5 Ways to Supercharge Your Ad Targeting on Facebook

The digital age has changed life in ways that were unimaginable only a few decades ago. In 1980 we entertained ourselves with color TV and 8-tracks. Today we have digital access to unlimited information and live our lives on smartphones and social media.

Things are changing dizzyingly fast. If you sell a product or service, it’s hard to keep up or even know where to start.

In the world of social media, Facebook is still the top platform for advertisers. It’s true that teens have rapidly been ditching Facebook for Instagram and Snapchat. But, data show that Facebook retains its status as the most popular platform across a broader range of demographics.

And that means businesses today—including yours—should be advertising on Facebook. Let’s look at ways to pump up your Facebook ad targeting.

How Facebook Ads Work

First things first. Facebook ads work by allowing you to target specific audiences who are most likely to buy your products or services. The platform does this by leveraging the extraordinary amount of data it collects about its users.

Think about your own Facebook account—if you’re like most users, at a minimum you’ve volunteered your real name, location, gender, and occupation. From your day-to-day use Facebook also knows your political leanings, popular public figures you like, your love for Maine Coon cats and skydiving, and that you’re into cosplay (we’ll keep that last one between us).

Creating an ad on Facebook is relatively straightforward. Set a budget, determine your target audience, and create a campaign objective—whether it’s generating sales leads, driving traffic to your website, or encouraging visitors to download your eBook or app. Then, use the strategies below to home in on your target audience.

1. Determine Optimal Ad Frequency

It’s well established that bombarding prospective customers with the same ad too many times will quickly cause fatigue. Worse, customers might get frustrated and avoid your brand altogether.

There’s a sweet spot when it comes to ad frequency, and your goal is to find it. It’s not entirely a guessing game—Nielsen data has found that 5-9 exposures is optimal. But, it’s very category-dependent. Ads for consumer goods, electronics, and shopping/retail had better luck with higher frequency than financial services, for example.

When creating a Facebook ad, decide on ad frequency and indicate how many times the ad should show up for each customer. Experiment with different frequencies until you find the sweet spot—in other words, a good balance between cost per mille (CPM) and click-through rate (CTR).

Source: Nielsen Digital Brand Effect

2. Use Geo-Targeted Advertising

Technology has given us new tools to target local audiences with laser-like precision. This includes geo-targeting. It works by delivering relevant ads based on a user’s location. You can find users by zip code, city, region, or country.

If you operate a brick-and-mortar store, geo-targeting can be especially useful. Say you own a cupcake shop in an urban area that’s saturated with similar shops. Serving up geo-targeted Facebook ads to people who live around your shop can help you stand out from the competition and draw in new customers.

There are some important considerations, though. Facebook ads work like other forms of supply and demand meaning they have no set price. The more granular you get with your targeting the more your ads can cost. The more advertisers there are matching up with your granular targeting parameters, there are more of you bidding on the same audience, so with the increased supply of advertisers, cost can go up to reach your audience. 

Whether geo-targeted ads are right for your business in the first place depends on your product/service offerings, whether you’re in an urban, suburban, or rural area, how far people are willing to travel for your offerings, and other factors. Make sure you do your research.

Source: Facebook Business Help Docs

3. Harness the Power of Facebook Messenger Ads

Since Facebook launched Messenger in 2011, the platform has become one of the most powerful ways to interact with customers. Messenger has grown exponentially since Facebook made it a standalone app, and users aren’t required to have a Facebook account to use it.

With Messenger you can create ads inviting people to direct message you. No time to respond? Have a developer build a chatbot to help. Today more than 300,000 chatbots provide real-time answers to questions on Messenger. And, when designed well, the bots do so in a conversational way, which is important to consumers.

There’s massive potential for reaching customers via Facebook Messenger—more than 133 million people are expected to use the platform in 2019, up from 126 million users in 2018. Businesses and consumers already exchange 8 billion messages a month on the platform. This number will only continue to grow.

Bottom line: If you’re not using Facebook Messenger as part of your broader marketing strategy, now’s the time to start. 

4. Use Facebook Remarketing Tactics

If you’ve ever abandoned your online shopping cart and later received an email from the company reminding you that those ultra-soft chenille slippers are still waiting for you, you’ve been the target of remarketing tactics.

Remarketing uses advertising to bring customers back after they’ve interacted with your brand in some way. It works because it’s not spammy and because you’re targeting people who are already familiar with your brand but aren’t completely sold. Since you already have some information about each person (that they’re looking for ultra-soft chenille slippers, for example) you can tailor your ads to make them more relevant.

Facebook allows you to create custom audiences for remarketing ads. By placing a small piece of code on your website, you can retarget these warmer prospects and feed them into your pipeline faster. Learn more here and here.

5. Build Trust by Creating Ads Highlighting Positive Reviews

There’s a reason we go straight to Yelp before trying a new restaurant, Healthgrades before seeing a new doctor, or Angie’s List before hiring a contractor. We want to know what real consumers think, not what some marketing suits want us to hear.

Social proof—the notion that people make their decisions based on what other people have to say—has never been more important than in our digital world. A string of bad reviews can make or break your business. Not surprisingly, 95% of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase, especially with more expensive and “riskier” items.

Creating Facebook ads that highlight positive reviews and testimonials of your product—especially from sites with verified buyers, like Amazon—can help you build social trust, generate new leads, and boost sales.

Get Expert Help

Not ready to take on Facebook advertising on your own? Our social media and influencer marketing teams will create a dynamic campaign to help you build your online community, promote your brand, and foster trust.

National Positions is a full-service SEO agency committed to our customers’ success. We’re constantly researching and finding new ways to empower your campaign with the most innovative technology to drive traffic, leads, and sales to your website. We use an array of tools, licensed through strategic partnerships as well as proprietary technology developed in-house.

Call us today at (877) 866-6699 to get started on your Facebook ad campaign or use our contact form.