Facebook offers brands the ability to reach 1.9 billion active users through targeted advertising and content. Brands can use Facebook to increase awareness, drive engagement, convert users to specific goals like newsletter signups, and increase sales. Effective strategies include creating compelling page content like videos and customer testimonials, developing personas for targeted advertising, and measuring key metrics like cost per click to optimize campaigns over time.

1. FACEBOOK FOR BRANDS
sameer shah
may 9, 2017

2. why facebook?
■ 1.9 Billion active users worldwide (Feb 2017)1
■ Nearly 2 Billion active daily users as of Q1 2017, 1.74 B
mobile active users3
■ early 2016: more than half of the US population using
FB2
■ all of those users have voluntarily provided tons of
information about their likes, dislikes, brand preferences,
food choices….the list goes on and on
1Zephoria Digital Marketing 4Statsita
2emarketer.com
3”Marketing Dive” newsletter
Facebook active users by
quarter, 2008-20174
All this means that facebook offers a brand the ability to target and reach
customers in a unique and unprecedented way!
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

3. what specific goals can a brand achieve on
facebook?
■ awareness – increasing the number of people that know your brand
■ engagement – getting people to learn about and interact with your brand
■ conversion to a specific objective like signing up for a newsletter
■ sales – driving traffic to online purchasing, coupon downloads, store locator queries,
online discounts and offers
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

4. a little about me…
■ background
– Independent marketing consultant
– VP of Marketing, Smart Flour Foods, 2014-2017
– Marketing at Dell, social media certified
– Product marketing at Yardi Systems
– Operations and finance
– Texas A&M
■ focus areas
– Bridging brands’ marketing needs
– Brand strategy & development
– Marketing strategy and execution
– Social media strategy and execution
– Event strategy and optimization
– Packaging reviews/regulatory compliance
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

5. terminology
■ facebook page/business page - your brand’s facebook profile, just like your personal profile page – this
page contains all of your company’s information and updates
– Next to your website, this is where people go to learn about your company
■ posts - just like your personal page, these are updates that you can share as often as you like and may
contain any combination of text, photos and videos
– Anyone who visits the page will see posts
– New posts push older ones down, but you can “pin” important posts to the top of the page
– Posts won’t show up in fans’ newsfeeds, however, without paying to “boost”
■ likes/fans – synonyms for people who have proactively expressed interest in your page and want to see
updates in their news feed
■ boosted posts - posts that you paid money to promote
– For posts to show up in your fans’ newsfeeds, you must pay (organic reach is very limited)
■ organic reach – views, likes, and shares of a post that occurred without the brand paying to promote
■ paid reach - views, likes, and shares of a post achieved by paying to promote
■ ads – similar to boosted posts, but ads achieve more specific goals and have more stringent
requirements. Ads will NOT show up on your page
■ audience - the targeted group of people selected to see a boosted post or ad
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

6. elements of a good facebook page
■ compelling imagery both in the banner image and shared photos
■ clear and concise summary
– A first time visitor should quickly and easily know what it is a brand sells and does
■ correct category – don’t overlook this even though it’s simple
■ fresh posts and content
■ consistency with company/product branding
■ left bar content: email signup, featured products, customized content, other social feeds,
etc.
■ customized welcome tab – a place for new visitors
■ examples: Elli Quark, Chobani, Stiles Switch BBQ and Brew, Nutella
If you need help creating your Facebook page, there are online solutions that can help, like
Pagemodo, FBiframes, and TabSite. Many of these are inexpensive, just a few dollars a
month.
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

7. how important are likes?
■ less important than they used to be
■ organic reach is limited in today’s pay to play facebook environment
■ likes do, however, indicate a brand’s presence or stature and buyers look at that
■ similar to pretty much everything else on facebook, likes must be purchased
(generating organic likes is tough)
– Estimate about $0.15 - $0.35/like
***Whether a brand chooses to pursue likes or not, don’t waste time on “fake” likes –
only pursue likes that are authentic and relevant to the brand!
**Use Facebook’s Insights to analyze your audience and learn more about the people
following you
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

8. content strategy – general thoughts
■ create a short video that features the founder(s) and employees talking about the brand
and products. customer testimonials are HUGE
■ don’t post daily, and not more than once a day. post a few times a week but make sure
that when you post, it’s on point and worthwhile.
■ proofread every post and avoid typos
■ know your audience
– Map out buyer personas: men? Women? Moms? Age group?
– You may have more than 1 key buyer persona
■ pictures are worth a thousand words. videos are worth even
more.
■ tell your company’s story, be authentic…determine your
brand’s voice(s) stick to them
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

9. content strategy – thirds
Posts about
your
product
General news &
information that
relate to your
space, but not
directly to your
product
fun posts that may or may
not tie to your product
• Images of the product
• Product information
• New product news, retail
outlets, “did you know”,
etc.
• Discounts, sales,
coupons
• Events
• Pertinent health news
• Information about the ingredients
(benefits of grass fed beef or why
non-gmo is so important)
• Gluten-free studies and news
• Holiday posts
• Happy Friday
• Office goings on
• Cute memes or other fun
posts copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

10. advertising overview
■ boosted posts are like a type of ad, but they don’t drive specific objectives the way ads do
■ facebook ads offer a variety of objectives:
– Awareness: brand awareness, reach (like ads fall in this category)
– Consideration: Traffic, app installs, engagement, video views, lead generation
– Conversions: Product catalog sales, store visits
■ common ways for brands to use ads
– drive people to your product on Amazon, along with an offer code for a discount
– drive relevant users to your company website to learn more and/or download a coupon
– general awareness – images of our product packaging with clever text
– boosted posts – new stores: “guess what? we’re sold in Wal Mart now!”
■ ad content is usually image or video, with limited text
– Facebook will not allow ads that contain more than 20% text in the image
■ audience
– each ad can be targeted to a different audience
– Audience example: Moms, age 25-55, above a certain income, residence a certain geographic area,
interested in organic foods, likes Sprouts and Trader Joe’s
■ responding – answer questions to ads in a timely fashion, like any social media inquiry
FB ads can
automatically
show up on
Instagram!
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

11. ad examples
about 90 characters
here
a little
more
space
here
everything gets
condensed in
mobile
***Ads created in FB will automatically show up in Instagram if you link your accounts
good
use of
text in
image
call to
action
can
vary
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

12. measurement and ROI
■ key metrics for a boosted post
– Reach – number of people to whom post was presented
– Impressions – number of times ad was shown (will be higher than reach because some will have seen
post more than once)
– Organic reach/paid reach
– Comments, shares, and likes
■ key metrics for ads
– Reach and impressions
– Cost per click, lead, or other objective (cost per like, for example)
– Cost per impression
– Ad relevance – measure of positive and negative responses to the ad. 1 is lowest,
10 is highest.
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

13. example results screen
Don’t forget, this is an iterative process, so leave time and budget
for trial and error!
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

14. interpreting metrics
■ lower cost per click or CPC is better, with caveats
– A more refined audience may require a greater cost per click, but those clicks
might be more meaningful
■ make note of reach, but don’t focus on it
– FB tells you the expected reach when you launch the ad, just make sure it’s in line
■ Ultimately: are you achieving your original goal?
– Are sales increasing?
– Are more people searching for your products?
– Are people visiting your site spending more time (avg session length increasing)?
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

15. other topics
we can’t get into all these today but are worth further discussion:
■ offers
■ tracking pixels
■ look alike audiences
■ split testing ads (new FB feature)
■ google analytics
■ tying other social media platforms together with FB
■ facebook’s ad creation tools
■ images and image sourcing
■ facebook live
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

16. resources for further information
■ jon loomer – jonloomer.com – advanced facebook marketers
■ social media examiner - socialmediaexaminer.com
■ facebook’s own guides and videos
■ me – you can reach me at sdshah75@gmail.com or 512-705-5190
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah

17. Thank you!
copyright 2017 Sameer Shah