facebook marketing and advertising guide for ecommerce brands

It's no mystery that social media marketing is an essential part of any marketing campaign today. But if you're running a small business, figuring out the best way to get started can be overwhelming. Not only do you have to figure out the specific strategies you want to use for each platform, but there are a lot of technical details to consider too. The eCommerce business is a growing industry. Many sellers and brands are learning how to market their products on the internet, and Facebook has been proven as a successful platform to drive sales. 

Today, businesses are spending money on Facebook marketing, and for all the right reasons!

In this guide, we will deep-dive into paid and organic Facebook marketing for eCommerce brands.

Why should you market on Facebook?

• Facebook has over 2.9 billion monthly active users. And 79% of monthly users are active daily.

Source

• More than 35% of the world’s population uses Facebook monthly. This means 58.8% of everyone who has access to the internet uses Facebook.

• Facebook has been researching AI for over a decade.

• Users spend an average of 33 minutes a day on Facebook.

• Facebook ads reach 34.1% of the global population over age 13, reaching over 2.11 billion people.

• Facebook beats out TikTok for short-form videos with 60.8% of user share.

Paid ads Facebook marketing for eCommerce

How do Facebook ads work?

Facebook ads are an advertising medium that can be used to promote your business. They are a cost-effective way to reach potential customers on Facebook, and if you do it right, they can also be highly effective.

When someone clicks on a paid ad on Facebook, they’re taken to an external website where they can purchase your product or sign up for your newsletter, for instance. Paid ads are only available for eCommerce advertisers with a business page that has at least 10 likes and at least one content post (a post that includes text and/or images).

However, before you can create an ad, you need to decide what your goal is. Facebook offers six different objectives to choose from: driving website clicks, driving app installs, driving video views, increasing store visits, increasing conversions (including sales), and boosting posts.

Types of Facebook ads

Paid ads Facebook marketing tips

1. Use dynamic product ads

Dynamic product ads are a great way to get more out of your Facebook advertising budget. These ads use Facebook's data to show users the products they're most likely interested in, rather than just showing them everything you have for sale. 

You can target customers based on what they've previously viewed and purchased, as well as their demographics and interests. Dynamic product ads also let you include an image of the product in the ad itself, which increases engagement and helps users connect with your brand.

2. Facebook Multi-Product Ads

Facebook Multi-Product Ads are a great way to sell more than one product to your audience. This isn't a new feature, but it's one that many small business owners aren't aware of.

Multi-product ads are just what they sound like: ads for multiple products sold in one ad unit. For example, instead of creating separate ads for each item you're selling, you can create one ad with all of them in it.

The benefit is that this makes it easier for people who have already opened up an ad from your store to see more items from your inventory without having to click through several pages.

This is especially useful if you're selling multiple variations of the same product (like different colors or sizes). By showing all these variations at once, you'll increase the likelihood of someone making a purchase right away instead of having them get distracted by other offers and lose interest in your store altogether.

3. Install the Conversion Tracking Pixel

Facebook's conversion tracking pixel is a piece of code that you install on your website to track the success of your ad campaigns.

Facebook gives advertisers several options for tracking conversions -

• Conversions can be tracked when someone clicks on an ad and then converts on your site within 30 days.

• Conversions can be tracked when someone clicks on an ad, completes a form, or performs another action that you've defined as valuable, such as downloading a whitepaper or sharing the page with friends.

• Conversions can be tracked when someone registers for an account using their Facebook login information.

4. Run re-targeting campaigns

Re-targeting is a powerful way to make sure your ads reach the right people. This is when you target people who have visited your website but haven’t converted yet.

When someone visits your website, they are usually looking for something specific. With re-targeting ads, you can show them more of what they were searching for by targeting them once again with similar ads after their initial visit.

The great thing about re-targeting ads is that you don’t have to worry about creating new content each time you want to show someone something different; all you need is one piece of content or one image and then you can run your ad campaign indefinitely!

5. Create a Lookalike Audience

One of the most important things you can do when running ads on Facebook is to target your audience correctly. You need to find people who are likely to engage with your content or purchase your products.

A lookalike audience is similar to your existing audience, but it's more specific. You can create them on Facebook and then use them in a campaign. 

For example, if you have an existing customer base that is primarily female and between the ages of 25-30, you can create a lookalike audience that consists of people who are similar to those customers. This is great because it will help you reach people who may not have heard of your brand yet but are very likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

6. Focus on user benefit

People want to see themselves in brands. Making them feel like they're part of something bigger helps foster that connection. 

Your content has to benefit them, not just entice them. Follow-up is everything—no matter what form of marketing you're doing. Be agile and make changes based on user feedback, because it's their opinions that matter most in the business world.

7. Leverage automation tools

In today’s world, you need to stay on top of your social media marketing game. 

You want your content to reach the most targeted audience possible and you want to make sure that you are reaching your audience at the right time.

From the moment you create a Facebook ad account, you can begin to use automation tools. Automation tools let you set up your ads to run at certain times of the day or during certain dates. They also let you target specific audiences and track the performance of your ads.

Tools like Buffer and HootSuite can be great additions to your Facebook marketing toolkit!

Organic Facebook marketing for eCommerce

What is organic Facebook marketing?

Organic Facebook marketing is a way to promote your products or services on Facebook without having to pay for ads. It's the same as organic SEO (search engine optimization), but for Facebook.

Organic Facebook marketing is very different from paid advertising on Facebook.

It is the process of getting more people to like your Facebook page and then sharing your content with them. You don't have to pay anything or give anything away in exchange for their attention, it's just about being interesting and engaging.

Facebook is great for organic reach because it's free to use and doesn't require any paid advertising. This means that anyone can post on the platform and reach their target audience for free.

Organic Facebook marketing has many benefits over paid ads -

• It’s free – You don’t need any budgeting or money upfront at all. You can create an account and start posting right away!

• It works – People who follow your brand will see your posts in their newsfeeds no matter what they like or share on Facebook. If they see something they like from your brand, chances are they’ll click through to learn more about it.

• It gets results – If someone likes or shares one of your posts, it means that person thinks what you posted is worth sharing with others too. It also means that person thinks highly enough of the post that he or she wants others to see it as well!

But getting organic reach for your posts is harder than it sounds. 

The platform has changed its algorithms over time to favor posts from friends and family over those from brands or businesses. To get your brand's content in front of people who don't already follow you, you need to know how to run an effective organic campaign on Facebook.

Organic Facebook marketing tips

1. Create advisory and how-to videos

Add value to your viewers’ lives. Only then will they choose to follow and stay interested in your content, which is critical for organic marketing.

Videos are the most engaging form of content on Facebook, so try creating some videos that feature you or other members of your team talking about how to use your product or service. You can also create videos that show how to use products or services you offer in conjunction with other brands. 

Bonus tip: 85% of videos on Facebook are watched on mute. So, consider adding detailed subtitles in your Facebook ad videos.

2. Start a Facebook group

Facebook groups are a great way to build your social media presence.

A Facebook group is a closed community that allows members to share content. The most popular groups are focused on hobbies and interests, but there are also business-oriented groups where members can ask questions, get answers and promote their products.

You can start a Facebook group for your business and invite all of your customers to join it. This way, they can interact with each other and share their experiences with your products or services.

You can also provide additional discounts to members of your Facebook group to keep them coming for more and improve your relationships with your most invested customers.

3. Don’t automate everything

Automating some aspects of your social media marketing campaign will help you scale your efforts while saving time in the long run. But some things should still be done manually so you can have more control over what happens and make sure it works well for your business.

This is because we all know that automated posts can come out as boring or too generic, which might lead to a decline in engagement. The key here is to identify what works for your brand and then use automation to make it even better.

Automation is great, but it won’t replace human interaction. 

You can automate some elements of your campaign — such as posting and scheduling — but keep tabs on your campaigns so you can respond to comments and questions, and engage with other people who are interested in what you do.

4. Publish evergreen content

Remember, using social media as a marketing channel is about being strategic.

To grow your organic reach on Facebook, you need to publish evergreen content that people will find interesting for a long time. 

Evergreen content is timeless — it doesn't have a specific time frame or expiration date. This means it doesn't depend on current events or trends to be valuable and interesting. 

Evergreen content can include articles, videos, photos, and more. You should publish evergreen content regularly so that it adds value to your followers' lives whenever they see it in their feed.

5. Test your posting frequency

You need to test what works best for your business. Some brands post every day, while others post once a week or even less often. The key is to find what works best for you and stick to it!

Before you start posting regularly on Facebook, test different posting frequencies to determine what works best for your business. For example, if you post three times per day but have fewer likes and comments than when you post once per day, try reducing the number of posts until it has an impact on engagement levels again.

6. Run contests

Contests are a great way to get customers involved with your brand on social media. They can be used as a way to create brand awareness, increase engagement, and drive people back to your website or store.

You can create a contest by asking people to like your page and then sharing a photo or video with a unique hashtag. When they do, they'll be entered into a drawing to win a prize.

The great thing about this type of contest is that it's very easy to run, but it still helps you grow your audience and make sales.

You can also use Facebook ads to boost posts related to your contest. This will help you reach more people and increase the chance that they'll enter the contest.

You can run contests at any time of year, but they're especially good for holidays and special events like birthdays or anniversaries.

Just make sure you have terms and conditions set up for your contest before you start running it.

Conclusion

If you want to keep your business at the forefront of your customer's minds, Facebook is the best way to engage with them. 

If you don't have the time or don't know how to effectively market your eCommerce brand using Facebook, using this guide will assist you in learning what and how to create a successful business on Facebook. Having a great business page on Facebook can increase traffic and sales for your business because more people will pay attention to it.

If you've worked hard, built a great brand, and consistently delivered stellar customer service, it's time to expand your reach with effective Facebook marketing. And with the right approach, it's easy to get started.

Looking for someone to help you with Facebook marketing?

Reach out to our Shopify experts.