Facebook's Inflection Point and How Local Business Can Benefit

I have been working with (and have been frustrated with) Facebook for business applications for about 5 years. It all started about the time Facebook first came out with tabs and a new language called FBML. Many small businesses rushed to Facebook, thinking this new platform was going to be a new source of customers, patients, or clients. Sadly, it was not the case. 

However, now 5 years later, Facebook is maturing, as are the opportunities on Facebook. You see, Facebook is focused on two main objectives; (a) video and (b) mobile.

Looking at the graph below, Facebook's video uploads exceeded YouTube embedded videos back in May of 2014. And since that time Facebook "native" video uploads have exceeded YouTube's by a factor of 4x. 

In addition , according to Facebook's own data, mobile is now more than 50% of all Facebook traffic. And, Mark Mahaney, an Internet analyst with RBC Capital told The New York Times, “More than any other company right now, they (Facebook) are the single biggest beneficiary of this shift to video and mobile. This growth is going to be more sustainable than people realize.”

“In just one year, the number of video posts per person has increased 75% globally and 94% in the US,” explained Facebook in a blog post.

With people creating, posting and interacting with more videos on Facebook, the composition of News Feed is changing. Globally, the amount of video from people and brands in News Feed has increased 3.6x year-over-year.

Since June 2014, Facebook has averaged more than 1 billion video views every day. Today (May 2015), that number has grown to 1.6 billion views per day.

What Does This Mean For Small Businesses? 

If you are a business to consumer based business who has a fixed geo-targeted service area, the opportunity on Facebook is great for you. My work and research has shown that businesses in  

• Dental
• Cosmetic Surgery
• Automotive Sales & Service
• Massage
• Chiropractic

type service categories have succeeded very well. Other types of "immediate need" businesses, have not fared as well such as roofers, plumbers, and lawyers. These businesses can have success if they focus on advertising their non-emergency loss  leaders where they provide free inspections, analysis', etc. 

How Small Businesses Can Leverage Facebook

Going back to the recent stats, we know that the majority of Facebook traffic is now mobile and video is very popular. In addition, if you upload your video to Facebook ("native upload"), and your video is well produced and targeted, you can get views for your video for as little as $ 0.001!

Here's a snapshot of a recent Facebook mobile video ad where the client received 1,946 views for $ 16.29. This equates to $ 0.0083 / view. This is not $ 0.001 / view, but it is 91.7%  less than YouTube's average cost of $ 0.10. 

The Advertising Breakthrough of 2015: Retargeting

If you are not familiar, retargeting is a way to record all video views, web traffic, email traffic, etc. Once recorded, you can then retarget the person who viewed your video, or visited your website. 

With Facebook, and their penchant for having 200 variables describing each person on Facebook, you have amazing insights available to you at your finger tips. And, Facebook has a way to build a second target group based on the criteria of the primary group who actually interacted with your website, video, etc. Facebook calls this a "Look Alike Audience". 

Conclusion:

If you are a small business who typically provides discretionary services such as teeth whitening, a massage, or a tune-up, Facebook has reached an inflection point where it makes commercial and economic sense for you to advertise on it. And, if you want to improve your results, use video, have it show up on mobile devices, and then use retargeting to let your prospect know you have something they want multiple times for no additional cost. 

Want More Information? 

I have built a marketing process specifically for this Facebook topic. In the example I use a cosmetic dentist as a case study. Here, I show how a cosmetic dentist can add from $ 211,000 up to $ 1.057 million  / year to their practice based local market size, capacity, and reputation of the practice by using videos and advertising on mobile devices in Facebook. 

There is a Slideshare presentation here Dentists - How to Get a 1,400% ROI on Facebook . In the Slideshare I have embedded video examples showing what type of videos we used to achieve the results. Or you can watch me walk you through the Slideshare in the video below. 

 About Joseph Conroy 

Joe is the Digital Marketing Director for InnoVitae an online marketing firm he founded in 2006. Innovitae is a  full spectrum firm focusing on small businesses in the US with specialties in mobile, video production, and video advertising. Joe can be reached at 617-903-0864, or jconroy@innovitae.net. If you are a business owner, go ahead and connect.