Social Mixer 2024 Singapore
marketing interactive Content360 Singapore 2024 Content360 Singapore 2024
marketing interactive

Things you need to know about Facebook ads

share on

Facebook has become an essential tool for brands to connect with their audience. This is especially crucial in Southeast Asia (SEA), a region with 241 million Facebook users. Facebook users in SEA frequently engage with brands; those in Thailand and Singapore send nearly twice as many messages to businesses compared to the global average. Malaysians send 50 per cent more.With SEA responsible for a large part of Facebook’s growth in active advertisers, you could already be one of those advertisers — reaching out to a new or existing customer through social advertising. However, the basic functions of social advertising — such as customising ads to a user’s browsing habits — could unknowingly lead to irrelevant ads. An example of this would be showing a customer an ad promoting a discounted item that they purchased at full price. Apart from finding your ad irrelevant, the customer will be likely upset with the failed attempt at a customer service follow-up.To overcome such scenarios and create the best experience, brands need to ensure more individualised and personal content. This is made possible by having social advertising in sync with other channels and campaigns, aiming to exponentially increase the overall impact and return on investment (ROI) of your marketing efforts. Facebook is already offering marketers the opportunity to target the right customers at the right time, but many are still not taking advantage.The question is how? Well here’s a secret: it’s not difficult to implement, and you can do it yourself starting right now with data you already have.On average, Facebook users check their accounts up to 15 times per day. Why not engage with your customers where they are? You already have your website visitors, subscribers, purchasers, and high lifetime-value customers — not to mention your loyalty program members. You have the data. It’s time to act on it.Facebook Custom Audiences is a tool that promises to make it easier for advertisers to sell to current customers by strengthening their existing connections, rather than looking for new ones. This is an extremely powerful tool, especially if used to its full potential.Advertising on social media can help you achieve:Pre-targeting: Create a brand awareness campaign targeted at specific customer segments prior to launching an exclusive sale. You already have a sales email list, so why not run a few teaser ads prior to the sale in those customers’ Facebook feeds? This should help to drive a higher click-through rate for emails they receive.Re-targeting: Create specific social ad segments based on levels of engagement with your emails, such as subscribers who have:Never openedOpened but didn’t clickOpened frequently but didn’t clickOpened, clicked but didn’t convertThis will help increase your campaign reach and effectiveness by leveraging social platforms, while keeping your advertising costs to a minimum. A potential customer might have not clicked on your email simply because they were too busy when you sent it. Using social ads in this way will ensure that you’re expanding the number of opportunities your customers have to respond to your campaign.Reactivation campaigns: We all have those loyal customers who, for one reason or another, stop opening our emails. Perhaps you said something that inadvertently upset them, or maybe they changed email address. Try sending compelling social ads to subscribers who haven’t opened your emails in a while, or worse, unsubscribed. Include a juicy offer to get them back to your website to update their contact details or re-subscribe.Cart and browse abandonment ads: These targeted ads will usually be less expensive than regular ads. Recognising that you have a pre-existing relationship with the individual, Facebook and other platforms reward you with cheaper rates because they want their users to have a good experience on their platform. Think of it like calling someone you already know versus cold-calling a stranger.These people know and like you; you’re not trying to convert a new customer, you’re targeting an existing one. You know the person, where you stand with them, and what they’ve purchased in the past. Using social ads, you can group customers into segments to do very sophisticated targeting that they will be more likely to respond to.Going back to the customer who was shown an ad for a recently purchased item, you can target an ad to a custom audience that bought the item. For the sake of argument, let’s say it was a red dress. You don’t want to target them with ads showing the red dress they've recently purchased. Instead, target that group with accessories or items related to the dress to encourage a follow-up purchase. Perhaps you sell a matching pair of shoes or related product by the same designer that could get the customer back on your site and shopping again.Targeting a social advertising campaign at existing customers is relatively easy. All it will cost you is the time it takes to create the pre-decided custom audience and then of course the cost of placing the ads.Keep in mind that your audience has to be updated and refreshed with your latest offerings regularly. If you don’t keep this information up to date, it can result in a confusing or downright bad customer experience. Your customers might start to see old or irrelevant ads or the same ads over and over again. After all, there’s nothing worse than seeing an ad with a discount for a dress you just bought at full price!The writer is Benjamin Glynn, managing director for Southeast Asia at Emarsys. 

share on

Follow us on our Telegram channel for the latest updates in the marketing and advertising scene.
Follow

Free newsletter

Get the daily lowdown on Asia's top marketing stories.

We break down the big and messy topics of the day so you're updated on the most important developments in Asia's marketing development – for free.

subscribe now open in new window