cautious of as well.
But once you follow the right strategies and take note of important factors in the way, your business will be up and running.
For starters, realize that you’re in a digitally oriented world. Every business decision should be taken in a digital marketing context – especially promoting the brand. And we mean it in a good way. Digital spaces have revolutionized how you kickstart a business, it is easier now.
Cater to a wide range of audiences, design your content, and easily keep a track of customer insights.
As an entrepreneur, you need to utilize all resources while staying within budget. We think Facebook ads could help grow your business, it is the ideal tool – ticking all boxes off an entrepreneur’s wishlist.
- Brand Reach
- Brand Awareness
- Producing Leads
- Meeting different business type requirements – eCommerce and SaaS
Keep reading as we do a detailed breakdown of Facebook ads from all sorts of perspectives. Let’s process ahead!
Why Entrepreneurs Should Choose Facebook Ads for Marketing Strategies
Look. You cannot follow a conventional marketing plan, be creative and see how you can curate the next big ad campaign. All big businesses ( Nike, Walmart, Pepsi…) have taken this approach. And guess what, Facebook ads are a “must” have for all these brands. Reports show that over 2.79 billion users are active on Facebook, it is the most popular social media site for a reason.
Will a platform with billions of users help your business excel? Yes, duh, definitely. On Facebook, you have the opportunity to target people with certain demographics. The best fact – Facebook ads are efficient for every type of business. Gyms, clothing brands, beauty salons… you name it.
For instance, your target audience consists of gaming fans. Are they around an 18-24 age bracket range? Do they all live in Toronto? Can they afford your product? Facebook finds customers who match the criteria and advertises your gaming product almost instantly.
In our opinion… that’s a far better choice than randomly picking a slot for an ad on TV. Decisions by an entrepreneur should be budget-friendly and extremely effective.
Types of Ads for Entrepreneurs
Facebook ads for entrepreneurs – you get all sorts of variety. We recommend you thoroughly go through every template Facebook offers, and try testing it out.
Remember, an ad should look appealing but must also serve your “action” goal – where you want to redirect the customer. For example, using click to messenger ads to get a page visitor to make a purchase.
Back in the day, slideshow ads were quite popular. So were photo ads. It was simple. Now, brands have elevated their game – the ads are more centric, connecting to a particular purpose. We’ll explain.
- Carousel Ads: Highlighting is the main focus of carousel ads. Any feature, service, discount offer – this format takes around 10 photos or videos and combines them into one “big” graphical ad. 90 characters in the post are recommended for conversions, quickly tell a story with this template. Note: use high-quality graphics, the pixels matter here.
- Collection Ads: Made specifically for mobile devices, it is perfect for targeting a niche audience. It is designed for instant experience. The format is: cover graphics, followed by four pictures below. The idea is simple. Whenever a user scrolls through Facebook, they will come across your product. Curious customers? Show more pictures underneath the main cover.
- Dynamic Ads: This format encourages adaptability. Yes, Facebook analyses “user” stats, checking which ad would suit the best. You might have a preplanned ad for the day but Facebook knows better after tracking down user behavior. If a customer adds products to the cart but does not proceed to checkout, the algorithm will automatically show them ads of the not-purchased product. It is incredibly effective, dynamic you may say (more on it later, keep reading).
- Video Ads: Show, action, capitalize. Videos always perform better in terms of numbers. You can unleash your creative capabilities through visual content and leave emotionally captivating messages – it works best. Figures show more than 70% of businesses rely on video for Facebook advertising, you should do the same too.
- Lead Ads: Get instant information from customers through Facebook lead ads. You ask users to fill out a form with relevant details, depending on what your marketing goal is. Use lead ads if you are looking for a user’s personal opinion on a product. Facebook will automatically input things like name, email, and contact number from user profiles – making the process even quicker.
Goals; Entrepreneurs Should Target with Facebook Ads
So what should you exactly be aware of? Well, Facebook itself helps entrepreneurs choose their campaign strategy – brand awareness or reach. You have the liberty to design your own campaign here, so, be wise enough with your decision. Where does your audience stand? Is awareness your final goal? Or do you want conversions?
Once you figure out the marketing funnel stage, picking out the right objective will be easy. In terms of kickstarting a brand, both “reach” and “brand awareness” play a key role. Let us elaborate:
Facebook Ads for Reach
Reach on Facebook is defined by the number of users who were exposed to your post – have “seen” basically. A lot of marketers assume that it indicates engagement or clicks, but no—simple exposure of your brand to people. Technically, Facebook counts on sampling – collecting a wide range of data to come up with an average figure.
A point to note is, reach is not equal to impressions in any way. They might seem similar but couldn’t be any more different. The most important distinguishable point is:
Reach showcases the total number of people who have seen the ad – even after 100 views by the same person, the reach will remain the same
Impression counts for the number of times an ad has been clicked on, even if it’s by the same person.
For example – let’s say 500 users view the ad over 10 times, it will lead to 5000 impressions and a reach of 500. Get it? In the end, both are important metrics, it all comes down to what your end goal is. An ad with a high impression rate shows that people are skimming through your page. They might not engage with it, but subtly, they will remember it.
Anyway, to drive high engagement and eventual conversions – we recommended you follow these steps:
- Choose a marketing objective (select reach)
- Set a budget
- Customize the audience
- Implement frequency capping
- Keep changing ad creative
Facebook Ads for Brand Awareness
When the marketing objective question pops up, you also have brand awareness as an option. Brand awareness ads were first coined by Facebook in 2015. Over the years, ad analysis has always been on point. You can see how effective the “recall” ad feature is.
Facebook goes through user data and dissects their viewing pattern. How many ads were repeated? How long were they engaged for? The main question being – do they even remember the ad?
After inspecting enough data (post engagements and estimated ad recalling), Facebook presents a rough idea of the people who might recall your brand.
From there onwards, you will get a curated audience that will surely drive results – choose the bidding budget and how long you want an ad to run for (frequency).
Run your first campaign. A step-by-step guide.
- Select “Brand Awareness” as the objective. On the side, consider factors like traffic and engagement too.
- Name the campaign and set your target demographic (Facebook will deal with the rest)
- Stay on budget and start bidding
- Choose an ad template along with the text to accompany posts.
- Actively use CTAs
Remember: Immediate sales are not the goal with brand awareness campaigns, it is designed to just instill your business’s idea across people – sales will eventually come through.
Facebook Ads for eCommerce Entrepreneurs
It is agreed that Facebook ads can elevate your business to the next level but “how” exactly? Entrepreneurs often end up following the wrong plan – you should have a blueprint of the store’s journey in mind. Continue with your vision and implement eCommerce trends along the way.
Create a Product Catalog
First things, first. For eCommerce store owners, categorization is important. Sort your products out. Soon after setting up a Facebook ad account, do your research and see if your products are even in “demand” or not.
After picking out products, list them on Facebook business manager through the product catalog feature. On the catalog, filter out products as you wish and proceed to the product feed stage.
Curate the Product Feed
This is where you create actual products for users to see. Products can either be automatically withdrawn from sources or you can manually upload them, we suggest the prior option – everything is synced. If there’s a discount offer, the product feed will automatically update.
And even better, while configuring the feed, you can connect your eCommerce medium and keep a track of daily reports.
Design and Execute
This is it. You have the creative freedom to design the “perfect” product for your customers. Pick out the price, category, and images, and write down the description.
Once you have optimized ads with the right description and graphics, check the stats. If you’re not satisfied with the results for any reason, Facebook offers innovative targeting features.
And we’re not exaggerating. If someone constantly browses your store but does not make any purchases – create customized ads for them. The variety of advertising options social media offers to eCommerce stores is quite extensive.
Facebook Ads for SaaS Entrepreneurs
We believe that Facebook ads should be used by all types of businesses – it goes the same for software as a service (SaaS). Contrary to popular thought, Facebook isn’t limited to B2C brands. You might have had a corporate job, but now you operate a startup. There are countless people just like you, check your friend list.
Facebook is no longer just a ‘socializing’ platform – it is a network where you can broadcast your brand’s message to relevant entrepreneurs and other established businesses. Adobe Photoshop, Grammarly, and Spotify—all are popular SaaS services. Trust us, their audience is on Facebook and they capitalize on it.
Figures show that the market is worth around 100$ billion and is projected to grow even further. Take your part and trust the marketing process. But make sure that you follow the right strategy, and be genuine.
Here are a few ideas you can consider:
- Let users see demos
- Target the right audience – adjust it
- Offer budget-friendly products/services
- Showcase through visuals
Successful Examples of Facebook Ads for Entrepreneurs
If you’re still cautious, not confident enough – we have actual examples to showcase. The biggest companies rely on Facebook ads to widen their reach. When we said Facebook has a massive audience, we were not joking.
You might have seen an ad related to your favorite video game on Facebook right? Maybe the exact phone you were looking to buy? See. Brands have a dedicated budget for Facebook advertising. Let’s take a look at two major companies, and how they used Facebook ads.
Forbes Facebook Ad Campaign
A household name – Forbes needs no such introduction. After all, the company revolutionized how we perceive the news. In digital terms, the business website gets over 49 million monthly visits. If we count every platform, Forbes reaches 140 million people through different mediums.
These are remarkable numbers for a brand that solely considers C-suite executives and entrepreneurs as their audience. How did they grow so much?
What Forbes did: Our experts tell us – consistent promotions combined with the right aesthetics. So, Forbes used dynamic ads on Facebook for their potential subscribers – changing the color scheme as necessary. It had an impact. At one point, their cover had four different variations – each showcasing Forbes in a different light. Likewise, make personalized ads for customers.
If you want to see what Forbes is up to these days, simply check the ad library on Facebook. Search for Forbes. Set the location to All and select All Ads. You will get an overview of all active ads.
Shopify Facebook Advertising Campaign
Arguably one of the biggest names in eCommerce, Shopify was established over 15 years ago – serving customers across North America, Europe, and Asia. Today, it is a multinational company based in Canada – worth more than $300 billion.
In eCommerce discourse, Shopify has excelled in all charts. On average, every user spends 3 minutes casually browsing the website. Plus, the store reached almost 60 million visitors last year. The business model is designed to help customers establish their own store.
What Shopify did: Whenever someone with an entrepreneur mindset came across an ad on Facebook – they had the option to “click” and download a checklist. The concept is similar to lead ads. Shopify subtly showed their brand’s message through quick one-liners while leaving in-depth details in a “downloadable” file.
We suggest you keep a track of Shopify’s marketing strategies. Visit Facebook ad library anytime and observe how Shopify targets its customers. All you have to do is, set “all” for location and type – then search for Shopify.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Facebook ads are extremely beneficial to entrepreneurs. If used efficiently with the right creative psyche – conversions are guaranteed. And more importantly, your brand will be remembered. Leave a long-lasting impact with Facebook Ads.
And using the tool isn’t difficult either. Facebook ads are optimized for general users, it is easy to navigate. Build your business from scratch. If it still sounds complicated, contact Think Orion – as a leading digital marketing agency in town, we can help you out.
