With an estimated 2.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media platform and the third most visited website on the Internet. But Facebook isn’t just for watching cat videos and memes or keeping in touch with old friends; it’s also considered a very powerful B2B advertising platform. In fact, 74% of users say they use Facebook for business purposes as well, with over 90 million businesses participating on the social network. That’s a huge audience with lots of B2B potential.
So how do you tap into this potentially lucrative market?
In this article on how to promote your B2B business on Facebook, we’ll explain why Facebook is so important for B2B marketing, the difference between B2B and B2C targeting for advertising on the platform, and the many benefits of using Facebook as a business B2B advertising platform. We will also look at how to leverage these benefits to create ads that help your business succeed.
Why is Facebook important?
Some argue that Facebook’s influence as a B2B marketing platform has declined over the years as other social platforms such as LinkedIn have stolen the show from Facebook in the B2B space. Despite this, nearly half of marketers still consider Facebook to be the most important social media platform for business, and 65% of marketers use Facebook ads for B2B marketing purposes.
Considering that nearly 75% of business decision makers spend more time on Facebook than other decision makers, it’s clear that Facebook remains one of the most important and relevant platforms for B2B advertising.
The difference between B2B and B2C goals
When it comes to advertising on Facebook, there are many clear differences between advertising for consumers and advertising for other businesses, including what marketers are trying to achieve. Both B2B and B2C marketers can use Facebook’s vast consumer data sources to create buyer personas, but these personality traits are very different. B2B marketers target the personality and behavior of decision makers in a business context, which may be different than what they do at home.
B2B marketers want to reach specific people who influence the buying process for businesses, such as consultants and decision makers.
Most B2C advertisers use Facebook to drive awareness of their products and brands, but for B2B marketers, Facebook is about generating strong leads. These leads are then handed over to the company’s sales team, who respond and try to close the deal.
Benefits of Facebook Advertising for B2B
Using Facebook to advertise to B2B customers has many benefits.
Facebook has a huge amount of user data that can be used to create audience personas, allowing marketers to target advertising efforts to very specific users with very specific behaviors depending on their industry, education level, and age. This is not possible with platforms like Google Ads.
Based on this, marketers can create ads based on the attributes of the target company’s Facebook page.
This information may also be used to promote other forms of online advertising, such as email marketing. You have full control over your audience, your budget, and how you plan and create your ads.
Facebook also offers a wide range of rich media ad formats that increase conversions and engagement through visual appeal, easily outperforming text-based ads such as Google Ads.
Tips for Promoting Your B2B Business on Facebook
As you can see, there are big differences in advertising objectives and many benefits to B2B advertising on Facebook, but how do you take advantage of them? Let’s look at how to make Facebook ads more effective for B2B.
I. Drive Engagement
One of the most important features of Facebook is the ability to interact with other users, including businesses. You need to create ads that company decision makers will like and want to share with their peers and colleagues. When people “like” and share your ad, they’ll see it with others and will be more likely to click on it.
ii. Use Custom Audiences
As mentioned earlier, one of Facebook’s biggest advantages over other marketing platforms is the ability to create custom audiences “personas.” This is made possible by the thousands of data points Facebook has on each user, allowing marketers to target not only demographics, but also user behavior and interactions with users on business pages. With all this information at your disposal, you should not simply use standard audiences, but instead focus on your ideal customer personas and filter accordingly. The more targeted your audience is, the more “real” people you will reach, making your targeting more effective and your campaigns more cost-effective.
How to advertise your B2B business on Facebook
With an estimated 2.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media platform and the third most visited website on the Internet. But Facebook isn’t just for watching cat videos and memes and keeping in touch with old friends; it’s also considered a very powerful B2B advertising platform. In fact, 74% of users say they also use Facebook for business purposes, and over 90 million businesses are on the social network. That’s a huge audience with a lot of B2B potential. So how do you tap into this potentially lucrative market?
In this article on how to promote your B2B business on Facebook, you’ll learn why Facebook is so important for B2B marketing, what the differences are between B2B and B2C targeting when advertising on the platform, and the benefits that Facebook offers as a B2B advertising platform. You’ll also learn how to take advantage of these benefits to create ads that help your business succeed.
Why is Facebook important?
Some argue that Facebook’s influence as a B2B marketing platform has declined over the years as other social platforms such as LinkedIn have stolen the show from Facebook in the B2B space. Despite this, nearly half of marketers still consider Facebook to be the most important social media platform for business, and 65% of marketers use Facebook ads for B2B marketing purposes.
Considering that nearly 75% of business decision makers spend more time on Facebook than other decision makers, it’s clear that Facebook remains one of the most important and relevant platforms for B2B advertising.
Differences between B2B and B2C goals When it comes to advertising on Facebook, there are many clear differences between advertising for consumers and advertising for other businesses, including what marketers are trying to achieve.
Both B2B and B2C marketers can use Facebook’s vast consumer data sources to create buyer personas, but these personas are quite different. B2B marketers target the personality and behavior of decision makers in a business context, which may be different than what you do at home.
B2B marketers want to reach specific people who influence the buying process for a company, such as consultants and decision makers.
Most B2C advertisers use Facebook to build awareness of their products and brands, but for B2B marketers, Facebook is about generating strong leads. These prospects are passed on to the company’s sales team, who then follow up and try to close the deal. Benefits of Facebook Advertising for B2B
Using Facebook to advertise to B2B customers has many benefits.
Facebook has a huge amount of user data that can be used to create audience personas, allowing marketers to target advertising efforts to very specific users with very specific behaviors depending on their industry, education level, or age. This isn’t possible with platforms like Google Ads.
Based on this, marketers can create ads based on the attributes of the target company’s Facebook page.
This information may also be used to promote other forms of online advertising, such as email marketing.
You have full control over your target audience, your budget, and the planning and creation of your ads. Facebook also offers a wide range of rich media ad formats that increase conversions and engagement through visual appeal, easily outperforming text-based ads such as Google Ads.
Tips for promoting your B2B business on Facebook
As you can see, there are big differences in advertising objectives and many benefits to B2B advertising on Facebook, but how do you take advantage of them? Let’s look at how to make Facebook ads more effective for B2B.
I. Drive engagement
One of the most important features of Facebook is its ability to interact with other users, including businesses. You need to create ads that company decision makers will love and want to share with their colleagues and coworkers. When people like and share your ad, they are seeing it with others and are more likely to click on it.
ii. Use Custom Audiences
As mentioned earlier, one of Facebook’s biggest advantages over other marketing platforms is the ability to create custom audience “personas”. This is made possible by the thousands of data points Facebook has about each user. This allows marketers to target not only demographics but also user behavior and how they interact with a business page.
With all this information at your disposal, instead of just using standard targeting users, focus on your ideal customer personas and filter accordingly. The more specific you are with your target group, the more “real” people you will reach, the more effective your target group will be, and the more cost-effective your campaign will be.
iii. Targeted B2B Business Categories
Speaking of targeting, a good way to reach influential business people is to target their so-called “job type”. People’s occupations play a very important role in life. After all, this is how they make a living and spend most of their time. Therefore, people put information about their occupations on their Facebook pages, including their role, the company they work for, and even milestones such as getting a new job or being recognized. Facebook allows you to filter by job type, such as employer or job title. Figure out which companies you want to target and which job titles are relevant, then adjust your target group selection accordingly.
