Facebook marketing is constantly evolving as Facebook rolls out new features and algorithms. Staying on top of the latest trends is crucial for marketers who want to maximize their investment in Facebook ads. Some major trends to watch in Facebook marketing include:
More focus on Facebook Stories
Facebook Stories usage has grown rapidly, with over 500 million people using Stories every day. More brands are likely to explore creative ways to use Stories for marketing in 2023.
Further personalization
Facebook’s targeting options keep getting more advanced. In 2023, look for more ways to deliver personalized messages to different audience segments.
Messaging takes center stage
Messaging apps like Messenger and WhatsApp are becoming increasingly important to Facebook’s future. Marketers should consider messaging when planning omnichannel campaigns.
Short form video rules
Video marketing will continue to be a smart bet, especially short form, mobile-first video. Reels and other similar formats should be part of your video strategy.
More shoppable content
Shopping on Facebook is big and getting bigger. Brands will want to highlight products in creative ways throughout the customer journey.
Testing takes priority
With tightening budgets, marketers will need to maximize return from Facebook spend. Robust testing of audiences, creatives and placements is essential.
Aligning with Facebook’s values
Facebook favors content that fits its values around social issues and communities. Brand messaging should consider aligning with Facebook’s mission and priorities.
Let’s explore each of these Facebook marketing trends for 2023 in more depth:
1. More focus on Facebook Stories
Facebook Stories has grown rapidly since launching in 2017. Now, over 500 million people view Stories on Facebook every day. Stories provide an immersive, full-screen experience that can be more engaging for users. For marketers, Stories unlock creative storytelling opportunities with features like music, polls, questions and slideshows.
Here are some stats on Facebook Stories adoption:
- 500 million people view Stories daily on Facebook
- 150 million businesses have created Facebook Stories
- Stories generate 50% more replies than feed posts
In 2023, more brands will explore Facebook Stories as part of their strategy. Vertical, full-screen ads in Stories can capture attention when users are mid-swipe. Advertisers can choose instant Story Ad formats or use the new Story Ads Overlay to transform existing creative. Organic Stories also have huge potential to engage Facebook’s audience in a more personal, fun way.
Types of Facebook Stories
There are a few main types of Facebook Stories for marketers to leverage:
- Feed Stories – These appear as circles above the News Feed. When tapped, they take over the screen.
- Stories Ads – These vertical video ads run between feed stories. They can drive clicks, messages and more.
- Brand Stories – Similar to Feed Stories, but published via the brand’s Page rather than profile.
- Instant Stories – Full-screen, single image ads that instantly appear in-stream.
Diving deeper into Stories ads, there are a few options:
- Instant Story Ads – Single image ad units that load instantly between stories.
- Story Ads – Cinematic, full-screen video ads up to 30 seconds long.
- Story Ad Overlay – Apply your existing Stories creative into a new overlay Stories format.
Benefits of Facebook Stories
Here are some of the benefits Facebook Stories can offer for marketers:
- Grab attention – Stories take over the full phone screen.
- Showcase creativity – Add music, stickers, gifs and more.
- Increase engagement – People interact more via replies and shares.
- Reach new audiences – Tap into the 500 million+ daily Stories viewers.
- Grow brand awareness – Entertain and inform with fun content.
- Promote products – Tag products within organic and paid Stories.
The immersive, “day in the life” aspect of Stories provides a powerful canvas for marketers. Look for businesses in all industries to further embrace Facebook Stories in their 2023 strategy.
2. Further personalization
Facebook has access to incredibly rich user data that can help marketers personalize content and messaging. As AI technology improves, Facebook’s ability to finely segment audiences and tailor the experience will continue evolving.
Here are some ways Facebook enables personalization for marketers currently:
- Interest targeting – Target users based on interests, behaviors and demographics.
- Lookalike Audiences – Reach new people similar to your existing customers.
- Custom Audiences – Market to previous site visitors, app users or CRM contacts.
- Engagement Custom Audiences – Build segments based on how people engage with your content.
In addition, Facebook provides options to personalize ad creative and messaging:
- Dynamic Ads – Automatically pull in relevant product images and details.
- Custom Audiences from your CRM – Tailor messaging to customer history and preferences.
Expect Facebook to add more advanced features for audience segmentation and personalization in 2023. For example, they may integrate new signals to refine lookalike models. Or they could apply their AI capabilities to improve Creative and Ad variations based on individual interests. The ability to tailor ads to different customer journeys and stages will also likely expand.
For marketers, the possibilities to serve highly relevant messages to different niches within your target audience are only growing. Taking advantage of personalization can help boost ad performance and optimization.
3. Messaging takes center stage
Facebook sees messaging apps like Messenger and WhatsApp as the future of online communication. They plan to knit together the messaging ecosystem into a unified experience across their family of apps.
Some stats on Facebook’s messaging apps:
- 130 million people use Messenger for business everyday
- 1.3 billion monthly active users on Messenger
- Over 2 billion users on WhatsApp
Messaging presents a more intimate, conversational environment for brands to engage people. On Messenger, businesses can chat with customers, share information, support sales and more. WhatsApp offers an opt-in business platform as well.
As messaging takes on greater importance, marketers should consider how it fits into their strategy across channels like email and SMS. Messaging can help move customers along the journey from awareness to conversion and retention.
Some ways marketers can leverage messaging include:
- Chatbots – Automate conversations to answer FAQs, qualify leads and more.
- Chat extensions – Collect info with lead gen forms or provide product catalogs within chat.
- Live chat – Enable real-time conversations with sales and support staff.
- Mobile ads – Drive app installs and site traffic with ads that open into Messenger.
- Click-to-message – Add buttons that let people message you right from an ad.
- Messenger broadcast – Send one-to-many updates to subscribers who opt in.
Messaging provides a natural path for people to engage brands on their own terms. As Facebook continues enhancing this part of its ecosystem, smart marketers will embrace messaging in their broader strategies.
4. Short form video rules
Video marketing on Facebook is still growing and evolving fast. But in particular, short form vertical video is exploding in popularity.
For example, Instagram Reels recently surpassed 1 billion monthly users. And Reels engagement increased 30% year-over-year in Q2 2022, according to Meta’s earnings. Short form video clearly resonates right now.
Here are some benefits driving adoption of short form video:
- Mobile-first – Vertical orientation fits small screens.
- Snackable – Short runtimes suit limited attention spans.
- Scannable – Easy to visually grasp quick clips.
- Adaptable – Versatile format across Stories, Reels, ads and more.
- Viral – Highly shareable and interactive with features like Duet.
- Fresh – Provides new creative canvas beyond standard video.
For Facebook marketing in 2023, having a short form vertical video strategy is essential. Here are some best practices:
- Optimize for sound off – Many people watch silently.
- Highlight brand quickly – Make your presence known upfront.
- Use captions – Increase accessibility and view time.
- Leverage hashtags – Help discovery and tap into trends.
- Encourage engagement – Add stickers, quizzes and prompts.
- Reuse content – Repurpose for different formats and channels.
Aligning with the shift to short form mobile video can help brands reach more of Facebook’s user base. This highly engaging format can break through the noise and provide creative flexibility for marketers.
5. More shoppable content
Social commerce on Facebook continues to accelerate, with new features that make shopping seamlessly integrated. Shopping behaviors are increasingly shifting towards social and mobile. Facebook is tapped into that trend and giving marketers more ways to enable on-site product discovery and transactions.
For example, 250 million people now visit Facebook product pages each month. And Instagram Shop has added several enhancements like shoppable streams and Drops.
Key opportunities for more shoppable content on Facebook include:
- Shoppable video – Tag products within video content.
- Shop tabs – Display catalogs organized by categories.
- Product showcases – Create image and video galleries to browse.
- Posts and ads – Tag individual products to showcase and link.
- Shoppable live video – Let viewers checkout featured items.
- Drops – Timed product releases to build hype.
- AR try-on – Virtually try glasses, makeup, accessories and more.
Making shopping seamlessly woven into the customer journey can increase sales. When users are exposed to products in-context through content, it feels like a natural discovery rather than a hard sell.
As social commerce booms, brands have huge opportunities to creatively showcase their items for sale. The convenience of browsing and buying on platforms people already use daily provides a frictionless path to purchase.
6. Testing takes priority
With rising CPM costs and potential headwinds in 2023, marketers need to maximize return from Facebook ad investments. Comprehensive testing helps ensure each dollar spent is optimized for performance.
Testing can cover multiple elements like:
- Audiences
- Placements
- Creatives
- Messaging
- Calls-to-action
- Offer
- Ad formats
Effective Facebook ad testing follows some best practices like:
- Isolate variables – Only test one thing at a time.
- Segment audiences – Test subsets to identify what resonates.
- Analyze over time – Give changes a chance to accrue data.
- Monitor positioning – Watch metrics like CTR, CPC and relevance score.
- Iterate frequently – Continually refine and optimize.
Testing can optimize all stages of the customer journey. For example, experiment with ad variations to identify the strongest top-funnel hooks for each audience. Or try different video lengths to determine what best retains attention.
When budgets tighten, eliminating guesswork through structured tests becomes even more critical. Make testing core to your Facebook marketing process for greater efficiency.
7. Aligning with Facebook’s values
Facebook has faced plenty of criticism around issues like data privacy, misinformation, political influence and more. In response, they aim to realign the platform around what they view as its purpose – bringing people together.
Facebook is elevating content that drives active community engagement and meaningful social interaction. Their values encourage people to:
- Support social issues and movements
- Highlight inspirational stories
- Foster real-world communities
- Promote emotional well-being
These brand safety considerations extend to advertising as well. Facebook restricts ads with:
- Harmful claims or practices
- Discrimination
- Misleading voting information
- Controversial content
They want brands to align with their mission of social good. Companies that embrace purpose-driven marketing may align more seamlessly. But for some industries like alcohol, gambling and weight loss, more adaptation is required.
Smart marketers will take Facebook’s updated priorities into account when planning campaigns. Consider how your messaging and positioning connects with the shift towards community, empowerment and social responsibility.
Conclusion
Facebook marketing continues to rapidly evolve. Staying on the leading edge of emerging formats, features and consumer behaviors is key for marketers’ success. The trends highlighted in this article provide a snapshot of where Facebook is headed in 2023 and beyond.
In summary, marketers should focus on:
- Tapping into Facebook Stories
- Personalizing ads and content
- Integrating messaging
- Embracing short form vertical video
- Enabling seamless shopping
- Comprehensive testing
- Aligning with Facebook’s brand values
As the Facebook platform and algorithms continually evolve, marketers need to remain agile and adaptable. Audiences are dynamic – their interests, habits and preferences change over time. A winning Facebook strategy requires staying on the pulse of consumer behavior and responding with relevant formats and messaging.
By staying up-to-date on the latest Facebook marketing innovations, brands can connect with their audience in more authentic and effective ways.