Social media is a critical component of any company’s marketing arsenal. With Facebook making more than 4 billion dollars a year from revenues associated with advertising, people are seeing and reacting to these ads. Currently, as of the second quarter of 2018, the company reported 2.23 billion active users. The definition of this type of user is those that have logged on during the last month. Mobile users total 1.74 billion. These numbers alone are enough proof of concept. The site’s popularity surpasses any other social media platform and incorporates a large number of people, providing other businesses with the ability to target the perfect audience for their products or services.
Dedication to Details
All online marketing, not just social media, requires that companies pay close attention to details. This requires a lot of time and focus. Not all businesses are well suited for this because advertising and marketing may be outside the realm of their core competencies. For example, a business may be entirely dedicated to and focused on providing surf lessons in Waikiki. Their strength is the quality of the service that they offer their customer base. Their understanding is the topic of surfing and not on tracking engagements in social media. The level of energy that this company would need to execute a successful online marketing campaign would take away from its strengths. In this case, the organization is better served by outsourcing these activities to a specialized online advertising agency whose core competency is marketing. Therefore, the first step is to take inventory of talents and abilities and be realistic about them. Many organizations fail in Facebook Ads and other online marketing because they believe that it is a matter of paying. This, however, is not the case.
How Facebook Ads Work
Facebook has several types of promotions including pushing followers to like a page, promoting a post on a page, or leading people to take actions, such as clicking on a website. Although the company creates incentives and focuses on keeping traffic within their platform, well-developed strategies can create successful outcomes when pushing traffic to your web page. To have a campaign produce results, an organization must understand who their customer is and develop ads that reach this audience in a way that they will pay attention. This is as true with traditional marketing as with new styles. With the new platforms, the advantage is that the technology allows customization and specific focus. The more information that a business has on their customer, the more that the business understands why a customer purchases an item. This information is critical for a higher return on investment.
The concept that data is an organizational asset could not be more accurate in this space. Today’s marketing and advertising vehicles depend greatly on the compilation, sorting, and use of data. Facebook and Google Adwords, among others, provide a level of detail about the general demographics of its users that businesses can leverage this to create conversions. These companies learn about what their users are interested in, what they are searching for, what they are watching, and what they are clicking on. In other words, they answer the question: what are users interacting with? The reason that businesses who use this tool effectively can sell is that they understand the needs and desires of their base to launch campaigns that better obtain the interest of these potential clients. These organizations understand that social media campaigns do not produce direct sales. Instead, they produce likely buyers that can be converted into sales with a well-executed funnel process. The data produced by Facebook interaction gives insight into what a person is interested in, and this is why Facebook works.
