With nearly 2.9 billion monthly active users, Facebook is still the giant in the social media world. Facebook accounts for nearly 71 percent of all monthly social media visits and has an annual revenue of close to $86 billion, with most of it coming in from ad revenue.
The US isn’t the biggest driver of traffic. Only 10 percent of all traffic comes from the US or Canada. If you’re looking for ways to reach people worldwide, Facebook is the most important place to play with your marketing dollars.
Need even more proof? More than 400 users signed up for Facebook every minute in 2021. In that same minute, 510,000 comments were made, 293,000 status updates were created, 136,000 photos were uploaded, and 4 million posts were liked.
If you want to reach people in any age demographic, anywhere globally, Facebook is the platform to do it with.
Yet maybe you’ve started wondering if it’s still relevant for future growth. A lot has changed over the past couple of years. Is Facebook still the right platform for your marketing dollars?
Understanding Facebook Ads
Whether you’ve used Facebook ads in the past or not, you only have to look at the numbers and demographics to understand why Facebook is a great marketing tool. As one of the largest social media platforms, it gives you an easy way to reach out to your defined target market.
The main objective of advertising on Facebook is to encourage people to take action. It could be to join a group, sign up for an event, or click a link that drives them to your website. The Facebook advertising platform allows you to dive deep into demographics and select things like age, gender, interests, location, and behaviors.
Ads are shown in News Feeds and Timelines. You can create custom audiences based on information you find through Facebook Insights. It also gives you access to reach people on different platforms, such as Instagram, giving you even more ways to target your visibility.
Why You Should Advertise on Facebook
Depending on your age group, you might question how much Facebook is still in use. A Pew Research Center study showed that US users over 65 have grown to over 40 percent in recent years. While not as significant in growth, Baby Boomers and Millennials also use Facebook regularly. In 2021, an estimated 84 percent of Millennials use Facebook regularly, with 74 percent of Gen X actively using it.
As we move forward, it’s still one of the best places to reach out to your target audience, being beneficial for both B2B and B2C use. Studies show that key business decision-makers spend more weeks a month, more days a week, and more minutes per day on the Facebook platform than the average person.
Facebook also allows you to reach out in the manner right for your business. With multiple forms of engagement, you can stick with the branding method that works best for you. Facebook’s sponsored stories, video ads, and carousel ads are all great ways to gain attention without focusing too much on direct sales. Pique interest first and then lead them to action.
It also creates a highly transparent atmosphere. You have complete control over choosing your audience and targeting in a manner that suits your business well. Growth comes from connecting in a way your target audience resonates well with.
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What Should You Try in 2022?
Whether you’re brand-new to Facebook ads or have been using them for years for business growth, there are a few tools that will see change as we enter the new year.
Facebook Live
More than 100 million videos are watched daily on Facebook, with the Facebook Live feature seeing a 50 percent increase this past year. This trend won’t be disappearing anytime soon. Facebook Live allows you to livestream events, performances, or gatherings, with viewers being able to take in your content from a phone, computer, or connected TV. They can share, comment, or use other interactive features that allow audience participation. Live events can increase your engagement by as much as 178 percent and give you a way to be even more transparent with your audience.
Facebook Stories
Nearly 500 million people use Facebook Stories daily to share and stay in touch with their interests. Think of Stories as a second news feed for the Facebook platform. It’s a short photo and video collection that can be uploaded and combined with filters and lenses to add more depth to the story.
Stories are highlighted at the top of the newsfeed page, where you can click to view the story. Stories are pushed to the top and will be more visible for 24 hours after posting. Instagram and Facebook stories are separate entities but work in a similar manner. Stories can be a great tool for elevating your brand and giving your customers a peek at what you do inside your business.
Facebook Chatbots
If you haven’t worked with Facebook’s artificial intelligence, now might be the time. Chatbots in Facebook can allow you to converse with people, respond to particular questions, and automate suggestions and pointers for people you connect with.
The Chatbot in Facebook must integrate with Messenger to allow it to function. It’s a way to build a stronger relationship with both prospects and customers, making your conversations as personal as possible. If you haven’t tried this before, start simply. You can always tweak and grow from your starting point.
Customer Mapping
Because Facebook’s revenue centers around advertising, Facebook continues to make relevant tools to help marketers do their jobs better. The recent Customer Journey Map can help you further define who your customer is and their journey to move from concept to sale. The more you dive into the process they go through, the greater your understanding of what to create to have an impact along that journey. It provides a clearer picture of the marketing process and helps you gain more insight into the value of individual customers.
With the number of tools available within the Facebook platform, you might have questions about utilizing them to build a solid marketing plan. We can help. Our teams are ready to help you design campaigns to help you grow and achieve your online goals. Reach out and connect with one of our team members today for more information.
