If You Aren’t Targeting Your Social Media You're Wasting Your Money

This week, I’m going to keep it short and sweet. This ad appeared in my Facebook feed over the weekend, and I just can’t imagine why. Last time I checked, I was not looking for a place to have my Rolls-Royce serviced—I don't even own a Rolls-Royce!

The sad thing is this is not the first time I have talked about or seen others talk about why they are receiving certain advertising in their Facebook feeds. It’s simple. The advertisers are not doing proper segmentation. I can’t even imagine a demographic or geographic select that would result in Facebook serving me an ad about getting my Rolls-Royce serviced. And, in case you were wondering, no, this is not retargeting, as I am shockingly not in the market, nor have I been searching for a Rolls-Royce.

If your organization is advertising on Facebook, please—please—treat it like a direct-response marketing channel. Do not just prioritize the creative (OK, that Bentley hood ornament is pretty snazzy) and the copywriting. The No. 1 element of a successful Facebook advertising campaign is segmentation.

The great news is there are multiple ways to do this within the Facebook advertising platform, and if it seems complex, get someone involved who knows how to do it. Whatever you do, don’t just push out ads with no segmentation. Here is a snapshot of your options:

• The basic demographic and geographic selects—gender, age, country, state, city, zip, etc.—are available.
• Interest areas are available with a lot of detail. Since this is Facebook, you are allowed to identify people based on where they have shown interest across other Facebook pages. And, this works in both an inclusion and exclusion approach depending upon your cause. This can be an overwhelming exercise, but is absolutely worth the time.
• Your own Facebook audience is a no-brainer for marketing. But, think broader than that. Take your current Facebook audience and build a profiled audience that looks like those people. The same goes with building audiences based on your online donors, offline donors, volunteers and any other audience that is high value to your organization.
• And, of course, in addition to building audiences that are profiled and look like your current constituents, there are great matching tools available. You can upload lists and literally find those people within the Facebook community. I’ve seen as high as 75 percent match rates with clients.

That said, don’t spam people. Technically, spam laws do not apply to Facebook, but you know what I mean. Similar to classic segmentation in other channels, when a person is selected for a particular segment, they are not allowed to fall into another segment. So, make sure you take the same careful exclusion approach with Facebook as well.

Remember, you’re paying for this advertising—this is not your organic posts on your page—so take the time and make sure you are talking to the right people.