Getting a steak, chicken leg, or pork chop onto your plate involves a lot of people and a lot of hard work. However, Facebook advertising has some simple solutions to make the journey more efficient. 

Before we dive into how Facebook advertising can help meat producers, we should acknowledge that meat production is political. It’s tough work to run a successful livestock operation (especially during a pandemic), and the industry involves several important groups of people.

You might be asking yourself: What does Facebook have to do with ranchers and other meat producers? The answer is that Facebook includes a majority of ranchers and meat producers. 

Seven out of 10 Americans are using Facebook.

And before you write Facebook off as a frivolity of youth, consider the fact that 68% of Americans aged 50-64 are using Facebook regularly.

Regardless of age, it’s important to meet your key customers where they already are: on Facebook!

Make the Journey to the Plate More Efficient

In an industry that is so heavily driven by market prices, it’s important for your operation to remain agile.

Everyone in the meat industry — from the farmer to the retailer — has an important task of building and maintaining business relationships both in person and online. 

As we’ve said before, digital marketing for livestock producers can help smooth out the task of getting the right information to people at the right time. One of the best places to do so is Facebook, where Americans spend hours every day connecting with people, causes, and businesses they care about. 

Three Ways Facebook Ads Can Help Your Operation

1. Find Exactly the Right Audience with the Right Message

The livestock business is built upon hard work and strong relationships among growers, buyers, and sellers. Every piece of the meat production chain has a key audience, and many of these audiences are readily available in Facebook Ads Manager. 

Think about the people who are connected to your part of the livestock ecosystem. Who buys what you’re selling (or growing)?

Here are some key demographic questions to consider:

• Where do your customers live? Are they local to your operation? 
• How old are they? 
• What do they do for a living? 

No matter how you answer these questions, Facebook has the information you need to target these basic demographics. 

From there, Facebook has even more impressive targeting options. 

You can divide your audiences into categories for more specific types of ads. For example, if you’re selling angus bulls, you can target ranchers who are interested in the key areas of your business. These targeting options are all built into Facebook!

Let’s say your business is even more specific. You, for example, are responsible for contracting thousands of custom-fed hogs for a packing plant in central Iowa. This is where Facebook’s built-in targeting can be limited. 

Luckily, Facebook also has a feature called Lookalike Audiences. As the name suggests, Lookalike Audiences are automatically generated from the visitors who already follow your page or visit your website.

To use this highly effective targeting tool, you will need to install the Facebook pixel on your website. 

What Are Facebook Lookalike Audiences and When Should You Use Them

2. Stick with High-Value Website Visitors or Fans

In the world of digital marketing, it’s common knowledge that only a small percentage of your website visitors will convert into leads. 

Much like sorting cattle at a stockyard, livestock marketers can sort out their website visitors as they arrive and then serve Facebook ads to the ones who are most likely to take action. This is called retargeting.

With the Facebook pixel installed on your website, you can retarget all of your visitors or only the ones who look at specific pages. 

For example, if you have a bull sale coming up, you can retarget the people who have viewed the bull pages on your ranch’s website to ask them to RSVP to the sale event on Facebook. 

Facebook retargeting is also a great way to sustain traffic to specific parts of your site. So, if someone comes to view your product or animal pages, you can then serve an ad that explains how you are different from your competitors.

This step-by-step drip of information is called lead nurturing, and it is a very powerful tactic in Facebook advertising. 

Show Your Ads to People Who Want to See Them with Ad Retargeting

3. Learn About Your Meat Production Audience

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of data that Facebook provides to advertisers. Luckily, Facebook has created a tool that helps you understand the values and interests of the people who already interact with your page and livestock Facebook ads.

Facebook Audience Insights provides data that will show you the demographics, interests, lifestyles, and browsing habits of your core audience. This will help you allocate your operation’s marketing money to run more effectively over time.

Livestock producers might feel limited in the resources they have to generate new business. However, the options on Facebook are virtually endless. This is why it’s also important to split-test your Facebook ads, so you can refine both your messaging and your targeting over time.

For example, a survey by Drovers showed that more than half of cattle ranchers will travel more than 100 miles to purchase new bulls or heifers for their herds. With the geotargeting capabilities of Facebook ads, it’s easy to reach these ranchers who might have gone elsewhere to find their new livestock.

There are hundreds of ways to make Facebook ads for your livestock operation. You can make ads with any message, any pictures, and any links.

There are also a bunch of different formats you can choose for your livestock Facebook ads: 

• Video: A highly engaging way to show videos that you might already have for your operation
• Carousel: A side-scrolling view of “tiles” containing images or videos
• Instant Experience: A fullscreen ad that opens on mobile devices
• Collection: An immersive ad using the Facebook catalog integration to feature multiple products in an Instant Experience format

The options don’t end there.

Facebook ads can also be placed on various areas of the Facebook and Instagram networks to help you reach your core audience in the right places. Test all of these placements to see what works best for your livestock operation. 

Livestock Marketing

9 Clouds Is Here to Help Grow and Move Meat Online

The livestock industry is old, unpredictable, and complex. You need marketing solutions that coordinate with your hard work and play to the strengths of your business.

9 Clouds can help you simplify your marketing strategy and focus on the things that matter most for your operation. 

Whether you want to generate more leads, market a certain product, or find more ranchers for your business, we have the experience and the know-how to help you out. 

If you have questions or want help, contact us for a free consultation. 

Capture Your Livestock Market With 9 Clouds »

Banner Image Courtesy of the National Pork Board, Des Moines, Iowa