This document discusses the advantages of using paid social media, specifically Facebook, as part of a referral traffic strategy. It notes that Facebook has over 1.23 billion monthly active users and that advertising allows businesses to reach an engaged audience. It provides examples of different types of Facebook ads and how they can be used for various goals like brand awareness, promotions, and conversions. It also discusses best practices for targeting audiences and optimizing campaigns, including ways to retarget website visitors and encourage user retention through social media connections.

1. ADVANTAGES OF PAID SOCIAL
AS PART OF YOUR REFERRAL
TRAFFIC STRATEGY
Jo Rogel
Digital Marketing Strategist
February 2014

2. WHY ADVERTISE ON FACEBOOK?
● 1.23 billion monthly active users (12/31/13)
● 45 million monthly active users who used Facebook mobile
products (12/31/13)
● Advertising with social context -- added influence and
validation from friends and family
● Reaching an engaged audience -- opportunities for users to
Like, Comment and Share on content
● Facebook users are content consumers -- they typically stay
longer on site and visit more pages

3. WHY ADVERTISE ON FACEBOOK?
● Ad Types for Different Goals
○ Brand Awareness / Community Building
○ Engagement and Interaction
○ Conversion / Event Signups
○ Promoting Desktop & Mobile Apps
○ Traffic to website
● Multiple placements
○ Desktop News Feed
○ Mobile News Feed
○ Right-Hand Side
● Sophisticated Targeting
○ Interests / Demographics / Geography / Behavior
○ Third-Party Data
○ Devices and Operating Systems

4. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
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Generating demand for new products on the market
Lead generation
Closeout sales
Greater reach for high-quality content and news
Exploring beyond usual audiences
Nonprofit events - gaining more support/participation
Increasing adoption for new mobile apps

5. NOT IMMEDIATE CONVERSION CHANNEL

6. FACEBOOK AD MANAGER
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Set up billing and funding sources
View associated Facebook pages
Create and manage campaigns and ads

7. SELF SERVE AD PLATFORM
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Simple interface allows you to create ads based on objective
Add creative, copy and set targeting and bids in one location

8. POWER EDITOR
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Create and manage multiple ads and campaigns faster with streamlined interface
Copy/paste functionality to duplicate campaigns
Make and upload changes to account

9. PAGE LIKE AD

10. PAGE POST LINK

11. PAGE PHOTO POST

12. PAGE VIDEO POST

13. INTEREST TARGETING
● Based on actual user
behavior and activity
recorded in social graph
● Keywords can be
selected from broad
categories or specific
interests
● Use specific interests to
narrow down on very
specific audiences

14. PARTNER CATEGORIES
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Datalogix, Acxiom, Epsilon
Demographics
Lifestyle
Purchase / transaction
history Behavior
Income
Hobbies & Activities
Politics
Charitable causes

15. CUSTOM & LOOKALIKE AUDIENCES
Facebook allows you to upload
customer information, which it hashes
to create an audience that can be used
for narrowly targeted ads. Advertisers
who use custom audiences have
reported significant increases in fan
acquisition, click-through rates and
engagement.
Lookalike Audiences are users who
aren’t already in your databases, but
are similar to those who are.
Advertisers using this feature have
reported decreases in fan acquisition
costs and significant increases in
returns on ad spend.

16. BEST PRACTICES
● If you have a large budget, create and test multiple ads
with different creative for different interest groups to
see how they perform against each other
○ This helps identify high-return, low-cost groups and
eliminate groups that are eating ad spend
● If your budget is small, group relevant interests together
across less ads to create “personas” to advertise to
○ Still allows you to achieve your goals, but may be
difficult to narrow down which targets are performing

17. BEST PRACTICES
● Do not group multiple ads with different targeting in a single
campaign -- you won’t get a true performance test
○ The ad platform won’t give ads in a single campaign an
equal run -- it’s best to build one campaign, one ad if you
are testing different audience groups
● Experiment with Optimized CPM -- maximizes budgets by
allowing you to prioritize spend by:
○
Actions
○ Clicks
○ Reach
○ Social Impressions

18. FBX (RETARGETING ADS)
Working with vendors, it is possible to run retargeting ads on
Facebook, including on the News Feed and Right Hand Side

19. WEBSITE CUSTOM AUDIENCES
● Facebook allows for the
creation of a custom
audience from visitors to
your website
● Install code and Facebook
will begin to track and
make the audience
available for use in the ad
platform
● Good alternative to
retargeting ads for small
businesses

20. USER RETENTION
● After you get users to reach your site, reduce
your future spending by getting them to
connect with you and visit through organic
means.
○ Popular tools:
○ Like Button connected to Facebook page
○ Like Box for Facebook page (better for blogs)
○ Modal prompt requesting Like -- aggressive, but
effective

21. EXAMPLES

22. EXAMPLES

23. WRAPUP / TAKEAWAYS
● Facebook is a great platform because it delivers highquality traffic
● Users are ready to consume and engage with content,
and remain longer on site
● After establishing viable audiences, work to retain them
as organic visitors by encouraging them to connect with
your social properties
● Continue to reach them with engaging content and
enticing offers
● Use retargeting or website audiences to advertise to
people that visited your site

24. ?