B2B Facebook: the essential guide

Contents:

• Introduction to using Facebook for business
• Is Facebook good for B2B marketing?
• Setting up and optimising your Facebook business page
• Mastering Meta Business Suite 
• The best B2B Facebook pages
• B2B Advertising on Facebook
• The best B2B Facebook ads
• Bring in the experts

Introduction to using Facebook for business

Facebook is best known for connecting with family and friends, but it’s actually leading the way for B2B marketers too.

In 2024, over half of B2B marketers are using Facebook ads to reach their audience. And B2B decision-makers spend way more time scrolling Facebook than the average person – 74% more in fact. On top of that, 70% of B2B buyers use Facebook to research before they buy.

That’s surprising, to say the least.

After all, there are so many platforms out there for businesses to reach new customers, connect with existing ones, build their brand and expand their bases.

So why B2B Facebook?

LinkedIn might be the go-to for B2B, but over the years Facebook has been a goldmine for social media marketing. This is down to several factors:

• Over 2.6 billion users worldwide spend an average of 60 minutes per day on the platform.
• Facebook is the top choice for B2B companies, with 95% of Fortune 500 companies utilising this platform
• And our data shows that B2B CMOs spend an average of £12,254 advertising on there every year.

Still not sure about B2B Facebook? Consider some more impressive stats:

• Facebook is the world’s most popular app with over 3 billion monthly active users – and it’s still growing.
• It’s the third most visited website globally, with 11.2 billion visits, 1.5 billion unique visitors, and an average visit time of 31 minutes.
• 93% of businesses are active on Facebook.
• Users click on 12 Facebook per month on average.

But stats only tell part of the story. To truly stand out, your B2B social media strategies must be dynamic, tailored and engaging. So, how do you achieve that?

This guide will explore the tactics to make your brand become a force to be reckoned with in the B2B landscape. You’ll learn how to expand your reach, drive traffic to your website and keep customers engaged. It’s about improving brand awareness, communicating better and targeting your audience more effectively.

Fundamentally it comes down to recognising a simple fact: your customers are still real people. While you’re doing B2B marketing, remember people love people – not corporate promo content.

Need help? Get in touch with our social media experts to discuss a B2B Facebook strategy for your business.

Is Facebook good for B2B marketing?

Facebook isn’t the obvious choice for B2B businesses. So first ask yourself, does your business need to be on there?

If it helps achieve your goals and you deem the resource and investment worth the potential reward… then yes.

Especially if your audience is already on there, and if you have the capacity to run the channel well.

So, start by checking out Facebook’s key demographics. Is your target audience among them? If so but in small numbers, don’t be discouraged. Many businesses have successfully built communities from niche audiences.

This is a key factor. Of all the social media platforms, there’s actually nowhere quite like Facebook that lets you reach and build these communities across a huge range of locations. This community aspect is really important. People are always keen to give recommendations. The more engaged you are with your customers, the more you’ll find your business being recommended to others. And that’s how you grow.

You’ll also want to know if your competitor businesses are on the platform and what they’re doing. How active are they? What are they posting? How often? Finding out whether they’re asleep at the wheel or regularly active will give you an idea of what you’re up against and where you can improve to stay ahead.

Setting up and optimising your Facebook business page

Before we get into the nitty gritty of it all, let’s start with the basics – setting up your Facebook business page.

To do this you first need to have a Facebook profile.

Once you have this, select “Create a new page” from the Pages section of the website, then enter your business name and category.

Next, add key info like contact details, location and opening hours, as well as any photos or logos that will tell customers who you are.

Once you’ve set up your page, you’ll need to optimise it to ensure its performance. You need an easily navigable and active page with someone responding to engagements. This increases your chances of attracting new leads.

Here are a few tips for optimising your page:

• Pick a page name, username, and URL that spells out what you do.
• Use a memorable profile pic like your logo – make sure you use the same profile pic across other social platforms.
• Keep your page description short, unique and on brand. It’s this text that’ll show up in search results and on your page.
• Order your page tabs according to your audience’s priority. So, if you want potential customers to engage directly with sales pages, don’t prioritise your “About Us” tab.
• Add “send message”, “learn more”, “visit website” or “buy now” buttons to pages where potential customers will want to interact.
• Link to your other social media channels, newsletters, and website.
• Verify your page with the grey badge. This proves authenticity and authority and can inspire trust in potential customers.

Once set up, connect the page to a Meta Business Suite account. This is important.

By connecting your business page to a Meta Business Suite account you’ll reach more people and be able to manage your Facebook page easily, with an overview of updates, recent posts and ads, and insights.

You’ll also get access to tools that will help your Facebook B2B marketing performance such as: Ads Manager, Meta Pixel, Conversion API, Analytics, Access tool for creators, scheduling tool for Facebook and Instagram (which allows you to schedule Instagram stories), Commerce Manager and much more.

Pro tip: Give multiple team members maximum-level access on Meta Business Suite, in case of absence or a team member leaving.

Mastering Meta Business Suite

As with many other areas of business, it’s best to build a B2B Facebook strategy back to front. That is, think first about where you want to end up and work backwards from there.

These four tips will help:

 1. Set goals

It’s vitally important to define your goals from the outset – then you can tailor your strategy to achieve them.

Mainly, this involves aligning your social media marketing goals with your wider marketing strategy. Meta Business Suite’s analytics platform will help, giving you data on the likes, reach, impressions, engagement numbers and clicks. From this, you’ll be able to see the kind of content your audience is engaging with, what’s driving website views, and so on. And armed with this data, you can refine your content plans.

When defining or refining your goals, follow this approach:

• Start with an objective
  • g. Build a stronger brand community
  • Apply the SMART framework
    • Clearly stated and simplified
    • One or more metrics can easily be applied
    • Possible within your current resource scope
    • Are you reaching for the stars or setting objectives that fall within your core competencies?
    • Define your timeframe
  • Apply metrics to your SMART goals by identifying specific KPIs that will demonstrate success. Each objective should have unique KPIs (post reach, impressions, link clicks, engagements, etc.) that are worth reporting, and these should be easy to determine
    • g. Increase engagement (likes, shares, saves, comments) on your Facebook channel over a one-month period by 15%.

2. Create a content plan

What kind of content usually does well on Facebook?

That answer depends on your audience. But this much is clear: post content that’s new, varied and engaging with your audience through reactions, comments, shares, and you’ll be on your way to success. Here’s how to do it:

• Design content pillars that are aligned to your SMART objectives.Content pillars are a subset of topics or themes which create the foundation for your overall content strategy.Each pillar should contain different types of content such as blog posts, videos or images, and they’ll benefit your business by:
  • Improving the organisation of your social media – distinct content pillars will help define your content calendar by covering important topics at the right times.
  • Helping you engage with your target audience – they serve as a guide for crafting specific content for specific people.
  • Allowing you to generate new content ideas – they automatically hone in on relevant topics and provide inspiration for new content, giving you relief from having to come up with new ideas.

You should develop three to five content pillars, though it’s common for some content types to overlap and fall within different content pillars, rather than just one.

• Generate new ideas that connect with your customers.B2B content doesn’t need to go mega-viral – it just needs to impact the right people. Here are some popular ways to come up with new content:
  • Comment on the news. Post a comment on Facebook that promotes your business’s unique take on a relevant industry or sector-focused news story, and it will give people a greater sense of what your company is like.
  • Share useful resources. Guides, top tips, and life hacks are all widely read, and can encourage potential customers to think favourably of your brand.
  • Sell your products. Occasionally it’s good to simply promote your products or services directly, especially if you’re launching something new or celebrating a major milestone (but don’t overdo the hard sell). Focus on the value to the customer.

For more tips on creating engaging online content, check out our comprehensive B2B social media content creation guide.

• Speak directly to potential customers about the issues and opportunities facing them.The cold, formal voice of the past is long gone. Today people want businesses to sound human and approachable – so make sure your content feels the same way.One way to do this is to combine a range of formats, including images and videos. You might not think B2B marketing has a lot of space for video, but according to a Brightcove survey, 95% of B2B decision-makers say that video takes them a step closer to buying.
• Plan content around significant dates (if it’s relevant to your business)Using dates that everyone knows to post relevant content can be perfect for getting your message across. If your company places a lot of emphasis on green issues, for instance, plan content talking about sustainability for Earth Day.Developing a social media content calendar, will make sure you aren’t clustering similar posts together. This is important because some users see posts in chronological order, unmoderated by any algorithm, and they may unfollow if they feel bombarded by repetitive messages. 

• Use scheduling tools to help with workload.Yes, you can post to Facebook directly if you have the time and brain-space to do it. But if you want to up efficiency, use a tool for scheduling posts – check out our social media content guide for some suggestions. One option is to use Meta Business Suite, which has its very own scheduling tool – and it’s free, too.

Stand out in a saturated platform

As popular as it is, it can be hard to achieve organic reach on Facebook. Research from October 2023, shows that the average engagement rate on Facebook across all the different types of posts is as low as 0.06%.

Facebook itself says reach is impacted by factors such as how people are engaging with your page’s content, how people have engaged with similar types of content in the past and the quality of the content, so bear this in mind when creating content.

Other factors such as time of day and whether people are on Facebook on their mobile phone or computer also have an impact.

But, there are ways to boost visibility without resorting to paid ads.

You should adopt a tailored approach – create valuable, optimised content for Facebook that has the needs of your community at its heart.

For example, if you operate in the procurement sector, for instance, you could run a blog series on sustainable procurement. Then repurpose that into social media content in different ways (images, graphics, carousels, infographics, etc.), or a video on your company’s top tips for procurement managers, so that you’ll resonate with your customer base.

Talking of video – make the most of it. That’s especially the case for short-form video. In under 90 seconds, Reels (not just the preserve of Instagram) can have more reach and selling power than reams of copy.

Don’t overlook collaborating with another brand or influencer online for organic growth. Contrary to popular belief, B2B businesses can find collaboration opportunities on Facebook.

Take, John Deere’s partnership with technology influencer David Cogen (@theunlockr). In February 2024, the renowned manufacturer of agricultural, construction, and forestry equipment challenged Cogen to cultivate corn on a 20-acre field in Des Moines, Iowa, while generating a profit. Through this innovative approach, they aimed to attract a fresh audience and enlighten them regarding the significant role technology plays in the agricultural industry.

And above all, find your niche and lean into your brand values to stand out in a saturated platform. Though it can be a thorny issue, people will tend to respond well if your brand is supporting certain social causes.

4. Improve your reach using SEO

You can increase reach, discoverability and visibility on Facebook by optimising your content using SEO best practices.

SEO for Facebook takes the same concept you’d use for Google and other search engines and applies it within the walls of Facebook. Ultimately, it’s about getting your content to the top.

Do it will, and Facebook will help you rank higher in Facebook’s search engine, or Facebook will recommend you to others who are likely to enjoy your content.

And that could have a big impact for your business. Because just a small amount of SEO in Facebook can help make you stand out outside the bounds of the platform. That in turn will improve your website traffic, resulting in more quality leads and, with any luck, higher conversion rates.

Mastering Meta Business Suite

Let’s not beat around the bush – Meta Business Suite is confusing and even scary for beginners.

With so many levels of access, plus a huge range of different tools and analytics, it’s east to feel overwhelmed at first. The good news though: once you get the hang of it, there’s nothing better for bringing success.

For a start, the tools available can massively benefit your performance. From page analytics to conversion APIs, Meta Business Suite gives you everything you need to learn from your audience and generate results. And, most importantly, it allows you to manage your business accounts conveniently.

Here’s a breakdown of what you can do through Meta Business Suite:

• Conduct A/B Testing: Test different post versions to identify the most effective elements, like copy or visuals, to inform future content.
• Sell through Commerce Manager: Use the “Commerce” option to set up a shop or catalogue, making it easier for customers to browse and purchase products across Facebook and Instagram.
• Plan your content and schedule posts using the Planner: Organise your content calendar, scheduling posts and stories for both Facebook and Instagram, including the unique ability to schedule Instagram Stories.
• Create, run and optimise social media ads for Facebook and Instagram: Craft ads with Ads Manager to achieve various goals such as increasing traffic or generating leads, using one of the premier ad management tools available. In our opinion, it’s one of the best ad management tools out there, but it can be frustrating at times.
• Analyse insights: Evaluate post performance and set goals directly in Meta Business Suite to strategise future content based on insights.
• Efficient and full control over access: Assign roles like admin, editor, or analyst to team members, streamlining collaboration and safeguarding business assets and accounts.
• Check your competitors: Benchmark your page’s engagement and content against competitors to adjust strategies and stay ahead.
• Take advantage of the Creator Studio: Streamline content creation across Facebook and Instagram, manage performance analytics, monetise your presence, and engage with fans all in one robust platform.
• Use Meta Pixel and Conversion API: Implement Meta Pixel for detailed feedback on Facebook conversions, and use the Conversion API to directly relay web events from your server to Facebook, optimising your tracking and analytics. These tools allow you to optimise your advertising by creating lookalike audiences and re-targeting people who visit your website.

So, yes, with such a wealth of tools, it can be confusing and complicated to start with. But if you’re stuck, you can enter a live chat with Meta Business Suite to get you going again. And there are tons of helpful blogs, YouTube videos and help pages out there to support you, too.

The best B2B Facebook pages

Need some quick inspiration to improve your Facebook B2B game? Our tip is to have a look at what other businesses are doing.

There are companies out there who are smashing their B2B Facebook marketing, and conducting a bit of research into what they’re doing might just give you a few fresh ideas. 

HP: Through a wide variety of content, including plenty of high-engagement Facebook Reels, the IT company really showcase their brand personality – a very important factor in the B2B landscape. Many businesses are afraid of showing their fun side, but HP do it with style, and it pays off in engagement. Again, this is a case of marketing to real people, and they do this by including real people in their content. They’ve even done some trend style content and often offer insight or tips, while their content as a general rule feels full of purpose.

Adobe Creative Cloud: This is a Facebook page that gives you direct access to all that’s good about Adobe’s tools. The content here either shows what people can do with Adobe, highlights the kind of content people have created on Adobe, provides inspiration, or shares insights and tips. It also features users talking about how and why they use Adobe tools, bringing a sense of authenticity and credibility.

Hubspot: Similar to HP, Hubspot are very good at showing their personality and creating fun content that engages their target audience (predominantly marketers and sales teams). One way they do this is by producing trend Reels or memes to connect with that audience.

GE: They might not post very often, but GE provides great, often surprising content around science, technology and innovation. The company understands that the true value of Facebook isn’t to promote products or leads, but to connect with a wider audience through a shared desire for knowledge. To that end, the GE Facebook page includes the likes of in-depth articles that broadcast GE’s values; amazing imagery and videos; reactive videos to events like COP; and case studies.

Mailchimp: Head to Mailchimp’s Facebook page to find marketing advice, studies, reports, contests and more, in a form that appeals to both established B2B firms and new businesses. You’ll also see high-quality imagery and engaging video. Mailchimp use Facebook as a platform for sharing news from their other initiatives, such as their podcast, as well.

Canva: Canva has 1.3 million page followers on Facebook, and the Australian company uses the platform to post entertaining video and eye-catching imagery as well as insights, tips, demos and inspiration. They also host several Facebook groups including a Canva Teachers Community, a Canva Design Circle, and a Canva Nonprofits Community.

Cintas: Cintas supplies corporate uniform and workwear to businesses throughout the US, and having a strong connection to their customers means they have leaned into using a host of user-generated content – a winner when it comes to engagement. You should consider how you can share user-generated content on your Facebook page.

SAP: A consistent provider of high-quality content, SAP’s Facebook page shares thought leadership videos, reactive content, animations, testimonial videos with real customers, demos, advice and vox-pop videos that involve people playing games.

The power of B2B Facebook ads

As we already mentioned, 93% of businesses are using Facebook so there’s no doubt it’s a platform that can help you achieve maximum reach. And the best way to do this is by? Targeted ads.

The drawback? Meta Business Suite can be confusing (and stressful at times). Get it wrong and targeting the wrong people – wasting serious money.

That’s where working with an expert (like us) pays off. An experienced ad manager makes sure you reach the right people. And with 15% of Facebook users browsing for products – that can amount to a lot of people.

Before you start, install your Pixel and Conversions API.

For best results with targeted ads, use the Meta Pixel. This is a piece of code for your website shows how your ads are performing and what people are doing on your site. You’ll see whether they’re visiting a particular page, for instance, or completing lead gen forms.

You’ll also be able to see when customers took an action after seeing your ad on Facebook and Instagram, which can help you with retargeting.

The Conversions API creates a direct connection between your marketing data and the systems that help optimise ad targeting, decrease cost per result and measure outcomes across Meta technologies. And when you use the Conversions API alongside the Pixel, it creates a more reliable connection that helps you reduce costs.

Follow this step-by-step process of setting up Meta advertising:

• Choose the right objective

Before creating ads, pinpoint your core business goals – know what outcomes matter to you. An ad’s objective should directly support your current ambition. Whether that’s brand awareness, customer acquisition, sales, or event sign-ups.

As your business evolves, so might your objectives. Adapt to prioritise the critical actions you need from potential customers. Selecting the right objective in Meta Ads Manager lays the groundwork for campaigns aligned with your strategic aims.

• Define your audience
  Create your ideal customer profile by selecting the traits of your ideal customer, honing in on interests, gender or location for precision targeting. As ads run, the system refines your audience, through pixel and Conversion API learning, enabling the creation of lookalike and retargeted audiences.
• Set budgets
  Control your advertising costs by setting a campaign or ad set budget.
• Campaign and Ad Set Budgets
  Choose between a unified campaign budget or individual ad set budgets, balancing simplicity with granular control and catering to varying optimisation goals.
• Daily and Lifetime Budgets
  Opt for a daily budget for consistent spend or a lifetime budget for a rigid cap. Fluctuations are normal and will balance weekly.
• Meta Ads Placements
  Your ads could appear across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, or Meta Audience Network, subject to your chosen objective and ad specifications.
• Create your ads
  Craft your ad’s headline, text, image, and call-to-action. All ads are reviewed against Meta’s Advertising Policies before going live, with statuses trackable in Ads Manager.
• Be creative and let Meta help
  Meta’s Dynamic creative optimisation tailors your ad assets, like images and copy, for each individual viewer. This enhances your ad performance without sacrificing scale.
• Test, test, test!
  Use Ads Manager to set up A/B tests and identify the most effective campaign components. Remember, A/B testing is most beneficial when you have a bigger budget.
• Analyse and optimise
  Get insights on clicks, reach, and costs in Meta Ads Manager. You can customise metrics for a more tailored analysis of performance, demographics, platform reach and delivery outcomes.You decide who sees your ad and where. Create your target audience based on the traits of your ideal customers – interests, gender or location and use ad targeting to find the people who are most likely to take action.Think about characteristics your current customers share – demographics, location and interests. Then, broaden or narrow that profile based on your target population size.Once your ad starts running, Meta’s system starts learning who’s engaging with it. Over time, it will automatically narrow your audience so you reach more of the right people.Once your pixel and Conversion API starts learning from your website visitors, you can create lookalike audiences or re-target those who visit.

The best B2B Facebook ads

Facebook Ads’ precise targeting lets us zero in on specific people on Facebook like business owners and decision makers. With options to target by job titles, company size, and other demographics and interests, Facebook ads become a sharp tool in the B2B marketer’s toolkit.

Canva: Canva’s vibrant ads are not only visually appealing but also serve as live demonstrations of their design platform, effectively showcasing the ease of use, inspiration it offers, and the high-quality results possible with their service.

Asana: This work management tool consistently presents sleek Meta ads that align with their branding. Asana’s ads are clear and use engaging language to attract teams looking for organisation and workflow management solutions.

Sage: As a frontrunner in accounting, payroll, and payment systems, Sage’s ads are visually striking and professionally designed. The animations often feature their software in action, highlighting the benefits and efficiency gains for businesses.

Neo: The French online video maker has worked with companies such as EDF to produce video ads that show ordinary people in everyday settings, which have performed well across multiple channels, including Reels.

Bayut: The United Arab Emirates’ largest property portal boosted brand awareness by 11.1 points by running Facebook and Instagram video ads during the 2022 World Cup. The tailor-made video ad content captured the sense of community associated with a major tournament.

Majoo: As one of Indonesia’s biggest SaaS providers, the software solutions provider used Facebook’s Messenger app for lead generation. After conducting A/B testing around the ads it achieved a 38% lower cost per lead.

Bring in the experts

Driving real business results from social media is tough. That’s why lots of B2B brands choose to bring in the experts.

As a B2B social media agency, our team is equipped to help your business create a social presence that meets your objectives and your budget. Whether it’s:

• A strategy your team can execute themselves
• B2B Twitter content production
• An advertising programme to drive leads
• Complete on going page/profile management

We can help. Talk to our social media team to discuss a B2B Twitter strategy for your business or click here to get back to the top of the page.

Written by Isabel Pitts, Social Media and Content Manager at Definition