How to use an Facebook sales funnel to turn leads into customers who will stay with you for years

Jul 11, 2024

Facebook ads can be intimidating however they don't need to be. Learn how to use the Facebook sales funnel to convert potential customers into leads to your business online.

With 2.7 billion monthly active users there's no doubt Facebook is one of the largest social media tools for marketing that entrepreneurs and creators can use.

Facebook advertising offers numerous options for target audience selection, objectives for campaigns as well as creative, which they may be intimidating especially for smaller companies.

Sometimes, it might even be as if you're throwing spaghetti (and your advertising budget) against the wall in order to determine what will stick.

Done right, though, Facebook ads can be a powerful and cost-effective approach to guide potential buyers through the buyer's journey.

We're going to discuss today the process of turning prospects who aren't interested into customers through a sales funnel for Facebook. If you want to make Facebook ads a part of your strategy for marketing read on.

But first, what exactly is a Facebook sales funnel? What are the reasons to build one?

What's what is a Facebook funnel for sales? What are the benefits of using one?

The Facebook sales funnel involves collecting leads via Facebook ads, and then nurturing them until they're ready to buy.

The sales funnel you create maps the route a potential client takes from the first encounter with your brand to the point that they become a paying customer:

Facebook advertisements allow you to serve various ads to your customers based the stage they're within the sale funnel. (We'll discuss how to create ads to each step later.)

There are many ads channels on the market, though. What makes Facebook an effective tool for targeting, nurturing, and converting the leads in your funnel?

In the first place, its size and power is a major reason to choose it for advertising across different sectors.

93% of social media advertisers use Facebook ads, and marketers across the world spent more than $67.37 billion on Facebook ads alone in 2019 just behind Google ads.

With such a large user base, it might appear that advertising on Facebook would be too broad to make a difference. But Facebook has powerful audience targeting tools that allow advertisers to show their ads to just the right individuals.

When you offer users ads that are pertinent to their interests and pain points, they'll be inclined to click the ads. (Which is probably why the average Facebook user will click on eleven ads each month  which is about one per 3 days.)

How do you ensure that your advertisements are in front of that super-relevant audience?

When you create an entirely new campaign on Facebook, you can create an entirely new target segment of users by focusing on specific characteristics such as:

Local business owners can target their own cities or offer ads to nearby neighborhoods.

Age: If your target audience is of a wide age group, then you could create ads that are geared towards a specific age range.

Interests: based on the Facebook users "likes" as well as Facebook behavior, Facebook can highlight potential clients. A user who lists the digital market as an area of interest could be an ideal fit for your new online marketing guide.

Demographics: Additional details such as education level or relationship status may assist you in finding your ideal customers.

But what if you already know exactly who you want to target? This is where Facebook's custom audience is where it comes in. Upload your existing contacts list like your email lists or site users, and then display ads that are targeted for those people .

Custom Audiences are especially beneficial when you have prospects who have signed up to your mailing list or downloaded a lead magnet, but they haven't purchased anything yet.

The last but not least one more powerful targeting tool that can be used to target Facebook sales funnels is the Lookalike Audience .

Use Lookalike Audiences to find people similar to your current customers. Take one of your Custom Audiences (like those of your customers who are already on it or an email list) and inform Facebook to search for more users that "look similar to" the audience.

With almost 1.79 billion active daily users, it's likely that Lookalike Audiences can help you put your advertisements in front of plenty of users you wouldn't be able to reach otherwise.

How to build an effective Facebook sales funnel in 3 steps

1. Brand recognition is created through high-quality quality content

In order to maximize the effectiveness of your Facebook ads, show diverse content and message for different groups depending on their position in your funnel:

The first step to making a stranger into loyal customers is to let them know that you are there. Your primary objective at this step is to make others aware of your company and increase the reputation of your company.

At the top of the funnel (also known as TOFU yum) The buyers are at the awareness stage. They are aware of a problem to solve however, they're not certain which direction to take. There are questions such as:

What should I know about the issues I'm trying to solve?

What brands out there provide solutions to problems similar to mine?

What types of products and services are available to be used to solve my problem?

Make sure you segment your audience based on their position in the marketing funnel.

This is why: 91% of people tend to shop with brands who provide them with relevant offers as well as recommendations. This includes recognizing how familiar they are with your company and product.

It's not a good idea to display top-of-funnel ads to leads who have the potential to convert but you do not want to hit a cold audience with an aggressive sales pitch.

In addition, there are plenty of leads-to-be waiting to discover you: 78% of American customers between 18 and 34 say they've found products through Facebook.

But how do you find these?

For the best audience to target at the awareness stage, take advantage of Facebook's extremely in-depth targeting tools that we discussed earlier, like interest and demographic-based targeting as well as the Lookalike Audiences.

If you have already an email database that is solid You can make use of the Lookalike Audience feature here to select people that are like your existing followers and customers.

The way to target isn't the only one. Facebook ads let you get specific. Once you've set up a new Facebook advertisement It asks users to pick the Facebook goal for marketing :

When you are at the awareness phase, you have two options to select between :

Brand awareness: Reach people most likely to remember the ads you've placed in their minds and raise the awareness of your brand.

Your reach: The ad should be shown to the maximum number of viewers in your market.

When you've decided what your purpose is, you need to choose the message for your ad it self.

Mojca is also adamant about including text that provides a preview of the blog's content and ending by introducing a call-to-action (CTA) which encourages users to read more.

Even if they don't go to your site the first time they see advertisements from you people who see your advertisements may "Like" your profile or visit the rest of your profile on Facebook.

Each touchpoint on the journey of a customer is important and you must have strong organic content for your Facebook page.

If you're not sure where to start -- or don't have enough hours to dedicate in the daytime to dedicate time to social media, a management tool can help you make the most of your time while you develop your social media profile.

Now that you've introduced your brand's name to an audience that isn't familiar with it It's time for you to proceed to the next step in the funnel, which is called the step of considering.

2. Highlight your worth by displaying social proof as well as lead magnets

The middle part of the funnel (a.k.a. MOFU) potential buyers are in the process of considering looking into and comparing a handful of options. They understand what the issue is, and they know there are a myriad of solutions there to solve it.

Your task is to convince your customers realize that the product you offer is the top option.

This is the stage in which buyers are asking: advert funnel, consumers are asking:

From the many brands that I am a fan of Which brand should I buy from?

What kinds of products are they offering?

How are their products different from other companies' products?

This is your product's time to shine. Address your audience's pain points directly and give them the necessary information to make an informed decision about your product.

Customer testimonials, for instance, are a way to show the worth of your product. Take for instance this advertisement by Prose :

Social proof, which is a way of demonstrating the results of others who have used your product or service -- shows warm audiences how your business stands out. It's a good thing, as the majority of those aged 18 to 34 year olds are influenced by online reviews just in the same way as personal advice.

As an example, HubSpot knows that I'm interested in marketing and have interacted with their content before, so they serve me ads like the one below. Signature Generator lead magnet:

Then, this no-cost social media course:

HubSpot provides me with interactive content and valuable resources in exchange for me visiting their homepage and then signing up.

Once I give them my email address, they can enter me in a marketing email campaign for me to move further down their funnel of sales.

Your aim at this point is to get the most traffic possible to your site as possible. The more attractive your lead magnet is your lead magnet is, more appealing it is to your audience, greater the likelihood people will click through to your destination page.

Alright, let's loop back toward the technical part before we move on towards the end of the funnel.

Once you have selected your objective when you are setting up your Facebook ad set-up, these are the ideal alternatives for your advertisements in the process of evaluating them:

Visitors: Increase the number of visitors to your website.

Engagement: Make it easier for more viewers to engage on your page or post.

Video views: Use video ads that show product demos or customer testimonials.

Lead generation: Collect leads, like email addresses from those who are interested in your company.

Messenger: Invite more customers to engage with your company on Messenger.

OK, your prospects are hot and ready to make a difference. Keep reading to learn how to use your Facebook selling funnels to help get your leads to the end of the road.

3. Turn leads into customers through the use of remarketing and

The bottom of your funnel (BOFU) We're heating up to turn your leads into customers.

The time has come to get the (not-so-)secret Facebook ads weapon Remarketing and retargeting.

Have you ever been looking at shoes on an ecommerce site, then clicked over to Facebook and saw similar shoes being advertised in your feed? This is retargeting and entirely due to Facebook's Pixel.

The Facebook Pixel is "a piece of code for your website which allows you to analyze, improve and create an audience for ads". It lets you retarget leads who have visited your site and viewed your posts.

Here's how Facebook Pixel works: Facebook Pixel functions:

Add the pixel the website's code.

The pixel indicates which items people are looking at.

You use the pixel for remarketing and targeting those visitors via Facebook advertisements.

The visitors click on the advertisements then return to your site for completing the purchase.

It may seem a little heavy-handed, but when you make retargeting a part of your marketing plan for digital, it works.

Take Sonos as an example. To advertise its PLAYBASE speakers, Sonos ran a multi-tier Facebook advertisement campaign which used Video Ads, Lookalike Audiences linked ads, as well as Facebook interactive ads.

The next phase of their campaign used the retargeting method to engage users who had already engaged in Sonos' contents.

What did the results show? Sonos was able to reach 19 million customers and earned the 19-fold increase in the value of an ad spend. If you're using pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements, every cent counts.

If you're using retargeting for your own bottom of the funnel campaign, remember that you're addressing those who are eager to make a purchase.

This is the perfect time to:

Social proof is a must.

Show the value of your product by presenting a case study

Make an offer exclusive or offer a huge discount

Make the hard sell or direct sales pitch

For example, Obe Fitness served this Facebook advertisement in my feed:

I've visited Obe Fitness' site before I even began (then stopped) their signup page. Since I was so close to signing up, they targeted me with three whammys -- a video ad, a special discount code, and a CTA to join.

Decision-stage ads are also the best time to ramp up the urgency in your copy, like online marketing specialist Amy Porterfield does in this ad for her Courses That Convert program:

Amy's advertisement highlights the program's value of $3,000 plus the end results you can expect from signing up to her program.

Emojis and copies that read "the clock is running" ramp up the urgency, so customers at the end of Amy's sales funnel have no reason not to join her service as soon as they see the ad.

Basically, at this stage of the funnel, your ads must convert easily for your audience.

In order to achieve that objective in the realm of technical things, it's important to select goals that will encourage those who are most interested to purchase or sign up for your products or services quickly.

The best objective options include:

Conversions: Encourage more users to visit your site, Facebook app, or mobile app. You can use the Facebook Pixel to track and determine your conversion rate.

Catalog Sales: Show your catalogue of products (a.k.a. your site's products) based on your target customers.

If you've got those goals in place as well as the fleshed out Facebook sales funnel that you've designed so far Your warm prospects will become clients in a matter of minutes.

3 steps to build an effective Facebook sales funnel

With the right strategy, Facebook advertisements can be an effective tool for turning prospects who are not interested into customers.

Follow these three steps to set up the basis for your Facebook sales funnel:

At the top in the process, focus on building brand awareness. Make sure that users are familiar with your company by sharing some of your best information.

At the center part of your funnel highlight the benefits of your product. Utilize lead magnets and testimonials to show how your product meets your clients' requirements.

Then, at the bottom on the sales funnel you should go for the hard sell. Use heavy discounts, an underlying sense of urgency, or special promotions to propel your leads over the line.

Make sure you keep the buyers' perspective and concerns in mind throughout the process, and you'll be well in the process of creating the Facebook sale funnel that makes the conversion rate skyrocket.