First, let’s understand why UK businesses should be concerned about using Facebook.
The UK is the largest market for Facebook in Europe. Followed by France with 32 million users, and Italy and Germany with 30 million and 28 million respectively.
2019 there were 39 Million users in the UK, now currently there are over 44 million Facebook users in the UK, with its userbase still making considerable growth over time.
To put that into context that’s over half the UK’s total population, with 66 percent who are Facebook users. So if you’re small to medium business then this is a perfect way to reach your potential customers and scale up your business.
Facebook is used daily, more than once by 44 percent of the UK’s online population, with 79 Percent of all UK adults who go online using the platform.
In 2020, the largest age group using Facebook in the UK was 25 to 34-year-olds, with 11.2 million users, so the old misconception that it’s just a platform for kids and teens is totally invalid.
Facebook is packed full of people from all walks of life and demographics that make up the population of the UK. This includes both general consumers and business professionals alike. So no matter what your business niche or industry is, from selling Clothing to Construction Services you will be able to find and target your ideal target customer or client.
Now also consider the current Covid-19 situation, with the UK heading into its second wave. This is placing an even greater strain on UK Business as further lockdown restrictions come into place. Facebook presents a great opportunity for businesses to continue to communicate, reach and serve their customers online despite physical restrictions.
Now here’s the problem, 62% of small businesses feel like their paid Facebook Ads are failing.
No one wants to be throwing money at ads that don’t work! What good is such a massive pool of potential customers if you can’t successfully reach them?
So Why is using Facebook Ads so difficult to get right for many small businesses?
Unclear Strategy, No Specific Goals
Like with any other marketing and advertising medium, Facebook is used for specific purposes. Without a proper goal and or strategy in place, the ads are bound to fail. The pounds you pay for them doesn’t matter.
To get the most out of Facebook advertising, you must set clear goals. What do you expect Facebook ads to do for you?
- Raise brand awareness
- Bring in leads
- Retarget interested prospects
Studies by Manta found that 72% of respondents use Facebook to achieve the goal of raising brand awareness. Facebook’s user-generated content and active user participation through likes, share and comments make it a great platform for building a new brand from the ground up. For existing businesses, it also gives a great way of retaining existing customers, as 36% of respondents to the Manta study said.
Wrong Use of Content Marketing
Facebook Paid ads aren’t a magic solution that will conger up cash out of a hat. They have to be used tactically and with a precision approach to your campaigns.
Content marketing is the force behind the success of Facebook ads. Paid ads give your high-quality content a thrust that will make it visible to a larger audience. So, if your content is poor quality, even paying a ransom for making it visible is not going to work. As a result, your ROI will fall short.
To make content marketing work, you must produce high-quality content consistently. Wisemetrics reports that 75% of the engagement you get on your posts happens within the first 5 hours. The Chart below shows how the reach, impressions, and engagement pans out throughout the life of a Facebook post.
Targeting the Wrong Audience
The problem with Facebook ads is that it gives massive reach, but the conversions will still be poor if you don’t select and target the correct audience.
Facebook Ads gives business owners the ability to set the exact preferences of their target audience. You can even set the filters down to specific geographic locations, age, gender, interest and so on.
If you are going to run Facebook ads with generic audience segmentation, then your ads are bound to fail. You will still get plenty of impressions for your ads, but the conversion rate could still be in the red.
To make a Facebook ad successful you have to hit the sweet spot of the right target audience, the perfect content, ad copy or visual and also test them continuously.
If you are facing difficulty trying to figure out the right audience for your ad, try using the Audience Insights feature available on Facebook for business.
Trying too Hard For Cold Sales
Facebook is a social platform. It is not just a marketplace. You can meet people, befriend them and potentially turn them into customers. If you are trying to immediately sell to someone you don’t know, has never heard of you or your brand, it’s going to backfire, you have to first nurture and develop your prospects before going in for the sale.
Customers see Facebook as a channel to interact and stay connected with a brand. They are not keen on been sold to straight away. So don’t just jump into cold sales. Instead, use it as a medium to be visible to customers and warm them up.
Facebook Ads are a three-step process of 1) Awareness, 2) Consideration and 3) Conversion.
For interested prospects, use remarketing to increase their purchase intent. That will help boost the conversion rates of the ads. As Search Engine People found, such remarketing tactics are 4x more likely to convert than new customers.
The whole sales cycle and the process is a funnel.
62% of businesses are unable to get ROI from Facebook ads. But you don’t have to be part of that majority. You can stand out, follow some of the best practices and make Facebook ads work for you.
Remember, it is not Facebook Ads that is at fault, but how it’s used that fails. If used correctly it can work as a powerful lead generation machine. If you would like to get a complete done for you solution for your Facebook Ads we can help.
Wait! If it sounds like too much to handle alone and you want to take the guesswork out of Facebook Ads, then help is at hand… Social media Authority provides cost-effective, managed Facebook Ad solutions for lead generation and online sales for B2B and B2C businesses. You select your budget and we’ll do the rest. Click here to book a call and get a free Facebook Ads assessment for your business today. Find out how many leads and sales you could be getting each month.
