When was the last time you accessed Facebook on your laptop or PC? According to the most recent data available on Facebook’s user habits, the odds are that it wasn’t very recently. This data confirms that, in fact, a full 92% of Facebook’s 1.71 billion active users access the site via their smartphones. The number of mobile users is actually growing by 22% each year. Long story short, the potential reach of your Facebook mobile advertising strategy is greater than ever before. So, let’s fine tune this strategy to optimize your impact.

Game-Planning Your Strategy

Shawn Arora, Founder of LaunchSpark, suggests that you begin by deciding on exactly how you’d like potential customers to navigate their experience with your business’s Facebook presence. “For instance, do you want the user to navigate to their Messenger to discuss the product with you? Or, do you want them to spread the word about your brand by liking or sharing your post? Knowing this will help you create the right communication for Facebook.” Remember that expecting a customer to navigate to Messenger on a smartphone requires an additional app, so make sure that you take this into consideration and balance your strategy so you’re reaching your audience in other ways, too. You can read more about the platform gap and how it interferes with your funnel on my previous piece here.

Likewise, timeline contests and polls that ask your audience to interact with your brand on more than one platform can be tricky. Don’t assume that potential customers have other apps, like Instagram or Twitter, installed. Instead of sending followers from Facebook to a Google Forms survey, use Facebook’s survey builder. Make it easy for your followers to interact with you by keeping contests, giveaways, and polls within Facebook.

When working to increase your followers and shares, Arora notes that Facebook’s approach to integrating ads into the news feed (as opposed to right-side ad placement) “means that your ad campaigns must be geared towards engagement (driving up likes, comments and shares) as much as it is towards website clicks”. Consider sharing interesting links and images that are pertinent to your market and your followers. In other words, design your posts to bring value to the reader AND to sell. Make sure that any how-tos or informational pieces you share are accurate and reliable. Take care to give photo credits or share directly from the source when posting images or graphics.

Facebook Mobile Advertising: Reaching an Audience in Motion

Above all, your Facebook mobile advertising strategy must be responsive to the lifestyle habits of the users. Mobile users are just that–mobile, moving, distracted, and time pressed. Arora notes that “mobile users generally tend to browse the web in public, such as during commute or while at work or in a class”. In these on-the-go scenarios, design and utility matter. There are many seemingly small considerations that, if overlooked, can have a major negative impact on your ads’ success.

For starters, optimize your landing site for mobile browsers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve clicked an ad and closed it out again right away due to a lack of mobile browser optimization. Navigating desktop-version websites on a smartphone is tedious! Don’t expect your customers to stay long if your website is not optimized for mobile browsers. The same goes for images you’re including on your landing site and in any other media you’re sharing–be sure to make them mobile-friendly so they display properly.

If you’re looking to garner new followers, likes, and shares, keep in mind this study. It demonstrated mobile users’ preference for text over video. This could be because of concerns about data usage or noise levels in public. Aim for sharing text-based media that people can access and enjoy while commuting, waiting in line, or drinking a cup of coffee before class. It doesn’t have to be short, either. Followers can always open an article in their mobile browser if they want to read it later. And it doesn’t have to be free of video–they can always watch that later, too. But it does have to be of good quality. Seek out pieces that are clearly organized, thoughtfully written, and relevant to your followers.

As you design your Facebook mobile advertising strategy, keep in mind the details that play into the smartphone user’s experience.