How to Move Social Media Strangers Down Your Banking Sales Funnel

On Facebook and Instagram your Financial Institution is competing with thousands of other pieces of content. To set yourself apart from this endless amount of choices, you need to build a relationship with social media users.

From years of testing, we have found that building three categories of audiences is the most efficient and effective way to spend your social media ad budget and convert these users to customers. We have even seen some cases where the costs per result have dropped nearly 33%!

Here's how you can do it too!

Let's Start at the... TOP of Funnel (TOF) - Cold Audience

I like to refer to this type of audience as a 'cold' audience. They can be narrowed to include either friends of your fans or demographically look like people who have been to your website or have engaged with your Facebook page in the past. However, they most likely do not know your Financial Institution and have not interacted with your brand in the past.

Since these are people who are not familiar with you, it makes sense that you need to introduce yourself to them! And the cheapest way to reach new people and get them moved into the next stage is through engagement ads or website click ads to see content on your website.

Engagement ads need to be FUN and attention grabbing. We use a lot of short video and gifs for the content of these ads. Video posted directly onto the social media platform will reach the most people and generate the highest engagement.

PRO TIP - Post Idea:

'Trying to understand 'budget''

For website click ads to this cold audience we recommend you share blog content from your website. The best blog ads are focused on a problem or interest your ideal persona would have and are NOT specifically product or service related. The content you choose at this stage should be TOP OF THE FUNNEL or early buying stage content - so don't just share articles about auto loans or Home Equity Loan specials, these ads will come later. 

These early 'cold' posts or pieces of content you share should be about something that will grab your ideal persona's attention, maybe a packing list for their next vacation or a guide to top 10 tips for saving for a wedding. 

Learn More: Definitive Guide to Social Media Marketing for Financial Institutions 

Build Trust & Rapport with the Middle of Funnel (MOF) - Warm Audience

Now that you have started to build up your Page Engaged and Website Custom Audiences, it is time to start targeting these 'warmer' social media users with more promotional offers! When targeting this 'warm' audience we have seen cost per result decrease by nearly 33%.

To create this type of custom audience for targeting users on Facebook and Instagram do the following:

1. Go into Facebook ads manager and click 'Audiences' in the hamburger menu on the top left.
2. From there, you can click the blue button that says 'Create Audience' and 'Custom Audience'.
3. It will then ask you where this custom audience is going to come from,
4. You can create one for Page Engaged Users AND/OR one for All Website Traffic - you now have your warm audience! 

These audiences may not be big enough to focus your entire promotional ads budget towards, but they should definitely be targeted for every product related campaign. We have seen time and time again that the results from these audiences are significantly less costly than lookalike audiences.

The ads you create for this audience should be customized to the demographics available. So, for example, if the ad is a post for a HELOC special, be sure you adjust age and add detailed targeting to reach home owners and/or people who are interested in DYI or home improvement types of content. 

Finally Convert with Bottom of Funnel (BOF) - Hot Audience

Now, these people are on FIRE! They have been engaging with your content on social, reading your blog, visiting your product and service landing pages and most of all, they are familiar with your Financial Institution!

Now they are ready to convert. We recommend that you try to capture their contact information with Lead Gen ads or Conversion ads. And you can create these Lead Gen ads right in Facebook Ads Manager!

We recommend that you build these conversion ads for an offer or promotion your audience will find attractive, like a budgeting eBook or a car-buying checklist.

Led Gen ads are great because the user doesn't have to leave Facebook or Instagram to convert, and the form is automatically filled out with the personal information on their profile. All they have to do is hit submit!

Conversion ads on the other hand will take the user off of the social media platform and onto your website. If you are asking someone to fill out a form or even an application, make sure you are redirected them to a thank you page. The conversion is tracked by the thank you page URL so it is important that there is one set up.

If you're interested in learning more, we offer lots of staff training for social media and digital advertising, as well as ongoing support for clients who would like to outsource this kind of campaign. Check out our services page to learn more or contact us today!