As marketers, nothing makes us happier than when Facebook releases a new way to target consumers. Not too long ago we were limited to profile targeting, which restricted us to target users only by the information they chose to include within their profiles. However, in Fall 2012, Facebook released Custom Audience targeting, which allows marketers to find their offline audiences among people who are on Facebook via email addresses, phone numbers, Facebook user IDs or app user IDs. In addition, in Spring 2013, Facebook took a huge step forward launching Partner Categories, which enables brands to target users based on their activity outside of Facebook. Each of these targeting breakthroughs has helped marketers reach their consumer on Facebook more effectively.

However, amongst the glitz and glamour of these more advanced targeting techniques, you might be overlooking a key audience within your social campaign strategy. When it comes to conversions, no target group performs better than a brand’s own fan base. Here are a few examples of that methodology in action:Driving SalesThis summer, Socialtyze was challenged with helping a publishing brand drive magazine subscription sales. We targeted the brand’s consumers whose subscriptions had expired via Custom Audiences (email matching), Magazine Subscribers identified by Partner Categories, and the brand’s fans. As a result, we found that fans were nearly 2x less expensive at converting to subscribers than both Custom Audiences and Partner Categories.

Email LeadsIn another campaign, Socialtyze ran ads targeting Fans, Partner Categories (Magazine Subscribers), and Broad Categories (Magazines) with the intent of collecting email leads. Socialtyze found that fans were 4x more likely to submit their emails than the other targeted audiences.

Contest SubmissionsIn addition, we have found that fans are the most likely to enter contests and sweepstakes. In a recent Dairy CPG brand campaign, fans were 771x more likely to submit an entry into the contest than other targeting, including Likes & Interests, Friend of Fans, and Partner Categories.

For another sweepstakes campaign for a different vertical, the Fans’ sweepstakes entry rate was 1.27%, which was 4.5x higher than the strategic Likes & Interests targeting. Fans comprised of more than 60% of the sweepstakes entries.

Nonetheless, it’s still important to utilize a variety of targeting methods to reach your ideal consumer. Just don’t forget to leverage your biggest brand evangelists that are right under your nose – your Facebook fans!Want to know more about our unique Social Advertising methods? Contact us! Linda@Socialtyze.com