The 4 Requirements for Facebook Marketing Profits

Not every company profits from Facebook Marketing.

But before you blame Facebook, let’s talk. :-)

It might be you.

Now hang on. This article is based on our experience of what works and doesn’t work for ourclients.

We’ve managed a ton of Facebook marketing. We’ve worked with companies like Dramamine, Chloraseptic, NBC/Universal, Carl’s Jr., PrideStaff, and Humana. And we’ve helped dozens of infopreneurs and small businesses.

We want every client to get them the biggest possible results for their key metric. When the client can make leads or sales the goal, we push for that. Usually, small businesses are focused on leads and sales because they must profit to stay afloat.

Some clients can’t go after leads or sales. There may be a tracking problem. For example, some Consumer Packaged Goods are sold via multiple retail stores. And the brand doesn’t get access to the retailers’ analytics. So they focus on engagement or traffic to the website.

But Facebook can and does produce profits:

• We recently achieved 800% profits on advertising spend for a chain of five pizza delivery stores in Scotland.
• We’re seeing great a great cost per sale with Facebook eCommerce for a company that manufacturers anti-recoil muzzle brakes.
• I published the first Facebook marketing profit case studies ever in 2011.
• There are many other case studies if you’ll but Google it.

The digital marketing industry is beyond the question of whether Facebook marketing can be profitable.

Whether Facebook marketing is profitable for you, hinges on four primary factors:

1. PROFIT: Do you have the profit margin and cash flow to advertise? And is #4 below providing you the profit to continue to advertise?
2. TESTING: If you advertise, do you test enough? Are you testing images, headlines, body copy and targeting? Are you creating at least 10-20 new ads a month?
3. SHARES: If you don’t advertise, do you have content amazing enough to proliferate itself via shares? This one is hard to rely on. Many companies can get additional reach from shareable content. But it’s rare that a company creates a truly viral marketing campaign, especially if they are budget-starved. More often, someone gets several hundred shares and start calling their content “viral” whether it was truly contagious or not.
4. CONVERSION: Is your website, squeeze page or shopping cart converting at a high enough rate to deliver you an acceptable cost per action?

To succeed with Facebook Marketing, you must do the best practices. Stick to the core elements. What are they?

Facebook changes a lot. But, I wrote recently, we have not drastically changed our Facebook strategy since 2010, except for shifting away from fans toward email acquisition in 2012.

The people and companies who have had to switch Facebook strategies were not focused on core Facebook elements.

The two core elements of Facebook Marketing have always been the newsfeed and advertising.

This is underscored by how Facebook mobile works: Posts only. No tabs.

If you weren’t doing Facebook advertising by 2013, you were behind. The alarm bell that ads would be required for Facebook, and that organic reach wouldn’t be enough, went out early in 2012. If you didn’t hear it, you weren’t paying attention. Facebook ads are essential.

Some people try to avoid ads. I’ve written why every business can and should spend at least $1 a day on Facebook ads. Avoiding ads on Facebook is the biggest Facebook marketing mistake you can make.

In conclusion, we recommend you:

• Advertise with Facebook
• Test A LOT of ideas
• Optimize landing pages and shopping carts conversions

If you do those three things, you’ll have a very good chance of profiting from Facebook marketing!