Here’s our no-nonsense look at why Facebook Ads are still a great choice for cross-funnel B2B lead generation in 2020. We dare you to refute this claim!

Facebook Ads get a bad rap with some people in B2B circles who categorically eliminate them from the list of tools they could use to create demand for their business.

They claim their audiences are not on Facebook, and often opt for much more expensive (and questionably more effective) LinkedIn ads.

Facebook ads are a low-barrier, low-cost way to get both net new leads and nurture your existing CRM of leads.

Let’s look at 5 (out of many possible) reasons why this is so.

1. Great for Getting Quick Wins

Let’s say your company hasn’t invested in any kind of concerted effort to grow so far. You’ve only been relying on word of mouth and referrals from happy customers and friends/family.

It’s all good, but of - naturally - you cannot scale word-of-mouth.

While a full-funnel B2B strategy is the only way to really grow predictably, before you get started with more time-intensive, pays-off-in-the-long-run techniques like SEO or content, you can rely on paid media to get some leads coming into your database.

Facebook Ads are still super competitive because they don’t cost a lot, you have the unprecedented reach and the ad toolkit has never been so rich and customizable.

Whether you decide to drive traffic to your blog posts or opt for a more direct response approach promoting a BoFu conversion offer, you can count on not paying as much as you would with Google Ads, and certainly not LinkedIn Ads.

With the robust analytics tools and full integration with a number of CRM tools, Facebook Ads can get the much needed leads your sales team is hungry for.

Just don’t rely SOLELY on Facebook Ads long-term (will soon talk about that in a separate blog post).

2. Audience Network

I if I had a euro cent every time a founder or Head of Sales told me: “But, but, Facebook Ads are not for B2B, people we target don’t log in to Facebook.”, well I'd be like this:

First of all, the myth that business people and entrepreneurs don’t use Facebook is just that - a myth.

They just don’t talk about it.

Facebook usage is stills strong: according to Hootsuite, nearly three-quarters of Facebook users don’t go a day without logging in. More than 50% log in multiple times per day. A meager 9% of users log in less than once per week.

Second of all, Facebook Ads have not been just Facebook Ads for a while now. And no it’s not just Instagram either.

Lesser-known Audience Network is a web of mobile apps and websites that show the exact same ads that appear in the FB and IG news feed natively.

You get the same tools for editing the creative coupled with the triad of Facebook’s core, custom and lookalike audience targeting and on top of that you can extend your reach beyond the basic apps.

Notable examples of publishers participating in Audience Network:

• Business Insider
• Wired
• Al Jazeera
• Huffington Post

If you really create an ad with the purpose of fitting neatly in the native ads section of these websites, you can get a lot of qualified traffic and good leads.

3. Qualified leads with Lookalike Audiences

Not only do the placement options help you get qualified B2B leads, but also, you can ask the Facebook Ads algorithm to create a list of people most similar to your best lists: high LTV customers, engaged website visitors.

This is called creating a Lookalike Audience.

You can dictate if you want to optimize this Lookalike audience for similarity or reach, choosing a number on a scale between 1 to 10% of similarity in a given territory (countries).

You can also mix and match for really fine-comb optimization and testing (e.g. targeting 2% and 3% Lookalikes only), although already choosing a Lookalike Audience that searches for the 1% people most similar to your customers is a great start.

4. Low cost per lead

You may not have an extensive lead or customer list to feed the Lookalike Audience.

Or you might be going more for volume, relying in post-conversion qualification and nurturing to create qualified leads.

Both is fine, and in any case, Facebook Ads will get you a competitively cheaper lead than other social networks or paid ads platforms.

The average CPA across all industries for Google Ads is whopping $49 with Search Ads and $76 (!) for display ads.

Compare this with the mild $18 on Facebook and you get the idea.

5. Great for lead nurturing

Still not widely touted as a must-do, but powerful nonetheless, Facebook’s Custom Audiences are a powerful way to engage your leads once they are already in your B2B funnel.

E-commerces have used retargeting to capture abandoned carts for a long while but B2B companies typically don’t see it as useful as much. After all, the return is not immediately evident.

But Facebook Ads can be a personalized, persona-driven way of moving people down towards the purchase more easily.

Capturing leads on a lead magnet page and then using these segmented lists to show them additional content, re-convert them with additional content offers or test offering a bottom of the funnel call to action, are all good use of your money when it comes to Facebook Ads for B2B.

You can even drive pre-conversion prospects who are simply browsing your website to targeted, relevant landing pages and offers in a bid to enter them into your CRM.

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That’s our case on using Facebook ads for business to business lead generation. Options are bountiful. It’s up to you to use them.