Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform with almost 2.5 billion active monthly users. Among these users, there is an enormous number of people who can become your potential customers. All that is required from you is to figure out who your target audience consists of and find a way to deliver the advertising message correctly. In other words, you need to build a strong Facebook advertising strategy!

Facebook provides a huge opportunity for any ecommerce business. It offers a variety of tools for promotion – let’s see how to set them up appropriately to make the most out of your Facebook advertising strategy!

Targeting the right audience

One of the biggest mistakes inexperienced entrepreneurs can make upon starting a Facebook advertising strategy is trying to appeal to everyone. What they should do instead is clearly establish who is their target audience and focus on it. 

How can you know if you’re targeting the right audience? We have gathered a few questions which will help you find the answer. 

• Where is your target audience located? 

You don’t need to focus exclusively on the people living in the same city or even country as you. Think about customers from abroad who might be somewhat interested in your products, too. Research where most of your sales come from and where do your Facebook followers live. 

This information can be found on your Facebook Page Insights. Select the “People” feature there. You will see your followers’ location, gender, age and other helpful features that we will discuss shortly.  

• How old are your target audience members? 

After you’ve determined where your target audience representatives are located, the next step is to find out their age. You might have a rough estimation of the average age of your buyers. However, by using Facebook Insights, particularly the Facebook Ads Manager, you can get a clear understanding of this. 

Not all businesses require to know this information though, as some offer products that people of any age need. Although, there are specific businesses that have to target particular age groups to sell their products. 

• What is the gender of your target audience members? 

At first, it may be an easy question. Although, you need to take into consideration the goals of your potential customers. Are they buying the product for their personal use, or are they buying it as a gift? This will determine the content of your marketing campaign. 

• Does your target audience fall into a certain demographic category?

This is one of the most notable questions which will help you narrow down your target audience to the fullest. Using the Facebook Ads Manager, find the “Demographics” feature in the “Detailed Targeting” section. This shows data about your potential customers, such as education, if they are in a relationship and if they are married, if they have a job, etc. 

Just make sure that you don’t over-specify the target audience in your Facebook advertising strategy as it will considerably narrow down your reach and the results may be unsatisfying. 

• What interests your target audience? 

In the “Detailed Targeting” section you will also find the “Interests” feature. You will use this feature to specify the exact audience that you will target. Whether they are gamers or sports fans, technophiles or mom bloggers, Facebook allows you to easily target any audience you need. 

• Are you trying to reach a new or existing audience? 

Think thoroughly about who you are trying to reach with your ad. Are you appealing to your current customers or trying to find new ones? 

Knowing your target audience is crucial for a successful marketing campaign and the efficient promotion of your brand. Obviously, your message will change, depending on who you are trying to reach. To get a better understanding of who is your current buyer and who is the recurring one, use various tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Page Insights, or track the statistics of your sales.

Cold, warm and hot audiences 

After understanding who your potential customers are, we need to find ways to reach out to them. To do that’ let’s, first of all, divide them into three broad categories:

• Those unaware of your product
• Those who know about your product and have an interest in purchasing it
• Those who are ready to make a purchase 

They can also be described as cold, warm and hot audiences. Knowing each of them is important for your business, as you will approach each of them differently and set different goals upon reaching out to them. 

Facebook Ads: campaign objectives 

Before launching a Facebook advertising campaign, you need to choose the appropriate objective for this ad. There are 11 objectives for you to choose from and each has a different purpose. The system will target people uniquely, depending on the objective you choose. 

For example, if you choose the Awareness objective, Facebook will show your ad to as many people as possible. Usually, this works great to increase brand awareness and to reach cold audiences. On the other hand, if the objective is set to Engagement, Facebook will show your post to the people that are willing to interact with it – to like or share. This goal will work fine with both cold and warm audiences.

Using lookalike audiences 

Depending on the product you are promoting, it can be simple to understand who your customers are. Of course, sometimes it’s not as easy as it sounds. In this case, we advise you to use the following strategy: 

• Attract the initial audience 

You can do this by promoting your product using various instruments. For example, you can gain attention with a short 10 to 15-second video showing off the product. At this stage of the promotion, you want to find people who might be interested in your product. Those who have watched at least 95% of the video can be called a custom audience, and considered to be warm. 

• Use Facebook lookalike audiences  

This feature can help boost your other promotional post to people who are similar to your custom audience described in the section above. The post you will launch will be seen by people with similar interests, age, hobby, family status, etc. 

• Promote your products 

After you’ve finished with your second promotion, you will receive another audience, one that not only showed interest but visited your product pages. Thus, you can create another custom audience that might be interested in your product and target them for your promotions. 

As a result of these manipulations, you will find similar audiences you can target with your promotional campaigns. These audiences will be different, as some may simply show interest, some may visit your store, others will add a product to the cart and so on. 

Facebook ads tips 

• Make relevant ads 

Yep, we’re talking about your target audience once again. Everyone hates to see irrelevant products that you don’t need or will not ever use. Make sure that you don’t waste your time and money promoting your products to people who might not even be interested in your product. 

• Make short ads 

People nowadays have short attention spans, and they probably won’t read an ad containing a novel-like text. You need to create an ad that will catch the attention of a potential customer and won’t scare them away in the same minute.  

• Use visuals 

According to researchers, the best advertisements are the ones that contain pictures or videos. Make sure that you use high-quality pictures and photos. 

Depending on the goals of your promotion, try to make short videos, 60 to 90 seconds should be enough. Although, make them shorter if you can. 

• Use advertising hooks 

It isn’t enough to simply show an advertisement. Sometimes to attract a customer, you need to offer something in return. Discounts and limited time offers should do the trick. Presenting people with these offers will give them the necessary push to view your product, and maybe even purchase it. 

• Use call-to-action 

Each advertisement should contain a compelling call to action. What this means is that you need to prompt people to do something like visit your site to view other products and offers, learn more about something, get a coupon, etc. 

• Improvise 

If you have your own views or ideas for a promotional strategy, try it! Different customers and niches require different approaches, you never know what can be effective for your Facebook advertising strategy.

All in all, determining your target audience is one of the most important aspects of an advertising campaign. It helps to create relevant and high-quality promotional posts to gain the attention of new and recurring customers. We hope you found this article informative and that you will use the new knowledge to successfully promote your brand and build your effective Facebook advertising strategy.

If you still aren’t confident, you always can ask our marketing experts to help you. For example, check out this amazing Facebook & Instagram ads service!