When your brand is in the natural, organic or health sector, creating a winning marketing strategy in a highly competitive space can feel pretty daunting.  A question that often comes up is, should you be advertising on Facebook? Will it actually work?

The answer is yes and yes. In fact natural, organic and health products are particularly well suited to social media advertising with engaging imagery and sought after expertise that appeals to this growing segment. With Facebook’s powerful reach (along with Instagram) this is one marketing channel well worth your advertising dollars. Here are the key reasons why.

Your customers are on Facebook

There have been a number of natural brands that have almost exclusively used social media to grow to be market leaders in their segments. With one fifth of the world’s population taking to the network daily, it’s easy to understand why. With health, fitspo, foodies and living a healthy sustainable lifestyle all flourishing on social media, your customers are certainly there – but are they seeing you? If you’re relying on organic reach by simply posting to your Facebook page, you may have noticed that less of your followers are seeing your content, as seen in this research by Buzzsumo.  This is where paid Facebook advertising does it’s work.

Reach

It’s staggering to believe that Facebook is utilised by 2.1 billion people each month with the average person spending 50 minutes daily on its network. With paid advertising on Facebook, you have the opportunity to reach your target consumer in the thousands, for as little as the cost of a cup of coffee each day. That is a viable advertising channel even if you’re a startup brand.

 

 

Targeting

Facebook knows so much about you, based on what you like, click, comment and share. That may scare us just a bit, but advertising on Facebook allows you to target around education, employment, parental status, behaviours and much much more. Got an organic granola you’d like to advertise? You could target women aged 25-45, who like to shop at wholefoods stores, are parents of young children, work part time and read Women’s Health magazine. This is simply an example, however it highlights the capabilities available to you to really drill down to the person most likely to be interested in your brand.

Control

When it comes to advertising dollars, control is a welcome asset. As you create a Facebook ad campaign you’re provided with many points of control in how it looks, is delivered and measured. This means you can customise for your brand and your objectives through to the delivery and optimisation of your adverts. Importantly you control the daily spend and can tweak or deactivate the advert if it’s not delivering results over time.

 Metrics

That print ad you placed and wondered if it anyone saw it? Traditional media can be hard to measure. Facebook advertising metrics on the other hand can measure and report on parameters that allow you to really see what’s working for your advertising dollar. Plus, install the Facebook pixel onto your website and you can measure the customer journey from awareness to conversion to open up the power of data.

Retargeting and nurturing

Whilst your Facebook advertising can be reaching potential new customers,  another clever feature is the ability to nurture those who’ve already made a step in getting to know you. It’s no doubt happened to you – you’ve visited a website, taken a bit of a look and then moved on to something else. Later that day you’re on Facebook and see an ad for that very brand, putting their message right in front of you again. How? By creating custom or lookalike audiences within your Facebook Adverts account, you can choose to have your adverts delivered to those who visited your website, abandoned their shopping cart, subscribed to your email list or read a particular blog for example. And it’s highly effective.

Facebook advertising works

For those who’ve tried and not been rewarded, or felt overwhelmed opening up Adverts Manager, it’s worth revisiting Facebook advertising. There is no ‘golden rule’ and just as with all advertising, it takes planning, execution and metrics to ensure you’re on track. Move beyond ‘boosting’ to truly unlock the power of Facebook data in reaching your target customers, so they can see the passion and purpose in the brand that you’re building.

About the writer: Shelley Atkin

Shelley Atkin is a marketing strategist, content writer and digital expert with 20+ years in the health and wellness industry. Shelley is the founder of Tide Media, providing digital and content marketing support to businesses in the eco, health and wellness space. In managing Facebook advertising campaigns, her focus is on delivering strategies that connect brands with their customers, right where the tide is strongest. 

 Graph image credit: BuzzSumo