6 Facebook Tools and Techniques You’re Not Using, But Should Be

Bethany Sterzer

October 30, 2012

Routines can be good.  They keep our teeth brushed, our work commute familiar and our lunch order easy.  But sometimes a break in routine is necessary.  Heck, why not try that new route to work?  You may find a quicker, more efficient way to get there, enabling you to hit that snooze button one more time.  As a snooze-button addict, I have to say that would be totally worth it.

I’m sure you, like many of us, get into a routine when creating a Facebook ad campaign.  But what if there were a better way to increase your page “likes”, target an audience and budget your campaign?  Let’s go over some simple, yet often overlooked, Facebook tools and tips to get the most out of your advertising budget.

1.     Email Integration

By uploading your email contact list, you can specifically target those contacts to connect with your page.  Simple enough. It’s a great way to improve your number of fans and target those most likely to connect with you on Facebook.

2.     Sponsored Stories

With any Facebook ad campaign you create to promote your page, you have the opportunity to setup sponsored stories for no extra cost.  Sponsored stories are served to the friends of those who choose to engage with your page.  For example, if you ran a campaign to build likes, friends of those that liked your page would see a message similar to: “Sarah Jones likes Jibe Media.  Tommy Smith and 5 other friends also like this.”    Those friends are more likely to then like your page as well since they see those in their network doing the same.  Sponsored stories have had some rough patches, but they are pretty handy for creating a buzz.

3.     Open Graph

Open Graph allows businesses to move beyond simply engaging with the “like”.  “Want”, “own”, “listening”, and other actions become possibilities when developing custom apps.  Depending on your business and what you sell, you can create your own action that becomes a part of the user’s feed for all their friends to see.

4.      Mobile Ads

Facebook mobile ads are often overlooked because they are relatively new. But, to completely disregard their presence would be a mistake.  Studies are showing great success with Facebook mobile ads.  Because they are geared toward mobile devices that inherently have smaller screens, they are integrated into the news feeds of those you’re targeting allowing for easier click-throughs.  Not only that, but mobile device usage is surpassing desktop computers.  So, take a look at your analytics and see where your users are coming from.  If mobile is a significant chunk of your traffic, don’t hesitate to give mobile ads a try.

5.     Facebook Landing Pages

Custom Facebook HTML tabs can open many doors for increasing engagement with your target audience.  A custom tab can become a great landing page for Facebook ads that allows your fans to become more involved in your page.  You have the freedom to brand the page as you would like and develop it to fit your specific campaign or promotional needs.

6.     oCPM Facebook Ads

With optimized CPM you are able to move beyond just getting a fan; you are able to get an engaged fan.  Let’s use a like-building campaign as an example.   Instead of simply serving ads to your target audience, by optimizing your ad you are able to serve up ads to those within your target audience that have a record of “liking” businesses.  Thus, you are more likely to get fans from your ad campaign.  Whatever your objective with your ad, you can optimize it by allowing Facebook to serve the ads to users that are mostly likely to meet your objectives.  Pretty sly.

In a nutshell?  Don’t fear that new route.  You could discover some pretty cool things if you allow yourself to move away from the beaten Facebook path.