Facebook Ads For B2B – Sales Increase Guide 

Why advertise on Facebook?

The main reason to advertise on Facebook is that this platform has the greatest reach. With close to 3 billion active users, Facebook is by far the most popular social network.

Most B2B brands fail on Facebook because they don’t have a clear target audience. Clarity about your targeted audience is crucial to succeeding with FB ads. It informs your entire advertising campaign from messaging to the visuals you use. 

So if your target is unclear, you won’t hit it—simple.

Ad campaigns don’t take place in a vacuum. They happen in the context of a specific business with unique goals. So if you don’t align your advertising strategy based on your sales funnel, your ads will be spectacular duds.

It is vital to first understand your sales funnel, then set up FB ads.

One size fits all may be good when shopping for happy socks. But it’s a bad idea when doing FB ad campaigns. If you show the same ad creative to everyone, you will fail. Your click-through rates will be dismal. And most people who click on your ads won’t become paying clients because they are not a good fit.

Personalization is the name of the game in marketing these days. Without it, you’ll your ads won’t resonate with your audience and you will waste your ad budget.

Did you know that a staggering 97% of people who visit a website for the first time buy nothing then? You lose a tremendous opportunity for sales if you don’t follow them to lure them back to your site so they buy or take the desired action like filling a lead gen form. That’s what remarketing is all about. Following your site visitors after they leave so they come back.

If you don’t set up a Facebook pixel for remarketing campaigns, you lose an enormous opportunity of turning visitors who left into leads and sales.

Many brands misfire on Facebook because they follow best practices blindly. Following what everyone is doing won’t lead to success. Your company is unique. It has distinct goals, audiences, and positioning. Yes, learn from what others are doing, but experiment and do what works for your unique brand. 

What works for one B2B company may not work for another.

Now that you know which banana skins to avoid, let’s look at how to build a funnel for FB ads.

Here’s a quick overview of the marketing funnel. You can build your Facebook advertising around the framework. It starts when prospects know nothing about your company and move through the stages until they become paying customers.

First impressions are crucial in advertising.

If you don't hook prospects in those first few seconds when they encounter your brand for the first time, they will ignore your ad. So a potential client needs to know that you are a reliable partner. Let prospects see you as:

Supermetrics makes a customer testimonial the core of their ad.

Has your company appeared in a famous business publication?

Great.

Maximize that special moment to promote your business. Use the mention by the well-known business publication in your adverts as proof that you are the real deal. Social proof is such a powerful psychological trigger.

WeWork boasts of its mention in the prestigious Inc. Magazine.

On seeing this media mention, the brand's followers on their Facebook page and other Facebook audiences see them as a big kahuna in the industry. PR and B2B Facebook ads are a formidable duo that proves a brand’s popularity and authority.

To spread the word about your product even further, use the Facebook Audience Network. This feature publishes your ads in apps and sites outside Facebook. 

More eyeballs on your content mean more exposure for your brand.

The first step is choosing a campaign goal.

The future success of advertising depends on the correct choice of a goal since Facebook uses different algorithms and advertising settings for each goal.

We recommend using these types of goals:

If you have a site that’s packed with SEO-optimized content, advertise it on Facebook.

SEO is a potent marketing channel that can produce a constant stream of organic leads for your business month after month, years. But to make SEO work and rank for keywords your target audience uses to search for your products or services, you must promote your content aggressively.

That’s where B2B Facebook ads come in.

Litmus knows how to promote its content using B2B Facebook promos.

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels. With the help of Facebook advertising, you can create a traffic flow to closed content. These are useful materials that can be accessed in exchange for the prospect’s contact details. Facebook lead ads do the trick. 

To do this, you need to set up an advertising campaign that directs people to a landing page.

Pipedrive certainly knows how to combine B2B Facebook ads with a dedicated landing page.

Here is a case of in point of one of their ads.

For better structure and control, you should have only 3 campaigns at each stage of the funnel.

But first, experts recommend setting up one campaign at each stage of the funnel.

There are 2 types of remarketing audiences that work well on Facebook.

Many people connect with your brand through your FB ads or page, go their way, and forget about you.

To win them back and keep your brand top of mind, charm them with a series of FB ads.

To re-engage this type of target:

Create a custom audience, select "FB page" from the list of targeting options;

Select "People who interacted with any post or ad".

Set "30 days".

You can use the activity-based targeting function to reach people who:

You can use this handy feature for business decision makers who have already shown interest in your brand. B2B Facebook ads targeting these engaged prospects convert better than those who haven’t connected with your company before.

ShipCalm used Facebook’s core and custom audiences feature to create high-performing ads like the ones below.

They got remarkable results from their custom audiences themed approach:

The interest stage is all about staying front and center in the minds of prospects, so when the moment to buy a product related to the problems you solve, you will be the first brand that comes to mind.

Then comes consideration…

Once again, remember that at this stage, it’s critical to remain the center of attention for customers. 

You achieve this through emails and paid marketing tactics.

After publishing an article on a blog or other useful content:

Here’s an example of Credo promoting valuable content to their target audience.

Here’s an example of Credo promoting valuable content to their target audience.

Yes, the best is relative.

But you should find that one thing that makes your product better than the competition. Amplify it until people get it.

Is your product:

Whatever that ‘best’ is for your company or service, emphasize it in your ads.

Behind every successful product is a five-star customer service team.

In your ads, show your brand has a helpful attitude towards customers. Prominently display reviews and testimonials where satisfied customers sing of your product’s virtues and the brilliance of your ever-helpful support team.

People are wired to do what all the other cool kids in town are doing. So do all you can to show the popularity of your product.

Show off other companies that have used your product/service and loved it. The more the merrier. Brownie points if it’s a famous brand. Also, get active on social media platforms. When people see your company popping up all over social channels, they’ll believe you are a massive brand.

Here are the recommended campaign types at the intent stage:

Targeting at this stage should aim at leads in the middle of the sales funnel.

One more step to go… the purchase stage.

Here are a few B2B FB ad examples to inspire you.

First up is one from CoPromote.