Who doesn’t have Facebook nowadays ? yes when I am talking about Facebook it means I am talking about big data, there are over 2.01 billion monthly active Facebook users for June 2017 which means big potential market ! statistically, Facebook is too big to ignore.

Facebook can be one of the key marketing channels for your business IF you can use and optimize it with the right strategy. Facebook Ads are going to drive more leads for your business in 2017 than any other paid channel. You’ll need to have the right strategy and execute with agility and precision, but right now there is a massive Facebook opportunity for inbound marketers. An opportunity that if you take advantage of now, will pay off for years later.

Technology changes fast but that doesn’t stop us from missing big shifts. This is because they never happen all at once, but every once in a while you can catch a glimpse of change in motion. Right now, this is the case with Facebook.

Facebook represents a huge potential market for your social media efforts, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. The following statistics highlight some relevant Facebook facts and can ultimately help you to navigate it better, increasing your return on investment (ROI) and leading to greater marketing success.  According to SEC filing, for the first time, Facebook’s U.S. ad revenue will be larger than the biggest traditional media companies trailing only behind Google.

Updated September, 17 2017

1. Worldwide, there are over 2.01 billion monthly active Facebook users for June 2017 (Facebook MAUs) which is a 17 percent increase year over year. (Source: Facebook 7/26/17) What this means for you: In case you had any lingering doubts, statistically, Facebook is too big to ignore.
2. There are 1.15 billion mobile daily active users (Mobile DAU) for December 2016, an increase of 23 percent year-over-year.  (Source:  Facebook as of 2/01/17)  This is hugely significant and shows the dramatic growth of mobile traffic on Facebook.  Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 87 percent of advertising revenue for Q2.
3. 1.32 billion people on average who log onto Facebook daily active users (Facebook DAU) for June 2017, which represents a 17 percent increase year over year (Source: Facebook as 07/26/17) The Implication: A huge and vastly growing number of Facebook users are active and consistent in their visits to the site, making them a promising audience for your marketing efforts.
4. There are 1.74 billion mobile active users (Mobile Facebook MAU) for December 2016 which is an increase of 21% year-over-year (Source: Facebook as of 02/01/17).  
5. On average, the Like and Share Buttons are viewed across almost 10 million websites daily. (Source: Facebook as of 10/2/2014)
6. In Europe, over 307 million people are on Facebook. (Source: Search Engine Journal) The Takeaway: This isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon – a worldwide market is available via Facebook.
7. Age 25 to 34, at 29.7% of users, is the most common age demographic. (Source:Emarketer 2012) What this means for you: This is the prime target demographic for many businesses’ marketing efforts, and you have the chance to engage these key consumers on Facebook.
8. Five new profiles are created every second. (Source: ALLFacebook 2012) The Implication: Your potential audience on Facebook is growing exponentially.
9. Facebook users are 76% female (out of 100% of all females) and 66% male (out of 100% of all males). This stat is one that you really have to think about because it’s comparing the percentage of all females against the percentage of all males who are on Facebook. Sorry for the confusion. To dig a little deeper take a look at this study which does a much better job at explaining the nuances – Source: Brandwatch – https://www.brandwatch.com/2015/01/men-vs-women-active-social-media/) The Takeaway: Since this isn’t a large statistical difference, you should be able to effectively reach both genders on Facebook.
10. Highest traffic occurs mid-week between 1 to 3 pm. (Source: Bit.ly blog) On another note, a Facebook post at 7pm will result in more clicks on average than posting at 8pm (Source:  Forbes). Go figure.  How this can help you: You have the potential to reach more consumers and drive higher traffic to your site during peak usage times, but people may be more likely to be more engaged in the evenings. This statistic may be a factor when you are planning social communication scheduling. (Also consider that Facebook has a global audience, so you may want to plan around the time zone of your key market.)
11. On Thursdays and Fridays, engagement is 18% higher. (Source: Bit.ly blog) The Implication: Again, use this information to determine when to post in order to optimize your social media marketing efforts.
12. There are 83 million fake profiles. (Source: CNN) The Takeaway: Nothing is perfect, so always remain thoughtful and strategic in your efforts. Also, fake or not, these are still potential consumers. There are various reasons for fake profiles, including professionals doing testing and research, and people who want to segment their Facebook use more than is possible with one account.
13. Photo uploads total 300 million per day. (Source: Gizmodo) The Implication: Again, this is an indication of engaged users; also, it is an indication that there are a lot of photos, as well as other information, competing for users’ attention, so target your efforts strategically.
14. Average time spent per Facebook visit is 20 minutes. (Source: Infodocket) What this means for you: You could have a short time period to make your impression, so use it wisely with relevant, interesting and unique posts and offers in order to get the most return on your efforts.
15. Every 60 seconds on Facebook: 510,000 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded. (Source: The Social Skinny) The Implication: Again, there are a lot of engaged and active users, but also a huge amount of information competing for their attention, so quality and strategy on your part matter.
16. 4.75 billion pieces of content shared daily as of May 2013 which is a 94 percent increase from August 2012. (Source: Facebook)
17. 50% of 18-24 year-olds go on Facebook when they wake up. (Source: The Social Skinny) What this means for you: Facebook is important to these users, and potentially, if done correctly, so is the content you post on it.
18. One in five page views in the United States occurs on Facebook. (Source: Infodocket 2012) How this helps you: This is a huge market on the web; if you use social media marketing efforts on Facebook well, you could have huge returns to show for it.
19. 42% of marketers report that Facebook is critical or important to their business. (Source: State of Inbound Marketing 2012 The Takeaway: This is a crowded marketplace, but you can’t afford to sit it out, because odds are fairly high that your competition is there. The key is to use Facebook marketing correctly and make sure that your efforts stand out from the crowd.
20. 16 Million local business pages have been created as of May 2013 which is a 100 percent increase from 8 million in June 2012. (Source: Facebook). Facebook marketing has transformed how business is conducted, and its use by local businesses to extend their markets continues to explode.

 

 

Why Should I Advertise on Facebook?

Mobile Marketing Silver Bullet

According to research from Google B2B buyers have increased the amount of mobile research they do by 91% year over year throughout the B2B purchase path. Facebook has cracked the code on mobile marketing.

This is important because as consumers have shifted to mobile over desktop so have B2B buyers. They now do more research, reading, and work on their phones — and spend time on the Facebook app/Instagram/Messenger.

With Facebook you can now reach these people with slick ad units like Lead Ads that promote your event or white paper and allow users to sign up with just a few clicks.

 

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Combined

Since Facebook also has acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, they have a massive user database than you ever have imagined. You can do your own research how many people use WhatsApp and Instagram nowadays, it’s a massive number. According to tech crunch, WhatsApp has shared its user data for ad targeting. For Instagram, nowadays a lot of young people age from 18 to 30s use Instagram in daily basis. This social media hits 700 million users and it’s predicted growing.

 

Facebook’s Lead Ads eliminate the need for users to fill out a form by using pre-populated data and cut out the landing page step, both of which skyrocket conversion rates and actually make the mobile ads effective for B2B marketers.

 

The news and information site theSkimm used Facebook Lead Ads to attract new subscribers for its daily newsletter, seeing a 22% increase in lead quality at a cost per acquisition of just $1-2.

 

If you have a longer sales cycle, you need to influence decision makers wherever and whenever they do research. That means you need a strong mobile strategy. Right now that strategy can simply be Facebook paid and organic.

 

The Best Ad Technology Available

 

Facebook offers some of the most powerful, innovative and advanced ad units and targeting. But they present it in a way that makes it easy for marketers to execute. Ads are built around your goals, which makes getting started simple for inbound marketers. Let’s dive into some of their best tech for B2B.

 

Targeting: Facebook puts heavy duty technology to work to help you reach and connect with the most valuable people for your business. Most marketers start by targeting Friends of your existing users, visitors of your website, or people in your CRM lists. These options can be very powerful but what may be most effective is Facebook’s audience expansion tool Lookalike Audiences.

 

Lookalike Audiences uses machine learning to help find you valuable potential customers who are similar to those who visit your site or are already in your CRM. So you can upload a list of your most valued customers from your CRM and have Facebook hunt down similar users based on their rich data.

 

 

Ad Units : Facebook is also rolling out better B2B ads, like Lead Ads and Canvas. I mentioned them earlier but Lead Ads are worth a look from any B2B or lead focused marketers.

 

Canvas ads can also be great for B2B and are a storyteller’s dream. They expand into beautiful pieces of creative that allow you to deliver a great marketing via mobile. If you’ve got a more complex product or one that really shines through video consider Canvas.

Instagram Ads: Similar to Canvas the Instagram Ad format is a big, beautiful ad unit. These ads lend themselves to powerful ad creative with strong CTAs. While Instagram may feel more B2C, B2B brands are already having success on the platform.

In the big picture, Facebook is focusing more on solutions that help smaller, B2B companies. This is great news for inbound marketers.

 

Facebook Ads are great for remarketing

Facebook Ads can effectively convert neutral audiences into paying customers. For businesses with an existing sales funnel, remarketing is a great strategy to convert prospects into actual paying customers, and/or to do more upsell for existing customers. The “custom audiences” function on Facebook is ideal for this purpose–you can actually tailor your messages to appeal to audiences who have already visited your site (thus indicating their interest), such that they actually do feel compelled to make a purchase decision.

For the purposes of remarketing, it is first important to find out the pain points or needs of audiences at each stage. After finding out, be sure to create Ads with great copywriting such that the pitch will be able to resonate with audiences at each particular stage. Thereafter, do remember to track your conversion rates before and after the Facebook Ads are run.

 

Why Facebook Marketing ?

 

Facebook ad solutions will help you grow today. But investing in Facebook now also sets you up to succeed in the future. By all measures, Facebook has been extremely successful over the last few years but don’t expect it to rest on its laurels. When people all over the world go online today, they go to social, and spend the majority of their time with a Facebook property, but that’s just the start.

 

Video Ads: Facebook is also investing heavily in video, looking to steal time and attention away from TV and movies. It’s easy to imagine a future where Facebook is the most watched video channel, larger than cable, YouTube, or Netflix.

 

It already has some powerful video solutions but expect Facebook to grow video ads and get more creative. If video and video ads aren’t yet a part of your B2B marketing strategy now is a good time to consider it.

 

 

Messaging Ads: Globally, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) dominate the mobile messaging app space. Messaging is an area that is growing like wildfire and quickly replacing email, text and voice calls for millions of people every day.

 

As this trend continues, Facebook (Messenger/WhatsApp) could become the main way we all chat with our friends and family on our phones. This is larger an untapped resource for Facebook in terms of ads. It’s a little further out but paying to have your Facebook Messenger B2B bot placed prominently as an option for your target audience could happen.

 

Virtual Reality Ads: In 2014, the company bought Oculus Rift — the leader in virtual reality technology. This along with its play into video puts Facebook in a better position than any other tech company to lead this format if it becomes the default way to watch movies or play video games. It also opens up a new ad powered revenue stream.

 

Ads Powered by Artificial Intelligence: In the last few years ad targeting, bidding and buying has become much more automated and machine powered.

 

Programmatic ad buying companies are growing fast and Google, Facebook and others are putting more and more machine learning into the targeting and bidding process. This trend should continue and it is something most marketers should take advantage of. When it works, this automation means less work for you with better results.

 

Facebook already does this and will look to get more sophisticated with the application of AI for ads. It’s hard to say exactly how ads will fit into all of these bigger best for Facebook but it’s been a very successful model for them. And while it all may feel a little foreign or uncomfortable, the rules of inbound will still hold up as Facebook changes the landscape of marketing.

 

so are you still neglecting Facebook ad as part of your inbound marketing strategy ?

Think again !

 

sources : tech crunch, hubspot, etc.