From trying out industry-specific website ads to relying on SEO, here are 14 answers to the question, “For businesses who want to shift away from Facebook ads, what are a few similar customer acquisition alternatives?”
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- Display Ads on Industry-specific Websites
- Bing Ads
- TikTok
- Spotify
- YouTube Pre-Roll Ads
- Quora Ads
- Referral Marketing
- Reddit Ads
- Influencers
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Display Ads on Industry-specific Websites
People frequently disregard these advertising possibilities in a society where Google and Facebook dominate the news. But I recently had a client who needed to get in touch with C-level decision-makers in the agriculture sector, so we started gathering ad specs from all the key competitors in this market.
Every trade publication has a website and probably an email newsletter as well. These ads can position you in front of your ideal customer as reliably as Facebook Ads ever did, despite the enormous variations in ad rates, specifications, and reporting.
Axel Hernborg, Founder and CEO, Tripplo.com
Bing Ads
Bing Ads is a great customer acquisition alternative for businesses looking to shift away from Facebook Ads. This solution helps companies to reach customers across Bing, Yahoo, and Microsoft partner sites with targeted ads based on search terms, website visits, and demographic information.
Bing Ads also offers conversion tracking tools that help marketers measure the success of their campaigns and optimize for better performance in the future. It is a great way to quickly and cost-effectively acquire new customers and re-engage existing leads.
With Bing Ads, businesses have the potential to reach millions of people without relying on Facebook or other social media platforms.
Gosia Hytry, Head of Content, Spacelift
TikTok
TikTok ads can be a successful alternative for businesses wanting to shift away from Facebook. TikTok has a younger user base compared to Facebook, making it a popular platform for advertisers looking to reach a youthful and engaged audience.
Another thing TikTok offers is a range of creative ad formats, including video ads, brand takeovers, and in-feed ads, which can help businesses stand out and grab the attention of users.
TikTok’s content-focused approach and emphasis on user-generated content can lead to high engagement rates among users. This can help businesses build brand awareness and drive conversions through their TikTok ads.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that TikTok is still a relatively new advertising platform, and that it may not be the best fit for all businesses. Before jumping in, it’s important to research your target audience, evaluate the platform’s ad offerings, and consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of TikTok advertising for your business.
Trey Ferro, CEO, Spot Pet Insurance
Twitter ads can be a suitable alternative to Facebook, especially if you want to reach a younger demographic. Twitter users are between 18 and 29 years old, whereas Facebook users tend to be Baby Boomers.
Twitter ads cost $3.50 per impression, which is significantly more than Facebook ads which cost $0.59 per impression. However, this is balanced out by Twitter’s ad engagement rates of around 2% compared to Facebook’s ad engagement rates of around 0.1%.
Remember that Twitter is a platform for trending news, so tie your ads to current information relating to your company, products, or services.
Shawn Plummer, CEO, The Annuity Expert
Pinterest is an excellent platform to not only visually entice your customers, but to reach your desired audience. It connects you with people who are actively searching for products or services like yours, and this makes it so effective.
If your field relies on inspiration and visual ideas, you can take advantage of Pinterest ads and promote relevant pins to a select audience. It’s crucial to understand your audience and build an attractive page before you get started with Pinterest promotions. But once you get the ball rolling, you’re likely to strike gold, as one in two Pinterest users make a purchase after coming across a promoted pin.
Guy Sharp, Relocation Advisor, Andorra Guides
Instagram is a social media platform that has a large and growing user base and allows businesses to reach potential customers through sponsored posts, influencer marketing, and targeted advertising. Like Facebook, Instagram has a visual-first format that makes it well-suited for product-based businesses and e-commerce companies.
By utilizing Instagram, businesses can reach a large and engaged audience, build brand awareness, and drive customer acquisition. Additionally, Instagram provides access to powerful targeting and engagement features, including influencer marketing, shoppable posts, and in-app purchasing, making it a valuable platform for businesses looking to grow their customer base and increase sales.
Jake Smith, Managing Director, Absolute Reg
Spotify
Though it is not the first option that comes to mind, Spotify is an effective platform for acquiring new customers and is a great alternative to Facebook ads.
Some platforms are so expansive that it makes it difficult to narrow your target audience, or they offer little in niche market opportunities. Spotify is one of the few marketing channels that offer both audio and visual coupled with specialization, and with the proliferation of podcasts and the varying demographics of musical taste, you can tailor your ads specifically to your target audience.
With over 430 million active users, and the ability to load your own creative, it can enhance your brand while offering additional opportunities to promote products. Spotify’s versatility and adaptability make it a fertile marketing platform and a legitimate alternative to Facebook ads.
Mackenzie Whalen, Marketing Director, E1011 Labs
YouTube Pre-Roll Ads
YouTube continues to be a powerhouse that influences millions of visitors a day, and this makes its captive Pre-Roll ads feature such a great way to reach your target audience for customer acquisition and a unique alternative to Facebook ads.
Part of the challenge with many social media sites is that the ability to scroll past ads is too easy, which means their marketing effectiveness is quickly diminished. YouTube Pre-Roll Ads allow you to input keywords, topics, or even specific video channels to play your ads, and most importantly, they will be mandatorily shown right before the desired video.
This means you will be less likely to lose your audience before the impression, and create an instant pathway to your landing page. By using YouTube Pre-Roll ads, you can control where the ad is shown while maintaining engagement, making it a fantastic customer acquisition alternative to Facebook ads.
Alexandre Bocquet, Founder and CEO, Betterly
Business-to-business (B2B) organizations may find LinkedIn to be a potent advertising tool. LinkedIn is aware of where we work, but it doesn’t know about our favorite music, movies, or if we prefer crosswords to CrossFit, as well as how long we have been there, and where we stand on that, and our sector. And to whom we are related.
Even at our advanced age, it can make an accurate guess. That could be a secret weapon if you’re marketing goods or services for businesses. Although LinkedIn offers a variety of ad possibilities, I would suggest beginning with the newsfeed.
Dayna Carlin, Director of Marketing and Sales, NovoPath
Quora Ads
Advertising on Quora allows you to connect with potential customers looking for a product or service that is aligned with what you offer. Quora is a highly interactive platform where you can share data-driven information to answer people’s questions.
In return, you can get detailed responses from the users based on the information you communicated. This helps to build your business brand, bring more traffic to your site, and gain ideas about what works best for your audience.
Like Facebook, you can leverage Quora’s targeting features that allow you to qualify leads based on a question’s context, audience, targeted behavior, and many more. Through this, you’ll get the chance to interact with the platform’s 300 million active users each month and potentially attract ideal buyers for better conversion opportunities.
Riva Jeane May Caburog, PR and Media Coordinator, Nadrich & Cohen Accident Injury Lawyers
Referral Marketing
Referral marketing is a more rewarding customer acquisition strategy than Facebook ads. About 71% of respondents in a HubSpot Customer Acquisition study reported that they don’t trust sponsored/promoted ads on social media, including Facebook.
The same report shows that 81% of customers value and trust referrals made by people within their networks, and that referred leads are four times as likely to convert. This makes referral marketing a more effective approach towards customer acquisition.
Moreover, studies show that the customer acquisition costs for referred customers are nearly $25 less than non-referred customers, with referred customers generating more profit per sale than non-referred clientele.
Lilia Koss, Community Manager, Facialteam
Reddit Ads
Reddit has hyper-focused communities called subreddits that are highly effective in vertical customer acquisition. Once you identify the right subreddits in your niche, you can pay for promoted posts to advertise your business.
Users can upvote or downvote a promoted post on the site, so it’s critical to create positive and relevant content to attract customers from these communities. Alternatively, Reddit has display ads you can leverage through a Reddit account manager. These ads appear in the sidebar and can reach more site-wide users. This feature is only accessible to advertisers, with a minimum spending of $50,000 every quarter.
Grant Polachek, Head of Branding, SquadHelp
Influencers
Because we’re a cannabis business, we can’t run ads on Facebook, so we’ve had to become creative about customer acquisition. One alternative that has worked well for us is building relationships with strategic partners and influencers in the cannabis industry.
By partnering with other businesses and working with influencers who already have an established audience, we tapped into new markets and acquired customers more efficiently than ever before. Additionally, this strategy helps us to build trust and credibility with our target audience and position ourselves as industry leaders.
Alex Milligan, Co-Founder and CMO, NuggMD
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO involves optimizing your website and its content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) when people search for keywords related to your business or industry. SEO can be a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to Facebook ads because it focuses on building a strong online presence that lasts over time, rather than just paying for short-term ad exposure.
To get started with SEO, businesses can conduct keyword research to identify high-traffic, high-conversion keywords, and then optimize their website and content around those keywords. This can include things like updating meta descriptions and titles, creating high-quality content that is keyword-rich and informative, and building backlinks to your website from reputable websites.
Sven Patzer, CEO, Sven Patzer
