Facebook Marketing in 2022: A Very Complete Guide

Facebook marketing is not optional. Facebook is the most popular social platform in the world with 2.29 billion active users each day.

It’s not just about vacation photos and humblebrags. Social media is the primary source of brand research for 53.2% (16-24) of internet users. 66% of Facebook users visit a local business Page at most once a week.

Truth is, you must be on Facebook.

But what should you first do? Do you have to run ads What should you post? Is creating a business page a sign that you’re in this metaverse?

All your questions will be answered, and a step-by–step guideline to get you started on your Facebook marketing journey.

What is Facebook marketing?

Facebook marketing is the practice and strategy of promoting a brand or business on Facebook. It can be used to increase brand awareness, build an online following, collect leads, and sell more products and services.

Facebook marketing strategies can include:

• Organic text, photos, or video content
• Paid text, photo, and video content (or “boosted”)
• Reels and Stories on Facebook
• Facebook ads
• Facebook Groups
• Giveaways and contests
• Chatbots and auto-responders for Facebook Messenger
• Influencer marketing campaigns

How to set up Facebook business

Facebook marketing is free for those with a low or no budget.

Optionally, you can accelerate your growth with paid services, like Facebook ads, boosted content, or influencer/partnership campaigns.

Let’s begin at the beginning: your business’ Facebook page. You need a Facebook Page, whether you do this only and share organic content or you follow the rest of this article.

Create a Facebook Business page

1. Sign in to Facebook using your personal account. Your personal information will not be visible on your Page. However, you can create a new Facebook account with an email address from work if you wish.

2. Click the nine dots at the right to open the menu. Next, click Create and then Page.

3. Enter:

Name: The name of your business

b. Type to see all options. For example, “retail” and “restaurant”.

c. Description One or two sentences that describe your business. This can be edited later.

4. Congrats! Your Page is now live. To edit your Page Info , add to your About section, add website URLs, and more, click Edit page Info . Later in this article, I will cover how to optimize your new Page.

Verify your Facebook account (optional).

It’s not necessary, but it can be helpful. How can you get that little blue mark like the cool brands?

Verified Pages are pages that Facebook has verified to confirm that the brand or person is who they claim to be. It conveys trust, which is important as 72% of Facebook users distrust it.

The process of getting verified is very simple. Facebook verifies only Pages and profiles belonging to businesses or well-known individuals.

Although it can be difficult to verify a personal profile, it is possible for businesses of any size, especially if they have a physical address. It is important to ensure that your proof of identity links are not promotional and are from reliable sources.

For more tips, check out our complete Facebook verification guide.

Optional: Open a Facebook ads account

Even if you don’t intend to use it immediately, it is a smart idea to create a Facebook ads account.

Once you have created a business page, you can go to Facebook Ads Manager (now part the Meta Business Suite). You can either add an existing Facebook ads account, or follow the prompts for creating a new one.

You can now create an automated campaign, start a campaign from scratch, promote existing Page content, or create a new campaign.

Are you unsure if Facebook ads are right for you? This article will give you tips on how and when to start.

7 steps to create a Facebook marketing strategy

1. Define your audience

Before you do anything, it is important to first identify your ideal customer and what they want from Facebook. Next, create a content and marketing strategy based on that.

This is what every article on social media marketing states.

…Because it’s true.

The following questions will help you to identify your target audience:

• Which age range do they fall within?
• Where are they located?
• What job responsibilities or jobs do they have? (This is the most relevant for B2B brands.
• What problem does [your industry/product] have? (And what is your solution?
• How and when do they use Facebook to communicate with each other? (At work, at home, or doom scrolling before going to bed?

Are you unsure where to begin? You can check out Audience insights within Meta Business Suite if you already have Facebook followers to see the demographics for your existing audience.

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Meta’s Insights section offers more than just basic information. It also includes:

• Education attainment
• Status of the relationship
• Localization
• Hobbies and interests
• Languages spoken
• Statistics on Facebook usage
• Past purchase activity

Do your data match up with the customers that you want? Great, keep up the great work. You’re not so sure? You can adjust your content strategy to suit your needs and monitor your Insights to find out what works to shift your audience to the one that you want.

If you are interested in Facebook advertising, this data can also be used for ad targeting.

Are you ready to dig deeper? Here’s how you can get all the geeky information you need from Facebook Audience Intelligs.

2. Define your goals

What are you looking for in followers? What do you want them doing? Most companies will answer “Buy something”

It’s not always about the money. Other common goals for a Facebook page are:

• Increase brand awareness
• Customer service can be improved
• Keep your brand consistent across social media
• Traffic to a physical location

Your overall marketing strategy will determine your Facebook marketing goals. (Need a refresher? We have a free template for your marketing plan.

This post will give you more advice than usual. It will help you set social media goals and measure them.

3. Plan your content strategy

This is not something you should overcomplicate. Your content strategy is:

• What you’ll write
• When will you post it?

What to write

Do you want to share behind-the scenes glimpses of your work? Will you offer exclusive discounts? Will you be more focused on business or include fun and games?

You can let your imagination run wild with new ideas. Just kidding. You’re going to post what your audience wants. Based on all the research you did in step 1.

Creativity is encouraged. You can combine what you know about your target audience and what you believe will work well. (Psst! We’ve done the research on all the top social media trends so that you don’t have.

Your Facebook content strategy can be thought of as a series of buckets. Each bucket represents a topic.

Take, for example:

• Industry news
• News from the company
• Tuesday Tips: A tutorial for your software.
• Reviews/testimonials
• Promotions and new products

You get the idea. You know what makes creativity more fun? Rules!

Here are some classic social media content strategies to consider:

• Therules of thirds : A third of your content should be your ideas/stories. One third should be direct interaction with your audience and the third third should contain promotional content.
• The 80/20 rule: 80% should be educational, entertaining, and informative. The remaining 20% can be promotional.

When should it be posted?

After you have decided what to post , the final piece of the puzzle is deciding when it should be posted.

As we mentioned, Facebook Audience Insights is a great tool. However, our research shows that the best times to post on Facebook on Tuesdays and Thursdays are 8:00AM to 12:00PM.

But not so fast. This is a huge generalization. Experiment! You can try different times to see which time you get the most engagement.

Hootsuite planner makes it easy to stay on top of your tasks. Everyone on your team can see upcoming posts, collaborate on drafts, and identify any gaps before you reach an oh-crap-I-need-a-post-right-now content emergency.

The best part? Hootsuite’s powerful analytics can tell you when the best times are to post based on your personal data.

See how it all works.

4. Optimize Your Page

No matter if you just created your Facebook business page or have been using it for a while, you should make sure that you have the following:

• A profile photo with your logo is great, as well as a cover photo. (Check our social media image size guide for current specs.)
• A call to action button such as Book Now.
• Contact information, including URL, phone number and email address.
• This section contains detailed information.
• A pin with your latest promotion, offer or FAQ.
• A custom Page URL. (For example: www.facebook.com/hootsuite)
• A precise business category. (Ours is an “Internet company.”)

If your physical business location is located in a city, make sure you add a street address.

Commerce Manager is a great tool for displaying your products in the new Facebook Shop tab if you are an ecommerce company. Not sure how? Here’s how you can set up a Facebook shop.

5. Other Facebook tools available

1. Create a Facebook Group

To be successful in groups, they need to be careful and attentive. However, they can achieve powerful results.

2. Hootsuite Inbox helps you drive engagement

Hootsuite Inbox makes it easy to respond to comments and DMs from all your social media platforms in one place. It allows you to reply faster and it allows your entire team the ability to manage communications without having to duplicate work or miss anything.

You’ll be amazed at how much time you can save.

3. For local sales, check out Facebook Marketplace

Although Marketplace may seem like a replacement for Craigslist in modern times, it is actually a powerful sales channel for businesses.

Facebook Marketplace ads will reach 562.1 million people in 2022. Most sellers are people who are cleaning out their basements. However, businesses listings are welcomed, even in lucrative categories such as car and real estate sales (where local laws allow).

Listings can be created for free, making them a must-have for local businesses. If you sell nationally, you might also consider promoting your shop website.

6. Install Meta Pixel (formerly Facebook Pixel).

Meta Pixel is a small code that is installed on your website. It allows tracking, testing, targeting and analytics for Facebook ads. It is only necessary to set it up on one website.

To install Meta Pixel

1. Log in to Facebook Events Manager. Click Connect data sources in the left menu

2. Select Web to be the data source, and then click Connect.

3. Enter the name and your website URL. There may be an integration that is one-click available depending on the platform your website runs on. If not, you can follow the prompts to manually install the code.

4. Set up the events that you want to track. Click Add Events from the Pixel’s Overview Tab, then From The Pixel.

5. Enter your URL, and click to open website. You will be able to choose buttons to track events with your Pixel. No coding required. Each button should be assigned a role such as “Purchase”, “Contact,” or “Search.” This will allow your browser to display pop-ups properly.

7. Try Facebook advertising

Although Facebook ads can increase traffic and sales by leaps and bounds, launching a campaign can be daunting.

You might also be curious about the cost of Facebook ads. (Spoiler Alert: It varies. You’re welcome.)

Facebook ads have the greatest reach, reaching up to 2.11 million people by 2022. That’s 34.1%, or 13 billion people.

Facebook is the best place for most businesses to start social media advertising. Although there is a lot to know, our step-by-step guide for creating your first Facebook advertising campaign makes it easy.

Are you ready?

When should you start using Facebook ads?

Facebook ads are not recommended for use the day after you have created your new business Page. However, it’s not the best idea to let someone else tell you when you are ready. Heh.

Yes, as with all marketing, there is no one right answer or KPI that will tell you when to experiment with ads.

These are the things I believe you should have first.

• Minimum 100 Page Likes (followers).
• Meta Pixel set up
• Clear Facebook marketing goals
• Minimum 20 pages (ideally more).
• Multiple creative assets available for each ad
• An A/B testing strategy

The simple way: Boost a Post

Facebook’s lingo for “boosting” a post refers to taking a regular Page posting and turning it into a Facebook ad.

Boosting is the gateway that senior content marketers warned about. Conversions, audience growth and a renewed appreciation for digital advertising are some of the side effects of success.

What you should think about it: If you are new to Facebook advertising and just want to get started. Boosted posts can be very affordable, as you set your budget upfront. Remember: If the ad isn’t targeted accurately, cheap isn’t effective.

Are you ready to go turbo? Here are some tips to help you boost your Facebook posts.

The whole thing: Create your first Facebook Ad Campaign

Ad groups, creative options and launch dates are all important. Conversion ads, awareness ads, conversion ads and multiple formats are also important.

It’s worth it. Combining organic and paid content on Facebook is the key to realizing all your social media goals .

What you should think about: You want to create focused momentum for a product release, event, promotion, or any other event.

Paid campaigns are possible with any budget, but it is important to first improve your targeting skills. This can be achieved by using boosted posts.

It’s when you see an advertisement and realize that you are the target market. It’s like finding out that A&W offers kids-sized meals at 5:30pm on a summer Sunday. I know my soul will be gone if I turn on the oven.

This is how you want your ad viewers to feel: “This ad is for me.”

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Although DIY-ing Facebook ads can be very successful, it is worth doing a lot of research. Here are some resources to help you get started:

• How to Advertise on Facebook: The Complete Guide
• Every type of Facebook Ad you should be using to grow your business
• All the Facebook Ad Sizes you Need to Know for 2022
• 22 Facebook Ad Examples to Inspire You Next Campaign

To help you plan your first campaign, consider hiring an agency or a freelance consultant. You’ll be able to learn a lot, and maximize your chances of success.

8 types of Facebook posts you can use for marketing

1. Text

Plain Jane. All type, no hype. The OG.

Text posts do not include links so they are not intended to drive traffic. However, they can be very useful in growing your Page audience. Text posts have the highest engagement rate of any type at 0.13%.

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These posts can be easily lost in the algorithm. To make text posts less than 130 characters stand out, you can choose a bright background.

Keep your text posts short. Ask questions or communicate quickly with your audience

Or, be relatable and hilarious.

2. Photo

With an average engagement rate at 0.11%, photo posts are second only behind text posts in terms of engagement. Photo posts can include any type of image such as a photo, infographic or other artwork. Each post can contain as many photos as you like, but for more than 10 photos, an album is a better option.

Any type of business can create memorable photo posts

• Showcase your latest collection and share the process of creating your products.
• Invite your audience to your office or workshop.
• Use data visualizations to impress them.

You can even feature photos of your customers to give your audience a unique perspective and engage them.

Limited photography budget? These free stock photo sites are worth a look.

3. Video

Video communication is unlike any other medium. It’s the next best thing having your audience right in front you.

Are you looking for inspiration? Here are some videos you might like to share with your friends:

• Explainer videos
• Demo videos
• Interviews with industry professionals or your own team
• Behind-the-scenes sneak peeks
• Event coverage
• Products, either informally (or a formal commercial shoot).
• Webinar recordings

MojoGrip is the go-to site for aviation enthusiasts. They know that their audience is as passionate about aviation as they are so the “How It’s Made” video was a huge hit.

Are you curious about the commonalities between successful social media videos? Check our tips for creating viral social videos.

4. Live video

Live video is all about keeping your audience’s interest.

Q&As are a great way to get your B2B company noticed. Demo videos can be used for both B2B as well as B2C to demonstrate how your product works, particularly to show off less-known uses cases or “hacks”.

Lenovo managed to engage their audience with this Live and showcase a new product’s capabilities. The laptop was destroyed by viewers who voted and Lenovo performed them live to prove its durability.

How to do it, not what you want to talk about. For newbies, we have a Facebook Live guide.

5. Links

Links are any link that points to an external source such as your website. Links can contain any media.

It’s easy to create one: Simply add a caption, then paste any link. Facebook will pull in the image, title, and meta description of the website. You can also manually add your own.

Hootsuite also allows you to do this. You can schedule them to be published later, shorten URLs and track clicks. Nice.

6. Facebook Stories

One billion Stories are shared every day on Facebook, Instagram Messenger, Messenger, and WhatsApp–-Meta’s family apps.

Facebook Stories are a vertical format with options for adding text, stickers, and links. You can choose to use an image or a video. Videos can be up to 20 seconds long and images last for five seconds. All Facebook Stories are deleted after 24 hours.

You can either publish organic Stories or create Facebook Stories ads.

Keep text and graphics to a minimum and let your photo or video speak for themselves. This will ensure the best results.

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7. Pin it

You can make an existing post on Facebook a “pinned” post. This will ensure that it remains at the top of your Facebook Page.

This is useful for a welcome message, links or customer support contact information, or any other promotion you are currently making. You can always change your pinned posts.

McDonald’s regularly updates their promotions to encourage app downloads.

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8. Types of specialty posts

These are great for certain cases, but they will be less often used.

Posts from Facebook Group

It can be difficult to manage a members-only Facebook Group alongside your business Page. A Facebook Group, with its 1.8 billion monthly active users, is a great way to build a community.

Posting to a Group is just like posting to your Page. However, it’s only visible for members. You think it would work well? We have step-by-step instructions and recommended settings for creating a Facebook Group to help you get started.

Hello Fresh has their #FreshFam Group where customers can share photos and give feedback on the recipes they have made. It is linked to their Business Page under the Community tab.

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Fundraisers

Fundraising on Facebook is a great way to increase your reach and make a positive impact.

Fundraisers are a way to show your values and connect people with your brand’s purpose. It allows you to put your money where your mouth and ears are. Bonus points You can choose to match all donations up to a certain limit.

To maximize views, make your new fundraiser your pin post, like the Humane Society of the United States.

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Fundraisers can only be created by verified Facebook business pages for public figures, brands, and charities.

If you are not yet verified, there is a workaround. You can create a fundraiser using your personal Facebook profile and then share it on the business Page.

Events

Six unique benefits come with creating an event post:

• It’s featured in a tab on your Page (“Events”)
• It’s listed in Facebook’s Events section so people can find you even if your business Page isn’t liked or followed. Every day, over 35 million people use Facebook for events near them.
• You can invite people to RSVP for either in-person or online events so you can plan your attendance.
• If someone does not want to RSVP, they can click “Interested” to be reminded by Facebook.
• For more views, you can create Facebook ads for Events.
• Multiple hosts can be registered, and the host page is visible on all host pages. This makes it easy to collaborate with influencers or partners to promote it.

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5 Facebook marketing tools

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite allows you to manage all your Facebook marketing activities in one place. Although we hate marketing clichés, it is your one-stop shop for all things Facebook Marketing.

Use Hootsuite to:

• All of your Facebook posts should be scheduled in advance
• Identify the best time to post (when your audience is online and most likely engage with your content).
• You can easily review your performance and generate detailed reports
• Answer private messages and comments
• Boost posts
• Track what people say about you online easily
• Manage your Facebook Pages along with all your other social profiles, including Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.

Start your 30-day free trial

2. Heyday

Use AI to save money while providing top-notch customer support 24/7. Chatbots on Facebook Messenger can be used as interactive FAQs and connect customers to live agents for more complicated requests. They can also suggest and sell products from Messenger.

Heyday powered the chatbot for Ecommerce retailer Bestseller, which automated up to 90% simple customer conversations in English and French.

Its smart programming was able to understand Quebecois French terms, which is a rare and important feature in a Quebec-based company. They had already rejected the generic French translations provided by other apps.

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3. Chute

Two reasons user-generated content is so great:

• It is 2.4 times more common for people to see it
• It doesn’t take much to make it.

Chute makes it easy to find relevant content by topic, location, and more. Hootsuite Composer allows you to save what you find and organize it into a content library that you can access.

It makes it easy to obtain legal compliance and usage rights.

4. Reputology

Your Facebook business Page’s reviews are an important aspect. Reputology monitors incoming reviews and allows users to respond within Hootsuite.

5. Facebook Ads Library

Sometimes, inspiration is all that’s needed. Facebook Ads Library allows you to search all ads currently running on Facebook.

Filtering can be done by keyword, location, and ad type.

Get ideas for your next campaign. Find trending phrases and graphics. Also, keep an eye on what your competitors are doing.

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Hootsuite allows you to manage your Facebook business Page, content and ads. It also makes it easy to manage your other social media platforms. Hootsuite allows you to plan and schedule posts, run ads and engage with your followers. You can also measure your impact using powerful analytics. Get it for free today.

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