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Facebook advertising is closely important to the success of business’s social media marketing efforts.
Creating excellent targeted ads to a niche audience is an incredible way to convert traffic into sales. These ads can be some of the toughest ads to create, as you have to be in it for the long game.
However, if you play your cards right and follow the rules; you can have striking & determinate results.
This case study, from an established client, helps prove the point.
MakerBot- 3D Printing Solutions
Digital products like books, course, and software are always a lot stress-free to sell in theory than in reality. Selling products is difficult, and there is a lot of battle on Facebook’s advertising system.
Today, we are focusing on ‘MakerBot’, a 3D printing company that sells 3D printers worldwide.
MakerBot was one of the first companies to make 3D printing accessible and affordable and today is empowering businesses and educators to redefine what’s possible.
Their achievements weren’t acquired from any single ad, but slightly, their overall Facebook marketing and advertising strategy. With a consistent 30% increase in leads on their ads, they have a lot to teach.
MakerBot, desktop 3D Printer Manufacturers Company founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer and Zach “Hoeken” Smith. They specialize in 3D printing tools for the office, classroom, and home, making 3D printing easy and accessible for everyone. The company’s primary vertical is education, which consists of elementary, and high schools as well as colleges and universities.
The product is completely exclusive, attractive, and engaging, but any good marketer knows that it takes more than a great product to gain success.
The Goal
MakerBot wanted to create more leads and drive online sales for the sales team, more resourcefully, by making it easier for instructors to fill out the company’s web-based lead method.
[pullquote align=”normal”]“Facebook and Marketo will continue to be key components of MakerBot’s branding and lead-generation marketing efforts. Lead ads are particularly valuable in collecting a high volume of leads by simplifying the form submission process on mobile devices, which is where people are spending more and more time. Marketo makes the response to leads seamless and immediately alerts sales.”- Colby Dennison, VP of Marketing, MakerBot [/pullquote]
The Solution
#Crafting compelling ads
MakerBot worked with digital ad agency Pricing Engine to create lead ads aimed at instructors with a compelling offer to scale up their 3D printing capacity at a reduced cost.
The ads offered a free renewed 3D printer with the purchase of 2 new printers, with a clear “Get Quote” call to action.
MakerBot customized the ads’ lead form on Facebook with the 8 lead markers needed by its sales team.
#Target testing
MakerBot ran a similar 7-week link ad campaign targeting 6 different elementary and high school profiles and 6 higher education profiles.
For the fall campaign, the company chose the summer’s highest-performing profiles and used them as the basis for its guiding strategy.
#Collecting leads
To confirm it qualified its leads, MakerBot answered client’ questions in the comments section of each ad, addressing walls and clarifying the offer.
When people clicked the “Get Quote” button, they went to the personalized form, still within Facebook, prepopulated with their information, making it fast and easy to submit.
Facebook Marketing Partner ‘Marketo’ helped close the gap between the leads and the sales team.
The company’s Ad Bridge product fed MakerBot’s leads openly into its marketing automation platform, which sent an email response to each lead and notified sales reps directly.
#Facebook Live Advertising Example
While you can’t boost a live video while it’s airing, you can promote the live event before it airs by advertising to familiar and new audiences.
Results
By using Facebook’s lead ads and Marketo’s Ad Bridge, MakerBot was able to expressively increase its number of generated leads, at a lower cost.
During the 7-week campaign:
- 626 qualified marketing leads were generated
- 30% increase in leads, compared to similar non-lead ad campaign
- 25% reduction in cost per lead, compared to similar non-lead ad campaign
Keys to Success
Share limited discounts and promotions
Offer special deals or benefits to your customers on Facebook to keep them interested, increase loyalty and drive sales.
Engage with clients
Respond to customer questions and comments on your posts. Be human and friendly to show customers you value their opinions.
[pullquote align=”normal”]“Facebook lead ads were a great way to promote this offer to a very specific audience and make the most of our budget. We wanted to increase our mobile engagement and did exactly that. We generated great awareness, highly qualified leads and, most importantly, helped schools take advantage of this offer to provide more students access to 3D printing.”- Colby Dennison, VP of Marketing, MakerBot [/pullquote]
Conclusion and Takeaways
Overall, there are many factors that can help your online marketing strategy for marketing products.
From their experience, building a positive Facebook group is one of the ultimate things you can do for your brand.
When you’ve built a healthy, growing group, you can then apply Facebook Live to show the benefits of your products, and you can re-use Facebook Live content in blog post for advertising to cold leads.
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