It’s a common misconception that Facebook doesn’t work for B2B.
Yes, people don’t generally browse Facebook looking for the latest news on Semiconductors, that is true.
But there ARE business people there, they do have jobs, they CAN be targeted by their job titles, and they DO convert.
When converted into a lead, you can continue catching them away from the Facebook environment – that is what it’s all about.
Oh, And Email Lists
If you have a list of 500+ email addresses and/or phone numbers, company names, or anything else in their template, then you can get a specific message to a highly targeted segment of people – done correctly it can produce golden results.
Prerequisite For Success – The Facebook Pixel
We’ll show you examples of exactly what works shortly, as with everything there is a little preparation.
The preparation for successful Facebook Ads is to set up the Facebook Pixel properly.
Set up properly (it is very easy to set it up badly!) has two benefits:
#1 – The Facebook Ad Account will measure spend against ALL POSSIBLE EVENTS
You will have measurable results like so (taken from our own pixel) against every penny of spend:
#2 – You will be able to create AUDIENCES based on behaviour, that you can re-target with any message you like
Just one example – people who engaged with your quizzes in the past, hit them with more quiz ads in future.
Results of B2B Campaigns
It all depends on the message and the audience – the right message to the right audience, in their language, yields seriously effective lead gen.
Here is a cross-section of our own results in the last 30 days, aimed at email optins and Messenger conversations (along with full profiles!):
A high-prevision retargeting campaign, hence the incredible performance.
A cold campaign to complete strangers.
I’ll only share our own results in this article, we have had clients capture leads at <£1.00.
I’ll explain the types of ads we see success with across the board, and provide examples in just a moment.
Some of these are long-term, non-direct campaigns – e.g. acquiring more relevant followers and blog readers over time, some are absolutely direct lead gen.
The key thing here is that they are ALL BUSINESS PEOPLE, they are all OUR PERFECT AUDIENCE, and we have determined they are interested in our services.
We can now take the majority off-Facebook (automatically) to nurture sequences (automated), and continue re-targeting them online cross-channel – and offline, for example using Direct Mail – there is usually enough info to do that if someone takes the time to look.
Targeted Audiences
We’ll jump into the ads in the next section, firstly you need to understand the power of Facebook’s targeting to truly understand why it works for B2B.
If you want to know the full extent of Facebook’s targeting, read the linked article there – it is mind-blowing. Here is why it works for B2B though:
- You can target your FACEBOOK followers and/or Engagers – easy gold
- You can target your WEBSITE visitors and/or Engagers – easy gold
- You can target CUSTOMER LISTS, as mentioned above
- You can target B2B Job Titles like so **if you do nothing else, watch this video**:
And when you get to a more advanced level, you can start double-and-triple-layering your targeting:
- Sales Director in the UK, AND
- Dog Lover:
- >>> “3 Things Dogs Can Teach Us About Lead Generation”
(ok, that’s a little wild but you see where I’m heading with it…).
It’s ALL about the audience targeting.
Adverts and Angles
Our favourite Facebook Ad Types, in order, are:
FOR LEAD GEN
- Messenger Ads
- Lead Gen Ads
- Quizzes (no, not “which superhero are you?” – think “which part of London fits you best?”, e.g. for Real Estate Agents)
FOR NURTURE AND FOLLOWERS
- Video Ads – Case Studies are best, reinforce your awesome-ness to users who already know of you
- Engagement Ads (“Like” Ads) – we don’t do much of it for ourselves, but we do it a lot for clients – real long term value
- Post boosts – only the very best posts
- Lead Gen ads (newsletter – but please don’t say “newsletter”, make it interesting!)
Really, really importantly – you need to try multiple angles.
Success comes when one angle collides beautifully with one audience – and BOOM, you have a winning lead gen campaign.
Here’s one of ours that totally bombed when we ran it to our previous website visitors:
…but in the big wide world of “Sales Managers”, it ran at £4 per signup.
About Messenger Ads
Messenger ads deserve their own little heading here… messenger ads are special.
Why? Good question.
One BIG reason: open rates are usually around 80%, compared to email averages of 20%.
Compound that on a list of just 1,000.
1,000 people on weekly nurture = 52,000 sends per year.
@20% open rate, your message will get read 10,400 times per year.
@80% open rate, your message will get read 41,600 times per year.
And the real beauty is that a Facebook Messenger optin usually leads into an email optin too – you just need to ASK.
We believe 100% that Messenger Ads, and Messenger-Bot/Conversational landing pages are the future. If you want to test a bot let us know, it’s not even 10% as hard or costly as you might imagine.
Going for big volume – the flytrap
If it’s volume you’re after, you can cast much wider and still get ultimate success, using what we call the “flytrap” technique.
For example: you might get a whacky idea of hitting anyone interested in investment, on the basis that they are probably high-powered decision-makers.
The flytrap technique goes something like this:
- Get a video under their nose – “is your business investing wisely in lead gen?”
- Re-target only those who got 75%+ through the video (or 100%, we often do)
- With a refined message seeking an optin – “how X grew new leads from Y to Z”
A Note On B2B Leads
There are so many types of B2B, at varying price points.
Generally speaking, low-cost B2B – you absolutely can and do get direct conversion from Facebook Ads – purchases. Yes, you do.
You should be willing to nurture even on low-ticket B2B.
For high-cost B2B, you MUST be willing to nurture and have triggers from which your sales team will be called into action.
Customers may not be ready-to-buy today, but you want to be there when they are.
What does nurture entail?
5-10 emails containing useful content (usually re-purposed).
2 hours automated chain setup in your Mail Software e.g. MailChimp, AWeber, Infusionsoft.
30 minutes thinking “okay, what triggers Direct Mail + a sales call?”
That’s enough to get going, consider improvements and tree-complexity as numbers increase.
I repeat: you have to be willing to nurture if you are selling big-ticket items, at least by email/messenger & follow-up retargeting ads online, and for maximum effect; with Direct Mail and Sales Call triggers too.
Here’s a quick video summary of this blog post: