(5 minutes read)
First, we will define what business to business marketing means: “Commercial transaction between an organisation and other organisation (inter-organisational marketing).” (Dave Chaffey, 2012).
1. Why have we decided to orientate on business to business ads for Facebook?
Mostly, when we are talking about Facebook ads, we are referring to Business to Customer (B2C) advertising. Facebook is very efficient in doing so, but why not also for B2B?
If we look at statistics by Statista -in 2017 Facebook was the most popular social network in Ireland. Also, among all users of social networks, more than 60% of Facebook users use it daily.
2. How business decision-makers spend their time on Facebook?
Business decision makers spend 74% more time on Facebook than average users. It means they are much more engaged in the platform then average users. It is also good to know that business decision-makers spend 15% of their time on desktop, while the average user spends 10%, and 60% of their Facebook time they spend on mobile. Decision-makers have more friends than average Facebook users, more than 200 friends on average. Also, they are more likely to engage with content than average users.
3. How do we reach our targeted business decision makers?
Many people would say that Facebook in work is just a distraction, and probably it is, but in this “break” we can offer them something that is worthwhile for them – something that will catch their interest and increase their knowledge. We have to create content worthy of their time.
B2B marketers want to increase their knowledge and awareness of products or services, reach decision-makers, get contact information, get leads and pass them onto sales.
4. What should we know about B2B persona to make an effective ad?
We should know their personal characteristics, company role, work and career goals, work challenges, tasks and key messages.
Through Facebook ads, it’s very easy to customize the audience and target the right persona.
Facebook has 1.4 million users monthly if you know who your persona is, it is easy to target them. How ads appear for them depends on what you have paid.
Use a custom audience list for your ad. If you already have an e-mail list of your potential customers you can target them through a Facebook ad. Make sure you distinguish your current followers from new ones, so as not to target them with the same information.
You can also target B2B work categories. If you use Facebook you can target them by gender, location, age and you can also target them by important life events, or even by posts of a new job title.
People who have just changed job tend to be more open toward new ideas because they usually want to show their abilities and knowledge to a new employer.
Also, if you know who your audience is you can target people who work for specific companies or the ones who work in specific positions – such as managers or team leaders.
We can also automatically target people with new jobs in specific roles and this way we don’t have to spend extra money making a new ad.
When making a B2B ad you should focus on lead generation and making it attractive. B2C marketing is about offering products and services and convincing them to buy so B2B should use similar tactics.
A good interactive landing page is essential for generating leads. You should lead your customer through your products and services as if you are telling a story, so as to make it interesting for them and to hold their interest longer. Also, when promoting, HubSpot recommends using contrasting colors for products when formatting and designing your landing page, to lead customers toward converting.
The most important thing for any company is content, even more so for B2B!
When creating content as previously mentioned, we should add value by sharing information such as product demonstrations and Q and A sessions. If leads are still not ready to buy encourage them to give you an e-mail address by offering them incentives such as a free trial or an e-book if they sign up. Once we get them to sign up for a free trial, there is a bigger chance they will buy products or services.
Also, we should try to up-sell products by advertising upgrades on items we know they bought.
Last key thing that we have to have in mind is how to re-target lost leads. Facebook has many options that can help you catch again the attention of your “lost” customer, also by using again custom audience.
To conclude, we can say Facebook is proven to be efficient at B2C advertising, this power can also be harnessed for B2B advertising. Many businesses still haven’t realized the full potential of Facebook advertising or fully explored this vast area.
It is out of crucial importance to create valuable content for the right persona.
Author: Borka Hajdin
Published: 15.10.2019.