For many marketers, justifying a return on investment (ROI) from social media marketing can be a challenge.
The content being posted onto Facebook newsfeeds might provide a fantastic branding exposure, but at the end of the day, when you’re creating your monthly reports for clients, are you able to tell them how many new orders or additional clients came from your Facebook marketing efforts?
If your answer is no, you need to pay close attention to this post and the strategy Facebook introduced in 2013.
An Introduction to Facebook Remarketing
When Facebook remarketing was initially implemented, the ROI from newsfeed ads on Facebook increased 197% for marketers and advertisers which means if you’ve already implemented a Facebook remarketing campaign for your business or for your client, that’s fantastic, and you’re a step ahead of the game (and hopefully your competitors).
But if you’re not familiar with Facebook remarketing, pay close attention! This advertising strategy greatly helped one of our clients, and you can implement the exact same strategy to improve your own campaigns.
How It Works
With Facebook remarketing, advertisers create a custom audience that allows marketers to deliver targeted ads to people who visited their website or used their mobile app.
For instance, a bike retailer could reach people who started designing bikes on its website but didn’t make a purchase. Through Custom Audiences, the company can reach these people via desktop newsfeed ads and encourage them to come back to finish their customization and make a purchase.
American Bronzing Company—A Success Story
One of our clients, American Bronzing Company, sells Bronzed Baby Shoes. Their target audience is mothers with a child from the ages of just born to 18-months old that have outgrown their first pair of baby shoes. They have a large social media following with over 80,000 fans on Facebook.
However, in spite of their large following, no new orders were coming from Facebook until we started a Facebook remarketing campaign. They were focused on having their content featured in the newsfeed and generating page “Likes” yet weren’t driving any sales.
But once our agency implemented a Facebook remarketing campaign, it was an immediate difference maker. We were able to provide the company that has bronzed over 14 million baby shoes since 1934 with an effective online strategy that yielded an extremely low cost per acquisition.
So how’d we do it?
Top of Mind = Increased Sales
Like any ecommerce website, there are going to be people who visit your website but drop off without making a purchase. Whether they had to get groceries or pick their kids up from school, they dropped off of the website and did not buy the bronzed baby shoes, or whatever it is that you’re selling. This doesn’t mean the visitor wasn’t interested in the product. They just didn’t pull the trigger at that exact moment for one reason or another.
By creating Facebook remarketing ads, American Bronzing was able to make sure its messaging (and product) stayed top of mind with its potential customers in Facebook’s newsfeed.
The initial ads (not the remarketing ones) were driving massive amounts of traffic to the American Bronzing website so when we created our Facebook remarketing strategy, we knew that the conversion rate percentage wouldn’t be high the first time someone visited the American Bronzing website due to the fact that, the first time someone is introduced to a product, they’re not likely to make a purchase right then and there.
According to Marketing Metrics, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%. So as you can see, selling to new prospects is a tough task.
We were confident, though, that the bronzed baby shoe product was great and we had the perfect demographic targeting set up through Facebook’s ad portal. Even though we wouldn’t convert too many customers on the initial click, once they hit the American Bronzing site, they would learn valuable information about the product, and they would be served our advertisements for a 30-day timespan. We were convinced this would be a difference maker in the sales funnel.
Mind Shift—Think Long Term, Not Short Term
When you’re creating a Facebook advertising campaign, you can’t just think about whether or not someone will purchase your product or service the first time after being exposed to your ad. You need to think down the road and ask yourself, “How can I get the user to make a purchase within a 30-day timespan.”
This is a huge mind shift for most advertisers who want to convert visitors the first time they come to a site but probably won’t end up doing so.
Cost Effectiveness of Facebook Remarketing
The beauty of Facebook remarketing is that the cost per click or CPM is very cheap. For American Bronzing, after someone visited their site and clicked on the remarketing advertisement, they only pay $0.20 per click. This is amazing because the person clicking on the ad has already gone to their site and is extremely interested in the product.
The remarketing campaign for American Bronzing resulted in hundreds of conversions at a cost per acquisition just shy of $10.00. According to Columbus CEO Magazine, sales have continued to increase for American Bronzing ever since the remarketing campaign was implemented.
If you’re looking to give your PPC campaigns a boost, I highly recommend giving Facebook remarketing a try. Roughly 71% of online adults currently use Facebook which means you’ll reach a large percentage of your customers with Facebook remarketing. It ends up being a great way to keep your offer in front of prospective customers who’ve shown an interest in your product but weren’t quite ready to make a purchase.
Over to You: Have you been using Facebook remarketing to boost sales from PPC? Leave a comment to let us know how it’s working and what you’ve learned.
Author
Jason Parks is the owner of The Media Captain, a Search Engine Marketing Agency based out of Columbus, Ohio, that offers online advertising, SEO, social media, web development, and video production services.
