A marketing strategy for any business needs to be made up of several different layers. Even if your overall goal remains the same, it’s imperative to take advantage of all the different tools out there and increase the chances of reaching those goals.
And you may already be doing a lot: running Google Ads, publishing blog posts as part of a content marketing strategy, and running several social media marketing campaigns just to boost your brand and generate more revenue. But we’d like to stop a bit to talk about something specific: Facebook advertising.
Though some like the Social Media Examiner report that Facebook marketing is experiencing some decline, make no mistake: it is still very much relevant. But are you using it to its full potential?
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The Benefits of Facebook Offers
Facebook offers is a new type of content to activate the customers that already follow you on the social network. It allows you to create discounts or give coupons straight from your Facebook page and get people excited about the new things your business has to offer.
If you’re not yet using this tool, you’re really missing out. Here’s a quick overview of what it lets you achieve:
1. Increase Online Sales or Even in-store Sales
Who doesn’t love a discount or a coupon? Facebook offers allow you to choose if you want people to use your promotions for your online store, or if you want them to physically visit you on location and redeem the offer there. Or both, if that’s what you want.
2. Reach More People
Facebook offers are generally free to use if you only want to advertise these offers to the community you already have. However, you can also go beyond your followers and boost an offer to improve your engagement rate, which you can monitor in your Facebook insights.
3. Remind People
People can have short attention spans online. Sometimes, you see a post in your news feed, and as soon as you continue to scroll, it’s gone forever in your mind. But, with Facebook offers, users can save that post and automatically get notified right before it expires, so they can quickly redeem it.
4. It Works on Mobile
We know, we know. You’re probably fed up with all the “mobile is, like, really important” conversation, so we won’t say too much about it. Just know that Facebook offers is optimised for mobile too, so it’s one less thing you have to worry about.
What Kind Of Businesses Should Use Facebook Offers
As you might suspect, not every business can benefit from Facebook offers. The golden rule is this: if you have to sell something, and you can afford to hand out some discounts or coupons for it, then Facebook offers is for you.
If you’re an organisation putting out free events for the public, it’s pointless to figure out how Facebook offers works. You’re better off focusing on other Facebook marketing tools and crafting some compelling call to action copy that will get people to visit your events.
But if you sell products or services, offer online or offline courses, educational materials, apps, and anything else with a price tag on it, then Facebook offers is a tool you should be very interested in.
Additionally, if you also choose to boost an offer (meaning to create a paid ad for it,) you have three main objectives in Facebook offers:
- Traffic – Pushes traffic to wherever you need it like your landing page or Facebook messenger;
- Conversions – Lets you promote your landing page through Facebook pixel;
- Store – Allows you to increase in-store sales and engage your offline customers.
Apart from the offer per se, meaning the coupon or discount boosted, Facebook ad offers also lets you get closer to your business goal, whatever that may be. When you’re promoting an offer, remember to choose the right goal for the results you’re hoping to get.
How to Create a Great Offer
Building a Facebook offer is rather easy. You can either do it in your Business Page directly, and choose if you want to boost it later or not, or you can go to the Ads Manager and create an offer ad directly.
The easy nature of creating these offers is both good and bad news. The good news is that roughly everyone can do it, and you don’t need a lot of technical skills. The bad news is that roughly everyone can do it, so your competitors are probably creating one as we speak.
So, you’ll need to make sure your offers are better than everyone else’s. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
1. The Discounts or Coupons Need to be Worth It
Offering a $1 discount on a $20 product or service won’t get anyone too excited about your Facebook offer. While the platform doesn’t have a minimum value you need to put, it’s basic marketing that your discounts or coupons must be substantial if you want this angle to work.
Free products or higher discounts (20% or so) have a higher chance of getting your customers to positively respond to the offers.
2. Set a Clear Expiration Date
You need to give your offers some time, specifically you need to give your customers time to decide if they truly want to benefit from these offers or not. We know that the “clock is ticking” principle can be great in getting people to act fast, but for Facebook offers that may not be the right angle.
If you’re creating an offer for the customers or community you already have, it’s actually the bad angle. Offers are a way to both give something back to your customers and appreciate them, while also re-engaging those that grew apart from you. Publishing offers that expire the next day won’t have the results you’re looking for, because a lot of your customers may feel rushed. Give the offers at least a few days until they expire.
3. Make Them Look Great
Even if you only publish an offer on your page without boosting it, Facebook still requires you to upload an image. And in social media marketing, images need to catch people’s attention and engage them.
Try to match the visuals of the offer with what it actually represents. If it’s for a product, take a photo of the product itself. If you’re looking for in-store redeems, then use a photo of your store. All your photos need to be visually appealing, have a high-resolution, and not contain too much text. If you really need some text, stick with mentioning the percentage of the discount, but don’t overcrowd your visuals with a lot of copy.
4. Optional – Ask Before You Offer
Another way to truly show your customers that you care is to simply ask them what sort of offers they’d like to see from you. Maybe it’s some kind of product that’s more popular than others. Or, perhaps some type of reward system. Either way, engaging your customers first about what they want can greatly increase how effective the offer ultimately is.
But we realise that not every business can afford to do this, which is why we put it as an optional step.
Final Thoughts
There are plenty of other ways to re-engage your Facebook customers, like improving your customer service, creating new ad campaigns, and bringing fresh, new potential customers to your brand page. But Facebook offers is truly something you should watch out for.
Need more help with your Facebook marketing? Give Australian Internet Advertising a call right now.
