By meeting your customers online, your livestock operation can capture a great market share with digital marketing.

Digital ads — like those on Facebook and Instagram — can help your livestock operation attract business from far and wide. With the advanced targeting options and creative formats of online advertising, you reach new leads and conquer entirely new markets. 

If you’ve already added Facebook advertising into your livestock business’ marketing strategy, the following targeting tactics will help you reach the right people with the right message.

Types of Audience Targeting in Facebook

Facebook offers many strategies for targeting an audience within its Ads Manager platform. We’ll cover each below and how to use them in tandem to deliver strategic results.

Website Retargeting

Users who have visited your business’ website, but perhaps haven’t yet converted into a customer, are a prime audience for your Facebook ads.

By creating a custom audience in Facebook of folks who have visited specific URLs, you can retarget them with your message. Keep in mind that you must have the Meta Pixel (more commonly known as the Facebook Pixel) on your website to create this type of audience.

Interest Targeting

Facebook offers the ability to reach users based on lifestyle, interests and behaviors. You can utilize this to connect with new people who may be interested in your livestock brand or product.

For the ag industry, this can include people who are interested in beef cattle, ranching, livestock shows and more.

Custom Lists

Do you have a contact record management system (CRM)? If so, you’re poised to utilize this data to reach past customers and leads with your livestock digital ads. 

After all, once someone does business with you — assuming you provided a positive experience — they’re likely to return.

Facebook allows advertisers to upload lists of contacts into Ads Manager as a custom audience. Put your valuable CRM data to work by utilizing this option!

Past Platform Engagers

Similar to the website retargeting tactic, you can also target Facebook ads to people who have interacted with your Facebook or Instagram page in the past.

Whether that includes the past itself, organic posts on the page or previous paid ads, this option is valuable in further engaging with an audience who is already aware of your brand.

Lookalike Audiences

This is where real magic can happen with Facebook advertising! 

Facebook utilizes their Lookalike audience tool to identify users who are similar to your existing audiences. You can build a Lookalike audience based on past website traffic, custom lists from your CRM and more.

To create a Lookalike Audience based on a custom audience, like a list from your CRM, Facebook identifies specific user information to match your customer list to their actual Facebook profiles, so the more information you can import, the better. Here are the customer properties Facebook can use:

• First name
• Last name
• Email addresses (up to three)
• Phone numbers (up to three; must include country code)
• City
• State / province
• Zip / postal code
• Country
• Date of birth
• Year of birth / age
• Gender

This is why it’s advantageous for your team to actually gather this information from your leads and customers — because you can more accurately use it to find other qualified leads on Facebook.

This tactic allows advertisers to reach brand new, qualified audiences. Livestock advertisers should utilize Lookalike Audiences to reach new people who perhaps have never heard of their operation but might be a good fit for the services or products. 

Mind the Funnel

Now that you know which targeting options are available for your livestock advertising on Facebook, let’s discuss how to use them strategically.

At 9 Clouds, we often reference the “sales funnel.” This three-stage journey refers to a lead or customer’s perspective throughout the buying process. You’ve certainly experienced this yourself online: 

• Top of the funnel: You see an advertisement for an online boot store that you’ve never heard of before. You don’t need new boots right now, but you do wear boots. You go on with your day.
• Middle of the funnel: A few months pass, and you’ve worked a hole into your boots. It’s time to start thinking about getting a new pair. You remember that online store you saw online a few months back and begin doing research on their website, comparing the different styles and reading the frequently asked questions (FAQs) about their brand.
• Bottom of the funnel: Another month has passed. The hole in your boot has worsened, and you’ve done ample research on this new boot company, so you’re ready to purchase. You see a Facebook ad showing the exact pair of boots you were looking at online just last week. You click through to the website and purchase the pair.

As you likely know from your own buying decisions, making a large purchase or choosing a new business to work with takes time — and the process is often not linear. Because your potential customers are at different stages of the funnel at different times, you must craft your message accordingly.

So how does Facebook targeting fit into the sales funnel?

Not all aforementioned audience types are ready to receive the same message, so you must align your campaign objectives with the buyer’s journey. For example, if a Facebook user has never heard of your operation before, an advertisement encouraging them to call you right now likely won’t be successful. Instead, they may respond well to an ad encouraging them to look through your website and become familiar with your brand.

Meanwhile, a user who has already visited your website or engaged with your brand on Facebook may be ready to give you a call or send a message when prompted to do so with an ad.

Here’s an idea of how the audience tactics discussed above could best fit into your funnel strategy. Consider this when building your Facebook campaigns.

• Top of the Funnel: Think reaching new people; brand awareness. This could include Lookalike and interest-based audiences.
• Middle of the Funnel: These folks are familiar with your brand, but still in the consideration phase. This stage of the funnel might include custom lists of past leads or people who have engaged with your brand in the past on Facebook.
• Bottom of the Funnel: This audience is familiar with your brand, and they are ready to do business with you. Perhaps they have in the past. This is where audience retargeting fits into the strategy, as well as a custom list of your past customers.

You Know Your Livestock Audience — Now Reach Them Online

You know your customers better than anyone, and with these Facebook tools at your fingertips, you’ll be able to better serve them online while growing your business.

Do you want to see results from your livestock business’ digital marketing strategy, but not sure where to start?

9 Clouds helps our livestock clients attract, educate and convert audiences online, and we can help you, too. Learn more about our digital marketing services for agriculture and livestock, and contact us when you’re ready for a free digital proposal.

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