Facebook doesn’t need any introduction to anyone. It played a huge role in defining this digital age. The social media giant has been at the top of the ladder in terms of revenue, active users and content for quite a few years now. A big part of Facebook’s revenue comes from the ads it runs on its social media platform. Utilising its presence all over the world and users of all genders, ages & preferences, Facebook gave marketers a great option to promote and advertise to their target audience easily.
Marketing on Facebook is quite easy with 3 three major tools available. But we will still give a helping hand in understanding the different options Facebook offers for marketers and advertisers.
- Page – Just as users on Facebook can create their profiles, they can create different pages for their businesses and brands. Pages are the equivalent of profiles for brands, companies and businesses. While to become friends with someone users need to send a request, but on a page, a user just needs to click on the ‘like’ option to start following the page without the approval of the page creator. Users can ‘like’ a page of a brand they like or if they are interested in a brand’s products. When they like a page, the brand’s posts start popping up on the user’s timeline, which increases the brand visibility. This engagement with the users builds brand identity and trust among the people. The advantage of a Facebook page is that it is very easy to create and operate. There is no limit to the number of users that can like a page either. Though it can be fairly difficult to build a following in the beginning, but once a page gets established, the returns are exceptionally well.
- Ads – Facebook has a brilliant and clever advertising set-up on its platform. It provides marketers with a plethora of options to reach its potential customers through targeted marketing. Marketers have the options to reach Facebook users based on their interests, age, location, pages they like and their search engine inputs as well. As for the users, these ads do not disturb their usual Facebook experience. Rather, these ads try to enhance their experience on the website by showing them ads that might be of their interest. Facebook still gives the users an option to delete an ad from the user’s timeline, if they don’t prefer to see the ad. But there is also an option to like the page of the brand if they find the ad of their use. The advantage of using ads on Facebook is quite clearly the several powerful targeting parameters. Based on a brand’s marketing goals, ads can become expensive sometimes, but their reach is peerless and which makes them too crucial to be ignored.
- Groups – Facebook groups are somewhat similar to discussion forums that are found on the net. Where Facebook groups are different from discussion groups is that they have extra features for user engagement and the members are only Facebook users. Brands can create groups related to a product, industry or a brand and users that relate to the subject can join these groups. Just like profiles and pages, groups also have a timeline with the option to react with a like, happy face, etc. on different posts. These groups can be a great way to reach customers about new products and offers. The advantage of creating a group is that it is free with a very high user engagement. Groups can become a handful with too many people to interact with, but its reach and rapid responses from users is a huge plus-point.
Marketing on Facebook is inevitable in today’s cut-throat market. Every brand and company has to have a strong presence on Facebook to engage with customers and future customers. And the marketing options we discussed above give these brands feasible ways to engage users and share information to grow their businesses.
