The Foundational Approach to Facebook CPC Ads
Executing for a Single Interaction
When developing a foundational Facebook media plan, you need to incorporate the needs of the client request and a desired goal into the strategy.
A project brief and planning session can help create the framework of the campaign and answer questions, such as:
- Target audience (demographics: M (25-49), educated, in GEO, with certain behaviors)
- Product information (price, seasonality, use cases)
- Goal (build a fan base, drive conversions on a website)
With this information you devise a marketing plan as usual, while utilizing Facebook’s vast amounts of targeting options to create detailed audience segments and match the right messaging to these segments. By segmenting your audiences clearly in Facebook (or via a management tool like Marin’s Facebook Management Solution), you can efficiently manage and optimize your segments easily and:
- Measure performance by audience including location, age, likes & interests
- Filter new ads by targeting criteria
- Create automated bidding strategies by segment to desired goal
The execution of a foundational Facebook CPC ads campaign is to support a relevant set of placements for a SINGLE interaction. (Search Marketing minded approach).
Executing on Paid & Social Synergies
Executing for a Series of Interactions
To effectively target different segments that may have different goals (engagement vs. conversion) at different stages of a purchase cycle (or seasonality), you can build a more complex plan that feeds off and builds from its own momentum. Unlike the foundational Facebook campaign that drives to a single desired action, this approach incorporates a series of consumer interactions.
It all starts with a Facebook ad with the goal of driving Fans and “Likes”. This is where Paid & Social Media collide and can do powerful things together. The Facebook CPC ads in a more intricate model take the consumer mindset and social interaction stage into account to drive a multi-stage cycle.
Introducing the Facebook “Like” Cycle
Facebook ads have a lot of opportunity to reach, communicate and interact with audiences within its own social environment, or cycle. Break out of the mold of thinking of simply the foundation but applying a more complex and dynamic campaign execution that speaks to consumers at different stages of their brand engagement.
Let’s break down each segment further and discuss the possible consumer mindset within each:
1. AWARENESS: Build a Fan Base
This might be the most obvious but could also be shortsighted and capped of its extended benefits. Serving Facebook CPC ads (Sponsored Stories Ads, CPC ads or Video ads) to increase traffic, are valid ad types to make consumers aware of your Brand. The capability of directly “Like”ing your brand fuels your Fan base that is not only a pool of loyal customers that can develop and share positive sentiments of your brand, but those positive sentiments can then be turned into your Sponsored Stories ads in your campaign.
Additionally, adding “Fans” to your brand’s Facebook page has more value than just counting the #s of likes. Driving Facebook Likes can also benefit your SEO program as “Likes are the new Links.” Further value are mentioned in the next segments of the “Like” Cycle.
2. dWOM: Facebook Interaction and Engagement
As the Fan base to your Facebook page grows the fans will inevitably voice their opinions and interact with the fan page. The positive sentiments and stories (even simple “Likes”) can become Sponsored Stories ads that will show to a Fans’ Facebook Friends which acts like Digital Word of Mouth (dWOM). This ad type brings a new power to online advertising as it integrates dWOM into its copy that it isn’t surprising to hear Facebook claims Sponsored Stories ads “perform twice as well in engaging users” compared to standard CPC ads on the network.
Facebook recently announced at AdWeek its belief in Facebook WOM and belief “that word-of-mouth conversations among friends are the most influential for getting a brand’s message across.” They went on to cite comScore research “showing that fans and friends-of-fans of a Page are more likely to visit a store, website, and even purchase a product or service.” For instance, “Fans and friends-of-fans of Starbucks spend 8% more in stores than the average Starbucks customer and transact 11% more frequently”. (Source: Fast Company: Oct 3, 2011)
3. ACTION: Convert Your Audiences
Now that you have an established (and growing) Facebook Fan Base and built out audience segments to target with Facebook you can run a Facebook CPC ads campaign with a direct response message that leads the consumer to a desired action. This campaign can build off the momentum of the first 2 cycle segments that drove Fans and inspired Engagement with the brand to build demographic targeting segments.
4. CRM: Consumer Retention
As you continue to build the fan base and loyal customers, you need to retain them and continue the conversation and build further loyalty. From here you have access to the Fans through creating a Facebook email strategy or implement contests and promotions on Facebook. Additionally, Sponsored Stories ads can be run throughout the year to not only drive new Fans or “Likes” but also to leverage positive sentiments and push those stories and wall posts to Friends of Friends as a Digital Word of Mouth (DWOM) campaign.
Conclusion:
Executing for a Series of Interactions:
The PPC Ads Facebook “Like” Cycle has the ability to continuously evolve, grow and drive results for your Brand. The “Like” Cycle requires executing placements for a SERIES of interactions that aren’t easily identified in advance, but if planned for strategically can result in more sales.
It is a complex ecosystem that takes the basics of targeting, buying and optimizing to a new level of campaigning that is dynamic, complex and potentially more rewarding. With Facebook’s movement of viewing the act of online Sharing as an indication of Value, it is a testament of the “Like” Cycle and how marketers should adapt to this new model.
Think through your own Brand’s campaign and how the “Like” Cycle fits your Brand’s needs.
Caveats:
* People can enter the cycle at any moment, not necessarily at #1.
**This cycle has many “legs” to it and doesn’t fully represent Social Media’s engagement and interaction experiences and benefits
***This cycle is a depiction of the number of ways to reach, engage and retain customers through Facebook ads and interactions. We realize this cycle is not perfect or one size fits all.
The post The Facebook “Like” Cycle appeared first on Razorfish Search.
