Between 2019 and 2020, the number of Facebook users worldwide is expected to increase from 1.62 billion users to 1.69 billion users. While Instagram may seem to be taking over, as of now, Facebook is still the most-used social media platform. So how can you make sure your marketing efforts don’t get lost in all the noise? As you prepare your Facebook marketing strategy for 2020, focus on high-quality content, careful audience targeting, video, and the most important metrics.
High-quality content
In 2019, “Facebook consumption is extremely passive, and attention spans are short,” says Susa Moeller at BuzzSumo points out. “You need to be able to grab people’s attention quickly and effectively if you want to be noticed.”
To grab and keep attention, post high-quality content that doesn’t include a lot of fluff. The key is to convey helpful or entertaining information without the audience having to dig for it. Not every post should be strictly under 50 words. It’s better to have a long post that is packed full of exactly what your audience wants than a short post that they don’t care about.
How can you tell what your audience cares about? One thing that’ll keep you on track is calculating engagement rates by dividing your number of post Likes, comments, and shares by the total number of followers on your page.
You can come up with your own system, but for an example, we could say Likes are worth one point, comments are worth five, and shares are worth ten. If you have a post that got 89 likes, four comments, and two shares, you’d divide your 129 points by your 307 total followers. Your engagement rate would be 42 percent. As you do this for a few different posts, you’ll get a feel for what your audience likes best. The higher the number, the more engaged they were, so post more stuff like that!
Careful Audience Targeting
With almost 2 billion users on Facebook and counting, targeting is a must. If your ads are reaching people who aren’t like to turn into customers, you’re wasting your money.
Facebook recently changed their options for audience targeting, and more changes are likely coming. For example, users may have the ability to “essentially clear their browsing history on the platform” by the end of 2019. This could make it harder for marketers to target the right audience in 2020. But for now, when you’re boosting a post or creating an ad on Facebook, you can target by location, age, gender, interests, and other relevant attributes. And we don’t predict that this functionality will go away next year.
Of course, how you need to target varies by your business and audience. This interesting article takes a look at how eleven different industries can narrow down their core audiences on Facebook. One suggestion for those in the insurance industry is to target the demographic of parents with adult children. Then you could narrow it down further to parents of adults who are interested in investment, retirement, and financial planning.
There are tons of tips and tricks for narrowing down your audience. Here are a couple of our favorite suggestions to check out if you’re not already taking advantage of them:
- Facebook pixel. This analytics tool helps you create Facebook Custom Audiences and target Facebook users who have visited your website.
- Lookalike Audiences. This feature allows you to build lists of potential clients who share characteristics with your existing customers.
- Audience Insights. This tool gives you data about your target demographic and can help you tailor your posts to their interests.
The bottom line is this: make sure you’re targeting, and make it a priority. It takes thought and research, but getting specific about your audience is well worth it as your cost per conversion spend decreases.
Video
Social media posts with video have 48 percent more views than posts without. Forty-eight percent! You’ve probably noticed that your video posts get more engagement, but if you’re not consistently posting video, imagine the impact that could have on your social engagement overall.
Consider incorporating video into your ads. Showing up on viewers’ News Feeds, Stories, or as in-stream ads for longer videos, video ads can show what your product or service in action. And that does wonders, because 64 percent of viewers are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video.
Pro tip: “If the video is yours, load it up natively to Facebook. If the video belongs to someone else, look for it on Facebook and share it from the original owner’s upload.” Facebook prefers native videos to third-party videos, making them look more attractive to click on and more likely to show up in a News Feed.
And a second pro tip: According to BuzzSumo data, Facebook videos between 3 and 5 minutes perform best.
While Facebook is losing popularity among Gen Z, it’s still a growing and important platform for the rest of the population. (As Isobel Asher Hamilton at Business Insider observed, “Luckily for Facebook, it owns Instagram.”) Focus on high-quality content, careful audience targeting, and video to make sure your Facebook marketing strategy is staying ahead of the curve as we look forward to 2020.