There are a host of objectives social media advertising can fulfil. We have recently seen great success in utilising Facebook Ads to encourage community engagement.
Why are Facebook ads useful in increasing engagement?
Thanks to complex Facebook algorithms it can often be difficult to get content seen by your followers, let alone enabling it to be discoverable by people who have never heard of you.
By ‘paying to play’ you’re able to lift your brand’s head above the virtual parapet. And if your objective is to increase engagement with a niche audience rather than sell to them, Facebook Ads are a great option – and you don’t need a big budget to take advantage. Here are our top tips from working with clients of all sizes to drive engagement with local communities on Facebook.
Get granular with your targeting
You can make your media budget work harder for you by getting really niche with your targeting.
You can do this by using tight geographic location targeting like community arts group Things Made Public did when they needed to engage local people about a new mural project: https://www.climbingtrees.com/project/things-made-public/
If location is less important, you can still get specific by utilising demographic and user interest data when setting up your Facebook campaign.
Carousel adverts
Carousel Ads contain a series of images called cards. Each card is clickable and would normally feature a clear call to action on the last image. Carousels are great to encourage engagement because you have more real estate to get your message across in a creative and compelling way.
Carousels allow you to build intrigue by encouraging the user to scroll to the end and allow for greater storytelling possibilities.
Ask for opinions in your messaging
Your advert’s messaging is a key success factor. Be clear about what you want your audience to do. A great way to encourage engagement with your community is to ask for their opinion.
Open with a strong, emotive rally cry that speaks directly to your audience, then ask them to use their voice for something they care about.
Check out how our client Things Made Public engaged their local community with this compelling messaging.
Drive to something interactive
Make every click count and link your users to something interactive where they can have an opinion and engage with your brand. This could be via a survey, signing up to join a free webinar or community event, but make sure there is a way to capture their thoughts and open a discussion.
This is not the time to drive traffic to your homepage. Make sure wherever you send your community there is an opportunity for them to be active rather than passive observers.
We work with brands of all shapes and sizes to create engaging Facebook Advertising campaigns.
Find out more about our approach to Facebook Advertising or get in touch.