Whether you’re a fan of basketball or not, you’ve likely heard of the Ball family. LaVar Ball and his sons regularly make headlines – eldest son Lonzo plays for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA, while his other two boys, LiAngelo and LaMelo are both future NBA prospects (currently playing in Lithuania).
The Ball family also have their own reality TV show on Facebook Watch, which is one of the most popular offerings on Facebook’s new video platform.
But what you may not be aware of is how the Ball family – and their sportswear label ‘Big Baller Brand’ – have used Facebook to market themselves and their products, and what you can learn from their efforts.
Facebook recently published a post outlining how Big Baller Brand has successfully used Facebook marketing to boost its brand and sales. And while you do have to take into account the family’s celebrity status, which gives them a leg up in exposure and reach potential, there are some key points of note that are worth taking in, and considering in your own strategy.
First off, the Ball family have created multiple Facebook and Instagram pages for each of the family members and the Big Baller Brand. They also leverage Facebook Live, Instagram Stories and Facebook Groups linked to their Pages to further expand their brand reach, along with the aforementioned Facebook Watch show – all of these should be considerations for any brand looking to maximize their performance across Facebook’s platforms.
But more interestingly, in a general Facebook marketing sense (i.e. not only for high profile businesses and people), Facebook also lays out a basic playbook for how Big Baller Brand have utilized Facebook ads, which all brands can follow.
Here’s their six-step strategic approach for Facebook ads for BBB.
1. Installed the Facebook Pixel to see how successful their ads were, and how close customers came to purchasing an item from the Big Baller Brand online store.
2. Used Facebook Ads Manager to build and deploy ads on Facebook.
3. Created ads with a direct call-to-action, clean images that showcased specific apparel, and links that led the customer directly to the item shown in the ad.
4. Built Engagement Custom Audiences in Ads Manager to target known fans, such as those who have interacted with one of the Ball family Pages or have watched their videos.
5. Created lookalike audiences to expand the reach of the campaign to send new ads to people with similar qualities to those completing purchases on bigballerbrand.com.
6. Used dynamic ads to retarget fans who visited the online store, but didn’t complete a purchase.
Now, most of these options you’re probably at least somewhat familiar with if you’re already experimenting with Facebook ads, but this six-step guide – especially the last three targeting notes – is a solid process to follow to boost any campaign strategy on Facebook.
Of course, it then comes down to budget and how much money and/or time you have to spend on each step. But definitely, this basic process can drive results.
In the case of Big Baller Brand, Facebook says their Facebook ads drove:
- A 17.76% purchase lift during the campaign
- A 16.9% conversion lift
- 140,000 outbound clicks to the BBB online store
Again, you do have to take into account the celebrity profile of the people involved, but still, this is a good Facebook marketing strategy, that really, any business should be able to utilize.
With Facebook squeezing organic Page reach, more businesses will be looking at paid options to augment their traffic losses. This template could be a great starting point for those considering branching into paid Facebook ads.