Facebook is the world’s most popular social network, making it a leading digital advertising channel for marketers. Millions of businesses use Facebook to tell their brand’s story, increase website traffic, and improve sales. And for digital marketers whose work revolves around phones, Facebook call conversions are quickly becoming a key revenue driver.
According to the most recent estimates by BIA/Kelsey, native social ads are expected to drive nearly 23 billion calls and $72 billion in revenue in 2020. With so many phone calls being driven by social media, it’s time marketers start optimizing their social ads for these valuable Facebook call conversions.
Here are four top ways you can start driving more phone calls — and sales — from the Facebook ad network.
1) Mobile Facebook conversions are on the rise
First and foremost, the best way to start driving phone calls from your Facebook ads is to consider the mobile experience. Nearly 93 percent of Facebook’s daily active users (DAUs) accessed the platform via a mobile device in 2016 — that’s roughly 1.15 billion people. Mobile advertising represented approximately 84 percent of Facebook’s advertising revenue in 2016, and that number is expected to continue to grow.
So, as advertisers look to drive conversions from Facebook, it’s critical to think mobile-first. To create those phone call conversions, marketers need to target smartphone devices with mobile-optimized ads and landing pages whose clear call-to-action is a phone call.
2) A clear CTA gets more conversions
Ads on Facebook appear either directly within a user’s News Feed, or adjacent to it if they’re browsing on a desktop. There are two distinct CTAs Facebook provides advertisers that can drive phone calls: users can call directly from your Facebook ad with a “Call Now” button or they can click-through to a landing page on your website.
Facebook click-to-call features make mobile calls easy & instant
As part of Facebook’s click-to-call ad service, you can place a prominent ‘Call Now’ button (or similar CTA) within your click-to-call ads. A ‘Call Now’ button is one of the simplest and most effective tools when it comes to driving phone calls from your Facebook Ads. Available via Facebook Reach ads, this feature allows customers to call you right from the ad within their Facebook News Feed.
When using a CTA, consider how both the ad copy and graphics can be optimized to drive phone call conversions for smartphone users. We recommend using location-specific copy and local phone numbers when targeting prospects who are located nearby to your business.
Driving users to mobile landing pages
If you choose to send users to a landing page via your Facebook ads, always remember to optimize your site for mobile. With nearly 93 percent of Facebook DAUs visiting the site on their mobile device, you want to make sure your landing pages look great on any smartphone or tablet.
Once you ensure your landing page is mobile-friendly, it’s important to highlight your call-centric CTA in order to drive more phone calls. Use clickable call buttons and phone numbers that make it clear you want smartphone users to call your business. (It’s also worth your time to run A/B tests on your CTA placement, colors, and copy.)
3) Facebook ads targeting: Aim for users who call
Facebook provides extremely useful advanced targeting options for all of their ads. These targeting options can help you get in front of highly engaged prospects who are ready to pick up the phone. Facebook’s targeting options include:
- Location: Target audiences based on country, state, zip code, or even distance from your business. Include localized phone numbers in these campaigns to create a local image to your callers.
- Behaviors: Target people by the devices they use. This is extremely useful when creating call-centric ads for smartphone users.
- Lookalike audiences: Do you already know what your callers’ demographics look like? Find people who are similar to your current caller base by building a lookalike audience from your customer list.
- Custom audiences: Facebook also gives you the ability to target current customers by securely uploading a contact list of people you would like to reach. Upload your call log from CallRail or your CRM to target customers who you already know will pick up the phone and call.
4) Integrate call tracking with Facebook to maximize your ROI
Once you’ve started running call-centric ads on Facebook, you should be getting credit for the calls those ads are driving — that’s where call tracking comes in. Use call tracking numbers in all of your Facebook ads and landing pages to ensure you’re driving a high volume of phone calls, and to measure the success of your campaigns. Continue to optimize your Facebook ads using the data provided from CallRail, such as caller location and the ‘Calls by Landing Page’ report.
