Facebook Marketing for Local Business

Updated by Chima Mmeje — December 9, 2024

Facebook is the social network that needs no introduction. With over 81% of the U.S. adult population, Facebook’s user base dwarfs that of Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and every other “competitor.”

Because of its ubiquity among the general public, many business owners believe an active Facebook presence is critical to their success online. While this is true in many cases, it’s not true for all businesses. It depends on your goals for the time you want to invest in social media. For local businesses, actionable Facebook marketing tips can help navigate the competitive landscape and enhance visibility despite challenges like declining organic reach.

Facebook is not primarily a customer acquisition channel—so if your main reason for being on social media is customer acquisition, consider other social networks better suited to this purpose (including LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or even Instagram, depending on your type of business). The vast majority of business owners either see a negligible financial return on their time spent, or no return at all. This may be due in part to the fact that only about 2.5% of brand page posts are actually seen by their followers.

Setting up a Facebook business page is a crucial step in establishing your online presence and reaching your target audience. Here’s how to get started:

• Create your page: Go to Facebook.com and click on “Create New Page.” Choose a category that best fits your business, such as Local Business, Company, or Organization.
• Enter business details: Fill in your business name and address. This information helps potential customers find you easily.
• Add Visuals: Upload a profile picture and cover photo that represent your brand. A recognizable logo for the profile picture and an engaging cover photo can make a strong first impression.
• Craft your bio: Write a compelling bio that describes your business and what you offer. This is your chance to tell your story and connect with your audience.
• Add a CTA button: Encourage visitors to take action by adding a call-to-action button, such as “Learn More” or “Shop Now.”
• Customize tabs: Tailor your page’s tabs to include important information like reviews, services, and contact details. This makes it easy for visitors to find what they need.

By following these steps, you’ll create a professional and engaging Facebook business page that attracts and retains your target audience.

Instead, use Facebook for its most natural purpose: Build brand loyalty for your business and turn your community of followers into evangelists, online and offline.

Here are a few ideas to help you get started doing exactly that.

1. Scout the competition

When scouting competitors, pay special attention to spikes in the trend lines. If you or one of your competitors dramatically increased its following around a certain date, visit Facebook and check activity around that date to see what was so successful. It may inspire you to do something similar.

2. Set up Facebook pixel

Setting up the Facebook pixel is a crucial initial step for small businesses looking to optimize their advertising efforts. The Facebook pixel collects valuable data on website visitors, enabling effective retargeting and intelligent targeting for future ad campaigns. This enhances overall campaign success and conversion tracking. Make sure to integrate the Facebook pixel into your website to leverage these benefits.

3. Post engaging content

As the saying goes, there are no second chances for first impressions, so draw people in with a killer cover photo. Cape Kaleidoscopes in Mashpee, MA is just one example of a company succeeding with its cover photo: a brightly-lit interior photo of its store. Four Firkins in the Twin Cities is another, showing a line of enthusiastic customers stretching out the door. 404

Another creative visual use of Facebook is by Amsterdam Printing, which uses the Facebook Timeline to showcase its company history, complete with photos and descriptions of key events in its 115 years in business.

Posts with photos are more likely to get viewed, liked, and shared by your fans, and photo contests are even more likely to have higher levels of engagement. “Caption the photo” contests like this one from Bits and Pieces would be great for a local plumber or general contractor.

Don’t forget about embedding videos in your posts, either! Here’s a great example from Point Reyes Cheese of the production of a sandwich that includes their cheese. Note the great teaser that piques fans’ curiosity and encourages them to click through.

Consider sharing interesting links in your Facebook Stories to enhance audience engagement. This can include fun questions and a variety of content to keep followers interested and more likely to interact with your profile.

If your company’s just not that visual, try asking questions of your audience—trivia about your city or industry, for example—or posting surveys or polls to find out what your fans are most interested in reading.

4. Partner with complimentary brands for maximum reach

Partnering with charities and nonprofits can be a great way to market your business and be philanthropic at the same time. Dr. Jeff Donaldson’s “Likes for Lives” campaign, where he donates $1 for each Like on his Facebook page in a given month to the OhioHealth Bing Cancer Institute is one example of a successful implementation of this kind of partnership.

Consider creating a Facebook group to build community and foster discussions around shared interests.

5. Take time to understand Facebook Ads Manager

Facebook Ads Manager is a powerful tool that helps you create, manage, and optimize your Facebook ad campaigns. Here are some key features and benefits:

• Centralized management: Create and manage multiple ad campaigns from a single dashboard, making it easy to keep track of your efforts.
• Precise targeting: Set specific targeting options to reach your desired audience based on location, interests, and behaviors.
• Variety of Ad formats: Choose from a range of ad formats, including image, video, and carousel, to best showcase your offerings.
• Budget control: Set a budget and bid strategy to control your ad spend, ensuring you stay within your financial limits.
• Performance tracking: Use metrics such as reach, impressions, clicks, and conversions to track and analyze your ad performance.
• Automated bidding: Leverage Facebook’s automated bidding options to optimize your ad performance and get the best results for your budget.

By utilizing Facebook Ads Manager, local businesses can effectively reach their target audience and achieve their marketing goals.

6. Use paid ads

While not well-suited to direct conversion of prospective customers, Facebook advertising offers the simplest, most economical advertising platform for small businesses of any major Internet company.

Due to its treasure trove of demographic information (including interests, employment history, age, and relationship status) and geographic targeting ability (down to the ZIP code level), Facebook allows small businesses to be extremely targeted with both the type of customer they’re trying to attract and their budgets.

Your business can advertise to its neighbors who are fans of partner organizations, or even competitive businesses to yours, for example.

These types of campaigns are usually most successful in concert with some sort of discount offer—which, coincidentally, also enables you to track how successful the campaign was in the first place.

One of Facebook’s newest ad features, Promoted Posts, can help you gain some extra visibility for status updates you especially want your fans and their followers to see—with no effort beyond setting a budget for how much you want to spend.

Starting with high-performing posts and focusing on ROI when managing an ad campaign is crucial for ensuring effectiveness and strategic optimization.

7. Measuring success with Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights is a built-in analytics tool that helps you track and measure the performance of your Facebook page and ad campaigns. Here are some key metrics to monitor:

• Page views: Track the number of people viewing your page to gauge interest and visibility.
• Engagement: Monitor likes, comments, and shares to see how well your content resonates with your audience.
• Reach: Measure the number of people seeing your posts to ensure your content is reaching your target audience.
• Conversions: Track actions such as form submissions or purchases to evaluate the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.

Use Facebook Insights to identify trends and patterns in your data. This information can inform future content and ad strategies, helping you to continually improve your Facebook marketing efforts.

Facebook marketing doesn’t have to break the bank. Here are some tips for marketing on Facebook on a budget:

• Start small: Begin with a modest budget and scale up as you see positive results.
• Leverage free features: Utilize Facebook Groups and Facebook Live to engage with your audience without spending a dime.
• Create quality content: High-quality, engaging content can increase organic reach and engagement.
• Smart targeting: Use Facebook’s targeting options to reach a specific audience, reducing wasted ad spend.
• Optimize bidding: Take advantage of Facebook’s automated bidding options to get the most out of your budget.

By following these tips, you can effectively market your business on Facebook without a large financial investment.

No local business “has” to be active on Facebook in order to succeed online. But being smart about how you spend your time and energy can help you harness the potential of a site that nearly 130,000,000 American adults use every single day. Local awareness ads offer advantages such as precise targeting, cost-effectiveness, and increased visibility for businesses looking to attract nearby clientele.

These ads can help businesses attract new customers who are likely nearby.

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