Usually when we think of B2B and Social Media, the first mental relationship we make is through LinkedIn, a platform oriented to companies, businesses, and employment. However, it cannot be denied that other Social Media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are part of the daily life of many people in Latin America. According to figures published by Hootsuite in a study on the use of Social Media in Latin America in 2020, Facebook is consolidated as one of the most important social networks in the region with approximately 390 million active users (60% penetration), surpassed only by WhatsApp (which is part of the same business group since 2014).
So yes, Facebook offers a wide reach and a variety of advertising formats, but how can I take advantage of it if my business is B2B? How can I segment a Social Media campaign on Facebook to show my message to decision makers in my industry? Here is the answer to these questions.
First of all, we cannot forget that all markets and businesses, including B2B ones, involve people, and these people have likes, interests and behaviors that are manifested in their daily life and also in Social Media.
According to the reach figures we saw above, we can infer that many professionals and decision makers from different industries in Latin America have social network accounts where they connect with friends and acquaintances, follow pages and join groups related to some particular interest such as hobbies; and in some cases they follow pages or groups related to useful topics for their professional activity (Ie. They follow pages of specialized media in their industry).
To develop effective B2B campaigns on Facebook, you must find a way to reach these professionals, that is, segment the audience.
Segmenting on Facebook
Platforms like Facebook offer different audience segmentation options. The most common is segmentation based on information declared by the user (age, place of residence, educational institution, among others) and behaviors (pages we follow or publications to which we react). Unfortunately, this type of segmentation falls short when it comes to reaching professionals and decision makers, as not all professionals have similar demographic and behavioral profiles.
However, in digital marketing there is a very useful technique that works very well for B2B campaigns on Facebook known as Retargeting. This allows users who have previously interacted with a certain brand to have an impact with targeted advertising.
To apply this technique, you can simply implement a pixel (cookie) from a Facebook advertising account on your website so the user information is collected and sent back to Facebook for you to show the ads of your campaign to people who visit Facebook after having visited your website. So, if you have a website and want to impact your visitors this technique can be very effective and will improve as traffic to your site increases.
Additionally, Facebook offers the possibility of creating Custom Audiences from databases, so if you have a database that contains emails or cell phone numbers, you can upload them to Facebook to identify users who have profiles within the platform and target your advertising to reach this audience.
Putting theory into practice: A success story
To demonstrate the effectiveness of the topics we have discussed, we present the case of Bulk Chemicals Incorporated, a company dedicated to the development of ecological chemical products to clean, treat and seal metals, which contracted a Social Media campaign with Metalmecánica Internacional, one of the brands from Axioma B2B Marketing.
The objective of the campaign was to increase the qualified traffic of professionals in the metalworking industry to a page where information about a new product was expanded and contact could be generated with people interested in receiving more information about it (MQL).
To meet this objective, a segmented Facebook and Instagram campaign was set up to retarget users who visit the specialized portal of Metalmecánica Internacional (+55,000 unique users per month) and also the subscriber database of the same publication of more than 15,000 records.
In a period of 2 weeks, more than 7,000 visits to the target page were generated, with an ad CTR of 2.26%, well above the average for this type of campaign, which according to WordStream statistics is 0.78%. Additionally, the MQL generation objective proposed for the campaign was met.
In conclusion, the success of the campaign is due to a combination of several factors. On one hand, an intelligent segmentation, orientated to a very specific audience, but also an attractive and impressive message developed by the advertiser, highlighting the benefits of an innovative and useful product for different industries.
To learn more about the digital marketing solutions that Axioma B2B Marketing offers, we invite you to write to [email protected].
