Please note: to use the Facebook integration with SuperControl you must have more that 2000 likes – this is a rule set by Facebook.
This is the second installment in a three-part series looking at different social media tools and how you can take advantage of them to enhance your self-catering business. In this article, we’ll tell you how you can create audiences to see your Facebook adverts based on your guest database.
Creating audiences based on customer data collected from your booking system or property management software means when you do pay for advertising your money is being spent on people who have an interest in your accommodation, and are more likely to respond to your adverts.
If you have a database of email addresses of previous or potential guests, you can add this data to your Facebook account and target this audience via adverts. Or, if you use MailChimp for e-marketing you can upload data directly from there.
It’s easy to set up and Facebook saves the data via encryption, so your guests’ data is safe and your custom audience is at your fingertips any time you want to speak to them.
Set up a custom audience
1. Save your data (names, email addresses, phone numbers, country etc) as a CSV or TXT file. If you’re using MailChimp you can go straight to step 2:
2. Download the Facebook Adverts Manager if you don’t already have it. Then, navigate to the Audiences tab:
3. Click on Create a Custom Audience:
4. A dialogue box will open, prompting you to choose where this audience should be created from. Click Customer list:
5. Now you will be asked where this data is coming from. If you’re using MailChimp, simply click Import from MailChimp and follow the dialogue box asking you to log in. If you are uploading your own spreadsheet, click Use a file that includes customer lifetime value (LTV):
If you’re importing your own file, there are some Best Practice details you should read over. This information details how to prepare your data. Another handy tool in the Audience function is the Lookalike Audience. This prompts Facebook to create a new audience of users based on the demographics of your current database, opening your platform to new potential customers and a fresh new audience of people waiting to hear from you!
Our first article showed you how to target your Facebook posts. In the final article in the series, we look at creating audiences based on people who have been visiting your website, and how to track and use this data to market your self-catering accommodation to the guests who are already interested.
Read the next article in the series
