Facebook Offers: What Small Businesses Should Know
Searching for a means to reach out to more prospects and bring more customers to your business? FB’s ‘Offers’ platform might be the advertising option you are looking for.
What are Facebook Offers?
Brands with a minimum of 400 likes can promote coupons, deals, and
With Facebook offers, there’s almost no lag time
So, should your small business be using Facebook offers? First, you need to make certain your investment into Facebook offers (along with your other marketing initiatives) aligns with your customer acquisition targets. Here’s what you should know to be sure that you’re not wasting money:
Potential Success
Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas was one merchant in the Facebook Offers pilot program in 2012. According to Facebook, the company experienced a strong return on its marketing investment.
“Aria was able to book 1,500 room night reservations after running an offer for a $110 resort credit plus VIP passes to its Haze nightclub to customers who purchased two nights on select dates,” wrote Lauren Indvik for Mashable. “The resort advertised the offer through Premium Page and Sponsored Stories ads that targeted friends of fans. Thanks to the Offer, customers made 671 reservations for 1,585 room nights. Aria saw a nearly five-fold return on its investment.”
This marketing initiative succeeded for several key reasons:
- Aria clearly defined its target upfront — to boost the amount of room reservations.
- The resort targeted its audience according to this goal, focusing on prospects who were most likely to purchase – – friends and fans of fans.
- Aria promoted a focused, appealing, and genuinely strong offer that was attractive to its audience.
To become successful with Offers, brands have to focus on quality along with clarity. You should also make them want to buy and give your community a strong value proposition. If not, your promotion will fall flat, and your campaign will result in a waste of funds.
Constructive Skepticism
Understand what the numbers are telling you. Prospects may be claiming your publicity without really using them and when you use Facebook Offers, you’re paying for exposure — not actual redemptions.
“The problem is that a lot of people click on an offer and then decide they don’t want it,” wrote Jim Edwards for Business Insider.
The language may be confusing, but the concept is straightforward — Facebook offers are basically coupons. That’s the reason you will need to be precise in your targeting. For example, if you’re a brick-and-mortar storefront in Houston, you’ll waste money marketing to Facebook users in San Francisco. You also need to be very detailed in your advertising language — otherwise, you may confuse your prospects. Make sure to take advantage of demographic and community-based targeting characteristics to ensure that you just’re reaching the prospects who align most closely with your sales goals.
Residual Results for Your Brand
Facebook Offers have the residual impact of boosting your brand exposure. There’s strong potential for companies to reach new audiences through viral growth.
“Offers seems to be a genuinely social product, with redemptions driven by sharing — as opposed to just another deal happens to be delivered on Facebook,” Anthony Ha wrote for TechCrunch.
Whenever your community members claim your offer, their friends will se it on their stream and learn about your brand. In your advertising preferences, you can choose to target friends of supporters beyond your present community.
Your Thoughts: Would you attempt Facebook Offers? Do you believe the platform has value? Share your ideas and experiences in the comments below. We’d love to hear your views about whether you believe this Facebook product is the right investment for you.
