How to effectively acquire customers via Facebook?

A client comes to an advertising agency and asks: “can we target Facebook ads at competitors’ clients?” This introduction sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but the answer will be solemn. Of course, you can! All you need to do is know how the ad manager works and how you can use its capabilities. There are no better or worse options for reaching customers in Facebook Business Manager. An adequately created sales funnel covers a full range of recipient groups — from classic targeting by interests to remarketing. So combine the following knowledge with a creative approach to catch up with the competition and even stay ahead. Read the article by Aleksander Kubica — Digital Marketing Specialist at 25wat, to get a few tips on successful customer acquisition via Facebook.

Build a competitive advantage by narrowing the audience and using exlusions

Detailed targeting options are the most popular way of creating audiences offered by the Facebook ad manager. Thanks to this service, you can define the recipient profile by choosing from thousands of interests, behaviors and demographics. At 25wat we carry out audits of the use of Facebook functionality and we know that this way of targeting is not always fully used. When selecting interests that match the recipient’s profile, companies ignore the possibility of exclusions and restrictions. Why is it so important?
Take the luxury car industry as an example. We want to sell Ferrari — we choose interests like “Ferrari” and — possibly — other sports car brands, and we get a range of around 7 million. Does this mean that the number of millionaires in Poland has increased day by day? Well no! It means that we have a group of 7 million fans of expensive cars. However, most of these people cannot afford a luxury car. So to reach potential customers, it is worth clarifying the group:

• by narrowing the audience – choosing, for example, well-paid professions and hobbies typical of wealthy people (such as golf),
• by using exlusions – removing students or people using FB from older devices and operating systems.

This is how your competitive advantage is born. This is how you directly reach the brand’s potential customers, while those who have not specified the audience will waste the advertising budget on promotion among all Ferrari fans.

Facebook ad manager — clarifying audience groups

Facebook ad manager — take advantage of its remarketing options

When the competition on the market is enormous, the use of non-standard events is even a necessity. Thanks to Facebook ADS, you can remind potential customers who have already viewed your products. You’ll find custom audiences at the top of the ad set form. Before you use them, however, you have to create them yourself by going to the “Audiences” tab in your advertising account. Generate an audience group using tools such as:

• Facebook pixel on your website. By installing the FB pixel code on the website, you can carry out several remarketing activities to direct people visiting your website — a specific tab, product, and those who left a lead made a purchase, left a cart, etc., in the time range from 1 to 180 days.
• Mailing list. If you have and can use a mailing list for marketing purposes, use it also on Facebook. Based on e‑mail addresses (or telephone numbers), the algorithm will search for profiles of these users. Thanks to this, you will be able to direct effective and cheap Facebook ADS campaigns to them, as well as exclude them from campaigns aimed at finding new customers.
• Audience behavior on Facebook / Instagram. You can add not only those who like your profile but also users who, for example, clicked an ad, watched a specific amount of a movie or made a purchase through the Facebook store.

In addition, the management of Facebook ads by the ad manager allows you to generate a group based on the users of your application (similar to the pixel on the page) and offline events (e.g., phone calls).

Facebook ad management

Reach new customers faster than your competition

Do you create any custom groups using the ad manager? You need to know that on their basis you can make the so-called lookalike list. Having a group of people visiting your website in the last 30 days, you can create another group of recipients — with a profile similar to the profile of visitors from the previous few days, this time the most similar to them. In this way, you will be able to reach an even wider group of people who — very likely — will be interested in your product or service. This way, you will reach a new customer faster than the competition on the market.

How to reach competitors’ customers?

Having an online store and — what is very important — a well-described and correctly uploaded product catalog to Facebook Business Manager, you can effectively display your campaigns to users who have viewed similar products in other online stores. Facebook offers this option when you select “product catalog” as your campaign target, and then — in the ad set, the option: “find potential customers even if they have not interacted with your business.” This way, you can introduce your activities to an even higher level of Facebook e‑commerce activities.

Important: Working on Facebook campaigns means continuous optimization and testing of advertisements, creations, but also target groups — it is a job enriched with a solidly constructed marketing strategy. That is why, at 25wat, we start each cooperation with workshops during which we get to know the client’s industry, brand and define common goals. You can read about them in the article: Why does your company need strategic workshops? We focus on effectiveness, and this is only possible when we get to know each other well.