Targeting an audience on Facebook is difficult. A recruiter can create the greatest ad possible, one that can convert like a champ, but that doesn’t matter if it isn’t getting in front of the right drivers at the right time. And, yes, the right time is key.
The truth is most recruiters and, broadly speaking, advertisers are in the dark when it comes to ad targeting. They keep focusing on the same broad targeting regardless of the campaign objectives. And they never see the results they want.
Blog: Making Social Count: Facebook for Driver Recruiters
In this post, we’re going to look at how driver recruiters can build the right Facebook ads with the right targeting to convert the drivers they need.
[hr style=”3″ margin=”40px 0px 40px 0px”]
1. Website Traffic
Telling a driver to click a link to visit a website is a light action. A website click-through doesn’t require brand recognition or trust, and usually a person doesn’t require a lot of convincing. This makes it a lighter action in comparison to submitting an application.
There are also other benefits for focusing on a light action like website traffic. Driver recruiting needs to be as precise as possible. Therefore, driving website traffic can help actively build a custom audience for later retargeting across most digital marketing channels.
Blog: 4 Tips to Improve Your Facebook Post Performance
You will probably get a few applications, according to where you’re placing CTAs and what pages your pushing traffic too. That’s a positive, but it probably won’t be the application volume needed for true success.
When driver recruiters publish content and distribute it on Facebook, they need to promote it.
For promoting these posts, recruiters can target a few different ways. But it all depends on the size of the fleet and the scale of their recruiting efforts.
For instance, a large fleet can precisely target two different groups:
- Fans
- Website visitors from the last 30 days
To use these precise targeting options, a fleet has to have the necessary website traffic and Facebook followers. In other words, they need a combination of quantity and quality, dependent on the application volume to get the hires they need.
For smaller fleets, who don’t necessarily have large, high quality web traffic or followers, more of their budget should be dedicated to the following:
- Lookalike Audiences, or Facebook users who look like your followers
- Interests
- Match emails to Facebook users (Email Match)
By encouraging website traffic, recruiters are more likely to build engaged remarketing lists to target drivers for other ads.
[hr style=”3″ margin=”40px 0px 40px 0px”]
2. Page Like
A page like is a middle-of-the-road action, compared to a conversion or a website click-through. Recruiters are now asking drivers to taking more concrete actions, but it’s less substantial than a true conversion. They haven’t committed to an application yet, but they recognize the fleet.
It’s typically going to be a driver who knows something about a fleet, either through word-of-mouth recommendations or from their content.
Like we discussed before, fleets are now building their website traffic. Drivers are more engaged and recognize potential employers. Now it’s time for these fleets to build a quality following on facebook. Not only does it help keep the the fleet top of mind, but it also helps increase the likelihood of conversion later down the road.
If a fleet has taken the time to build their website traffic like we discussed before, then one of these options is viable and should be used:
- Friends of Facebook Followers
- Website visitors of the last 30 days
- Email Match
For smaller fleets who are just starting out or who haven’t scaled their website traffic, here are a few other targeting options:
- Lookalike Audiences
- Interests
- Location
Especially in the early stages of building an audience and scaling engagement, it’s important that recruiters build high quality audiences. However, it can be difficult for smaller fleets to recruit drivers with more advanced audiences coming from followers, email, and website visitors.
Blog: 5 Easy Ways to Build Your Brand’s Facebook Page
If a fleet is starting from scratch, they can use less advanced targeting options. They should be mindful to use these sparingly and layer them to get very specific.
[hr style=”3″ margin=”40px 0px 40px 0px”]
Conversion
This is what every recruiter wants. Unfortunately, most recruiters start at this point. They try to get the phone call or form submission at the very beginning from people who don’t them yet. This is a mistake.
Far too many recruiters start here, and often they target too generally with little success.
The first two steps are critically important. Both objectives have built new audiences, kept them engaged, and even driven conversions if used correctly (see web traffic). Without them, getting a prospective driver to submit an application can be incredibly difficult. By following the first few steps, fleets are laying the building blocks for success in the long run.
By now, fleets should have already worked to build website traffic and followers, which will help them convert high quality drivers:
- Facebook Fans
- Website Visitors
If fleets have properly invested in building high quality followers on Facebook, there are a number of prospective drivers who are likely to convert. They have both connected and engaged. But it all revolves around having a quality audience.
Fleets can target website visitors a few different ways. For those who are still building a large audience, targeting general website visitors is both effective and critical. However, as more and more drivers click-through to a website, the more segmented fleets can be in their targeting.
That will allow them to run multiple ads with different offers based on what pages drivers have visited.
Targeting drivers is one of the most critical and difficult things for recruiters to do. It’s even difficult for marketers who use social media on a daily basis. But by looking at the objective, understanding what stage a driver is at, and building the right ad, there is a higher likelihood that drivers will take the action recruiters want.
