Facebook offers many different groups of advertisers the perfect channel for successful marketing. Despite the recognized value of Facebook today, some advertisers pay little or no attention to Facebook marketing. With Facebook's revolutionary concept of a broad online community, the profiles of many individuals intermingle with the profiles of small and large businesses, creating the ideal venue for successful marketing. To help you optimize your Facebook marketing and achieve maximum success, today's article deals with misconceptions about Facebook marketing.
1. Facebook ads are billed on a CPC basis
A common misunderstanding when running Facebook advertising campaigns is the assumption that the ads displayed are billed on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. The fact that costs are incurred when clicking on an ad is not correct! This misunderstanding is probably due to the fact that many advertisers assume that the billing of ad placements is based on CPC, as is the case with Google Ads.
However, advertising costs on Facebook are calculated on a cost-per-mille (CPM) or cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis. On Facebook, you are therefore buying impressions, not clicks or purchases. For this reason, the individual target group (CPM differs per target group) as well as the individual platform & placement (CPM also differs according to placement and platform) have a considerable influence on values such as CPC or CPO.
2. FB lies to me about the conversion numbers (FB vs GA)
Many of the misunderstandings I describe here can be traced back to insufficient knowledge, including the second misunderstanding. The second misunderstanding relates to different conversion figures in Facebook Ads Manager compared to the figures from Google Analytics. I have already explained why and why these figures differ between Facebook Ads and Google Analytics in a previous Blog post shown.
However, different conversion figures for different analytics platforms are not unusual, but the rule. The conversion attribution between Facebook and Google Analytics is fundamentally different and must therefore lead to fundamentally different figures.
3. consider Facebook as a sales channel and not as a marketing channel
As I scroll through my Facebook and Instagram feed every day, I keep realizing that advertisers don't understand the way advertising psychology works when placing ads on Facebook. Nobody signs up on Facebook or Instagram to buy a product, but to receive news from friends and acquaintances. Ads that lead directly to a macro-conversion (purchase of a product) will generally not be satisfactory.
Instead of directly targeting a conversion in the first advertising contact, an attempt should be made to generate interest and awareness and possibly generate a micro-conversion. The reason for this is relatively simple, as Facebook is a marketing platform and not necessarily a sales platform. This should be taken into account when targeting the campaign.
4. Facebook advertising works like TV advertising
Marketing managers from older times in particular, when conventional advertising (TV, print etc.) was still a growth channel, do not understand the promising mechanisms behind the placement of Facebook ads. A target group is often defined by demographic characteristics and addressed with an advertisement. Playing an ad to a heterogeneous group follows the TV commercial logic, which is not very effective in Facebook marketing.
Instead of defining target groups based solely on demographic characteristics, Facebook's sophisticated targeting functions should be used in a targeted manner to segment the population of people into homogeneous target groups. Only by segmenting the target groups can the likelihood of the ad being relevant to the target group with the ad created be increased so that it also responds to the desired targets.
For this reason, Facebook advertising does not work at all like TV advertising. Success factors for a successful Facebook campaign are the identification of the relevant target group and the creation of a relevant offer for precisely this target group.
5. facebook marketing is not suitable for B2B companies
A common misconception revolves around Facebook marketing for B2B (business-to-business) companies. It is wrongly assumed that Facebook as a channel can only be profitable for B2C (business-to-customer) marketing. An assumption that discourages B2B companies and thus deprives them of a fantastic opportunity.
It can be said that Facebook is the platform on which most professional prospects can be found. Compared to other social media platforms, the Facebook audience can be targeted on key characteristics such as job and job sector. Targeting can also be adapted to the specific interests of the audience, so that the advertising displayed to them arouses their interest in the advertised product or company. Facebook offers B2B companies many opportunities to address their target group directly.
6. targeting friends of existing fans and customers leads to the same successful conversions as previous targeting
Advertisers often believe they can save themselves time and effort by defining the friends of fans and customers as another audience. While it may make sense to assume that friends of customers find the same products and services interesting, this is usually not the case.
Why is that? The Facebook algorithm does not work accurately enough at this point to filter new potential prospects from friends. As a result, our campaigns are also displayed to profiles that are not interested in the advertising. However, in order to successfully reach the Facebook friends of our fans, our further targeting must also relate to their interests. Only then can we assume that we are addressing interested friends of the fans and customers we have already acquired.
7. maximum targeting leads to the best possible results
This aspect may initially contradict the previously mentioned misunderstandings, but I hope that you will understand why overly precise targeting can also be counterproductive in many situations. The assumption that most new customers are acquired with the help of very precise targeting is wrong. Laser targeting leads to addressing the most potential prospects. However, these are not the same as the people who actually click on the advertisement displayed. The Facebook algorithm is designed to maximize conversions and increase traffic. The major disadvantage of targeting that is too specific is that it reduces the target group so that the remaining audience does not contain enough people to be addressed. Targeting that is too specific also leads to increased CPMs compared to somewhat looser targeting.
8 Likes are crucial for the success of a company
The constantly growing importance of likes leads to the attitude that likes are also crucial for companies. However, especially on Facebook, companies should invest their time in the processing of campaigns. Contrary to what is assumed, it is not the Facebook Likes but the Facebook campaigns of a company that are the most influential factors for conversions, app installs and the general traffic of the company's Facebook profile.
It is important to know that profiles of the likes made do not automatically become customers of our product or service. By focusing on the actual Facebook marketing in the form of campaigns, you often also receive the additional Likes from future fans and customers as a side effect.
Conclusion:
Around the topic Facebook Marketing misunderstandings that prevent advertisers from realizing their full potential. I hope this article has taught you something new on this topic. Watch out for these misconceptions in your future Facebook marketing and hopefully you will enjoy greater success.
