Is Facebook marketing still relevant in 2024? We think so – and here’s how we approach it
Despite the rise of numerous social media platforms, Facebook remains a digital marketing powerhouse in 2024. With nearly 3 billion daily active users, it continues to be a primary hub for brand research, with over half of users engaging with it for this purpose. This extensive reach provides advertisers with a vast pool of potential prospects, making it easier to engage new customers and scale campaigns effectively. The platform’s expansive user base also enhances its machine learning capabilities, leading to better campaign optimisations and improved return on ad spend (ROAS).
Organic versus Paid Facebook marketing
Before we dive into it, it’s important to distinguish between organic and paid Facebook marketing:
Organic marketing: Organic Facebook marketing focuses on engaging your existing followers and nurturing brand loyalty by posting high-quality shareable content and interacting with your audience. This approach helps maintain interest and can generate long-term revenue.
Paid advertising: Paid Facebook advertising requires a budget but enables you to attract new customers through data-driven targeting tactics, versatile ad formats, and smart campaign optimisations. It is crucial for reaching granular audiences and boosting ROI.
A balanced strategy combining both organic and paid efforts often leads to success, cultivating a loyal customer base while increasing brand awareness. In this article, we’re focusing on paid Facebook advertising and how Oban approaches it.
Facebook advertising reaches a lot of people across the funnel
There are various ways businesses can use Facebook advertising to reach, engage, and convert audiences across the funnel. An example campaign might look like this:
• Brand awareness: Launch snappy video ads to introduce your product and establish brand identity using broad targeting to maximise reach.
• Engagement: Use Custom Audiences to target users who interacted with the video ads, following up with product-focused Carousel ads to increase consideration and drive website traffic. Depending on expected remarketing audience size, narrower prospecting audiences using lookalike, demographic and interest-based targeting may also be relevant.
• Conversion: Use the Facebook pixel to retarget users who visited the checkout page or made purchases, driving conversions and maximising efficiency at the bottom of the funnel. Testing engagement audiences as a part of that targeting mix as well will help maximise reach for this high-impact campaign type.
Oban’s approach to Facebook advertising
Step 1: Understanding your brand
We start by trying to understand your brand in as much detail as possible. This involves collecting comprehensive information, such as:
• Brand kits and marketing collateral: Ensuring brand consistency across all communications.
• Recent market research: Using the latest data to inform our strategies.
• Sales and marketing alignment: Understanding the dynamics between your sales and marketing teams.
• Successful campaign insights: Learning from past campaigns to inform future strategies.
Step 2: Defining your goals
Next, we define specific goals for your paid Facebook advertising campaigns in line with your overall marketing strategy. Common goals might include:
• Building brand awareness: Increasing brand visibility and recognition, using engaging ads to create a lasting impression.
• Improving customer service: Promoting customer support channels, as well as highlighting testimonials or customer success stories.
• Driving traffic to a physical location: Creating location-specific ads or offering exclusive in-store promotions.
• Increasing website traffic: Designing ads to encourage website clicks; optimising content to drive quality traffic.
• Generating leads and building an email list: Using lead generation ads with valuable incentives, which you can integrate with your CRM (if you have one) for follow-up.
• Boosting sales and conversions: Promoting products with compelling CTAs; tracking and optimising ad performance for ROI.
• Encouraging app installations: Targeting users with app install ads that highlight features and benefits.
Step 3: Understanding your global audience
We combine demographic and psychographic data from leading sources like Statista and Global Web Index with your own analytics and CRM data, as well as any audience personas you have, to form a comprehensive global audience profile. This approach focuses on markets where your performance is already strong. To ensure our strategies are locally relevant, we work with our network of Local In-Market Experts (LIMEs). These experts help refine audience characteristics with local precision.
Step 4: Targeting your audience
Next, we decide how best to target your audience so we can optimise your paid Facebook advertising campaigns for better engagement and results. Strategies can include:
• Geographical targeting: Specifying countries, regions, or cities to reach the right audience.
• Demographic and interest targeting: Refining audience based on demographics and interests, ensuring personalised ad content.
• Custom and lookalike audiences: Targeting users who have interacted with your brand or find new prospects similar to your existing audience – to make the most of your first party data.
If a product or brand performs well with a UK audience, we find its equivalent in your target markets. Repeating this process with various products and topics helps create high-performing audiences for our international strategy.
Step 5: Budget allocation
When allocating budgets for Facebook advertising, we prioritise potential return on investment (ROI) and the size of the target audience. This involves strategically analysing which campaigns are likely to generate the highest returns compared to their costs and the reach of the audience they intend to engage. To accommodate diverse markets, we tailor budgets to local currencies, considering the economic context and purchasing power parity of each targeted region. By considering ROI potential and adjusting for currency variations, we optimise the effectiveness of our Facebook advertising efforts.
Step 6: Ad formats and creative
The next stage is to decide on ad formats and creative. Facebook offers different ad formats which cater to various marketing objectives. Whether you’re driving engagement or generating leads, there’s an ad format for every goal:
• Photo/single image ads
• Video ads
• Stories ads
• Messenger ads
• Carousel ads
• Slideshow ads
• Collection ads
Each format serves different campaign objectives. For example, video or animated ads are ideal for brand storytelling, collection ads boost product sales, and Messenger ads promote limited-time offers.
Using our 20+ years international experience in a variety of sectors, markets, and channels, our team works with creative production resources to ensure a coherent and personalised brand experience across touchpoints. We can produce market audience guides that will help guide creatives in how products, people, and culture are portrayed. We use our LIMEs to ensure that:
• Content, imagery, and messaging are culturally appropriate.
• Language is not merely translated but localised, reflecting idioms, expressions, and tone correctly.
• Campaigns are tailored to match local trends and preferences.
Step 7: Performance measurement and analytics
Effective reporting is essential for measuring success and guiding future activity. We create accessible and customised reports for your business in line with your objectives, delivering insights that drive long-term international growth. We track performance metrics for each market individually, so we can adjust our advertising strategies and budget based on local insights and consumer behaviours.
Tips for effective Facebook advertising creative
1. Optimise for mobile: Most users access Facebook on their phones, so focus on mobile-friendly ads:
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- Keep text minimal and use large fonts.
- Add animations for engagement.
- Keep videos short (15 seconds or less).
2. Cater to short attention spans: Capture attention quickly by delivering your main message and branding within the first 3 seconds of your ad.
3. Make sound optional: Since many users watch videos with the sound off:
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- Use visuals to convey your message.
- Add captions for voiceovers.
- Include text for key messages.
4. Use the Tease, Engage, Immerse method: Combine different creative types to engage users at various stages:
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- Tease: Raise awareness of your brand, product, or service.
- Engage: Create entertaining, interactive content for the curious.
- Immerse: Offer immersive experiences for deeper engagement.
5. Use analytics and test different formats: Use Facebook’s built-in tools to track impressions, clicks, engagement, and ROI. Experiment with various ad formats to see which resonates best with your audience and drives the most engagement.
6. Localise for different cultures and languages: Work with Local In-Market Experts to ensure creative is localised effectively.
Oban balances automation with expert oversight
At Oban, we know that great Facebook advertising requires a mix of automation and manual oversight. Finding the right balance takes expertise and ongoing adjustments. Our tailored optimisation cycles are designed to meet each campaign’s unique needs, driving performance and helping clients reach their goals. Key components include:
• Optimising budget allocation: We use advanced algorithms to automate budget allocation across campaigns and ad sets, while our experts adjust based on real-time data. This ensures resources go to the best-performing areas, maximising ROI.
• Rotating creatives effectively: Automation helps us systematically rotate ad creatives to keep audiences engaged and avoid ad fatigue. Our team reviews performance metrics to see which creatives work best and makes adjustments to keep Facebook advertising fresh and effective.
• Identifying geo-targeting opportunities: Automated tools quickly identify potential geo-targeting opportunities. Manual analysis refines these insights, ensuring ads reach the most receptive audiences in specific locations for greater relevance and impact.
• Testing and exploring new placements: Automation allows us to test various ad placements across Facebook’s network efficiently. Manual oversight rigorously evaluates these tests, applying insights to optimise placements and identify new opportunities.
Successful Facebook advertising isn’t about purely automation or manual adjustments alone. It’s about combining both effectively. Our team ensures automated processes are finely tuned while manual oversight allows for precise adjustments. This balance is where we excel.
Additional local factors for businesses to consider
As an internationally-focused agency, Oban encourages businesses to adopt a global perspective for Facebook advertising. Key international considerations include:
• Localised customer support: Providing customer support in the local language enhances satisfaction and trust, crucial elements in building a strong international presence.
• Community engagement: To actively engage with users, adapt your interactions to their language and cultural background. This makes the experience personal and relevant in different markets.
• Ad scheduling: Optimal ad scheduling is essential for maximising impact in each market. By thinking about time zones and running Facebook ads at times when they are most effective, businesses can ensure they reach their target audience when they are most receptive.
• Shipping and delivery: Reliable, country-specific logistics are crucial for successful international operations. Efficient order fulfilment is key to maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Consistent optimisation: Combining automation with manual expertise allows businesses to continuously optimise their strategies. This ensures that Facebook advertising efforts remain effective and relevant in each market.
Ready to succeed in Facebook advertising?
Collaboration is crucial. We prioritise clear communication and teamwork in all aspects of paid social, from targeting to reporting. Our extensive track record means you can trust us to help your brand succeed globally on Facebook. Ready to start? Contact us today to find out how we can help.
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FAQs about Facebook advertising
How effective is Facebook marketing in 2024?
Facebook marketing remains highly effective in 2024 due to its vast user base of nearly 3 billion daily active users. The platform’s advanced targeting options and machine learning capabilities allow for precise audience segmentation and improved ad performance, making it an invaluable tool for both brand awareness and conversion campaigns.
What targeting options are there for Facebook advertising?
Facebook provides a range of targeting options to help businesses reach their ideal audience. These include geographical targeting (specifying countries, regions, or cities), demographic targeting (age, gender, education, etc.), interest targeting (based on users’ hobbies and activities), and behavioural targeting (based on users’ actions on and off Facebook). Additionally, Custom Audiences allow you to target users who have previously interacted with your brand, and Lookalike Audiences help you find new potential customers similar to your existing audience.
How can businesses measure Facebook advertising success?
Success in Facebook advertising can be measured through detailed performance metrics and analytics. Key metrics include reach, engagement, click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS). Customised reports that align with business objectives help in understanding campaign performance and making informed adjustments to optimise results across different markets. Setting up tracking with Google Analytics can provide a fuller understanding of Facebook campaign performance.
Why isn’t my Facebook advertising working?
If your Facebook advertising is under-performing, it could be due to targeting the wrong audience, unengaging ad creatives, insufficient or poorly allocated budget, high ad frequency causing ad fatigue, or an ineffective landing page. Regularly monitor your campaign metrics, test continuously to optimise ad performance, and ensure a seamless transition from ad to landing page to improve your results.
Oban International is the digital marketing agency specialising in international expansion.
Our LIME (Local In-Market Expert) Network provides up to date cultural input and insights from over 80 markets around the world, helping clients realise the best marketing opportunities and avoid the costliest mistakes.