The biggest mistake you can make in Facebook advertising: Why being oblivious to social media rudeness will hurt your bottom lineWhy Being Oblivious to Social Media Rudeness Will Hurt Your Bottom Line

Imagine you get invited to a party at a friend’s house. You show up, but before you can even grab a drink  a stranger pops up in front of you, opens her briefcase and tells you to BUY HER 15% OFF MASCARA!
I’m pretty confident you will not buy that mascara because:

  1. You’ve never met this [annoying] person
  2. You have no idea what her product is (heck, there’s probably a 50% chance you don’t even USE mascara)

This situation would rarely ever occur in real life, but you’d be blown away with how many brands are making this exact mistake on Facebook.

In the past few years, Facebook has made the process of digital advertising very simple. However, just because the “Boost Post” button is only one click away does not mean brands are utilizing it to actually increase revenue.

The first step to cost-efficient sales on Facebook is to build a relationship with your customers through three levels of digital advertising.  
Each level needs a different ad campaign composed of a hierarchal breakdown of split tested audiences, interests and creative. For the sake of this article’s brevity, I’m solely focusing on the funnel’s stages and not the aforementioned tactics. We can typically categorize these stages as awareness, consideration and need. Here’s a good way to visualize them:

Awareness: You’re having drinks with your friend and notice a new pants shop moved in next door.

Consideration: Your friend mentions how much he likes his pants and stands up to show you.

Need: While spinning around, your friend knocks his wine glass into your lap. You need to buy new pants – now.

The biggest Facebook Advertising mistake businesses can make is to assume that everyone has just spilled wine on their pants.
A successful marketer is patiently strategic— he/she runs a brand awareness campaign introducing their business to a targeted consumer group. They follow up that campaign a month later with a lead generation campaign that attracts the consumer (a common example here would be a freebie in exchange for an email address). Only after their brand introduces itself and builds trust will it be time to launch the final campaign that will convert into sales. The good news is that if the first two stages are done well, the final stage will be the easiest!
Awareness Consideration Need Purchase
Adopting this approach is an investment in the long-term ROI of your marketing strategy. You will consistently increase sales and grow your pool of interested customers.

Important Note: Imagine this strategy as the blueprint for your business. It sets the foundation for growth, but you will still need a full build-out to be successful: strong design, a fine-tuned target audience, and a strong value proposition to name a few… Building unique ad strategies is a favorite part of my job so if you’re interested in discussing more you know where to find me.

Joe Sonheim is a director of video and digital strategy at Lambert