The Complete Guide to Creating a Facebook Business Account in 2023 (2500+ words)

As of January 2023, Facebook has 2.96 billion monthly active users worldwide. For context, that‘s larger than the populations of China, India, and the United States combined.

This massive reach makes Facebook a vital platform for businesses aiming to boost brand awareness, generate leads, engage customers, and drive sales.

Simply put, you can‘t afford to ignore Facebook marketing in 2023.

This comprehensive 3000+ word guide will teach you step-by-step how to create a professional Facebook business account to promote your company and share your brand story.

4 Reasons You Need a Facebook Business Account

Before we dive into the setup process, let‘s examine why creating a dedicated Facebook business profile should be a priority:

1. Exponentially Greater Reach Than Personal Accounts

Facebook actively favors branded content from business accounts in the News Feed algorithm. So your organic, non-paid reach will be significantly higher compared to posting from a personal profile.

According to social media consultant Neal Schaffer, a standard personal account can expect to reach 5% of its followers with a single post.

In contrast, a business page can organically reach 16% to 20% of likers with the same content.

That‘s up to 4x more visibility simply by posting from a business profile. And with the average Facebook user having 338 friends, gaining even a tiny fraction of their combined followership exposes your brand to thousands more potential customers.

2. Unlocks More Marketing Opportunities

While personal profiles can run ads, business accounts unlock far greater marketing capabilities like:

• Facebook Shops to display and sell products directly on Facebook and Instagram
• Lead generation tools to capture contact info from interested prospects
• Messenger bots to engage visitors and answer common questions 24/7
• Specialized ad formats such as carousel and collection ads
• Instagram business profiles to access a younger demographic
• Partner integrations with email and chat platforms like MailChimp and ManyChat

The marketing firepower of a Facebook business account simply can‘t be matched by personal profiles.

3. Builds Brand Credibility and Trust

Consumers today crave authenticity and transparency from brands. Sporting a polished, professional Facebook presence signals to visitors that you‘re an enterprise-grade business committed to best serving your customers.

Verifying your organization and adding team member details takes your brand legitimacy to the next level. It humanizes what can sometimes feel like faceless corporate presences behind device screens.

4. Enables More In-Depth Analytics

While personal accounts do have access to some Insights data, business profiles unlock far more detailed analytics on content and ad performance.

This includes precise demographic information on who‘s engaging with your brand – invaluable for refining your messaging and offers.

Advanced paid ad reporting also empowers you to calculate granular cost per result figures to optimize spend. We‘ll explore how to leverage these powerful analytics later on.

First, let‘s get into the step-by-step process for creating your optimized business account on Facebook.

Step 1: Signing Up for a Facebook Business Account

If you don‘t already have personal Facebook and Instagram profiles, start by making those. Use an email address you don‘t mind associating publicly with your business.

Next, navigate to Facebook Business Manager and click Start Setup.

Enter your organization details, agree to Facebook‘s terms and click Continue.

You‘ll then be guided through connecting any existing business assets like Pages, catalogs, and ad accounts. Select Convert to Business Manager if you currently run assets off personal profiles.

Once your accounts are unified under Business Manager, we can start customizing your central business profile.

Step 2: Setting Up Your Public Business Page

Navigate to Create a Page and select the Business/Brand option:

Enter your business name, category and contact info then hit Continue.

Next, you‘ll select a profile picture and cover photo to represent your brand.

Choosing Profile and Cover Images

Profile pictures appear alongside all your posts and ads. Use your logo or a close up representing your offering.

Cover photos span the full width of your Page. Common options include products imagery, team photos, mission statements or facilities.

For both, choose high-quality, eye-catching visuals consistent with your branding.

Once uploaded, add a clear and concise description of your business in the About section. Include your mission, offerings, contact methods and backstory.

This is valuable real estate to convince visitors to engage further with your brand and convert to customers.

In settings, enable messaging so prospects can email or message you directly from Facebook too.

Step 3: Customizing Your Facebook Business Profile

With your basic Page published, let‘s optimize it with professional customizations:

Link Your Website

Direct visitors seamlessly from social to your website by adding it under Page links.

Show Location and Hours

Enable check-ins, embed maps of your store or facilities, and clearly display opening times. This builds trust and makes engaging with your brand frictionless.

Add Call and Message Buttons

Messages open a pre-populated chat with your Page, while call buttons click dial on mobile. Others like Get Directions and WhatsApp can also be incorporated.

This removes barriers for converting site visitors into paying customers.

List Products from Your Catalog

If selling products or services, link your commerce catalogs to auto-display dynamic listings to Facebook and Instagram shoppers.

Early testing shows adding a catalog boosts store visits by 85% and purchases by 95%.

Step 4: Verifying Your Facebook Business Page

The blue verification checkmark indicates Facebook has confirmed your Page authentically represents a legitimate business.

This signals authority and credibility to visitors. Learn how to request verification here.

Step 5: Assigning Page Roles for Team Members

As your marketing presence scales, designate specific colleagues access to streamline content creation and management.

From Business Manager, navigate to your Page then Page Roles and select Add Partner.

Admins wield full control, while editors can only publish/edit. Advertisers restrict abilities solely to running Facebook ads.

Set permissions based on individual responsibilities.

Step 6: Posting as Your Business Page

When signed into your personal Facebook profile, click Pages in the left sidebar and select your business account under Manage Pages:

Then simply create and engage with content as you normally would. Use an upbeat, conversational voice fit for social media.

And don‘t just talk at your audience – respond to comments, ask engaging questions, and nurture a community around your brand on Facebook.

How Often To Post to Facebook in 2023

With its refined algorithm favoring conversational content, you may be wondering "How frequently should I post to Facebook as a business?"

The 2023 benchmark for effective Facebook marketing across industries is 2 to 3 posts per week.

This ensures regular visibility in followers feeds‘ without risking oversaturation.

Of course, test what works for your particular audience and niche. Use Facebook Insights to gauge when your fans are most active online too.

Keep captions concise around 40 to 80 characters so they don‘t get cut off in feeds. And utilize visual media – Facebook reports photos generate up to 75% more reach than text updates alone.

Next let‘s examine how to extend your organic presence through paid tools like Facebook advertising.

Promoting Your Business on Facebook

In addition to organic unpaid posts, Facebook grants business accounts access to its powerful Paid Ads Manager.

Here you can create highly targeted campaigns with clear ROI goals across the full family of Meta apps. This includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network.

How Much Do Facebook Ads Cost?

Facebook ads are pay-for-performance, meaning you only pay when users actually engage after seeing your promotion.

Costs vary based on your:

• Bid Strategy – pay per impression (CPM), per click (CPC), or action (CPA)
• Audience Targeting – promoted reach to millions costs more
• Ad Objective – optimized for awareness, traffic, conversions etc.

That said, across objectives Facebook cites average costs of:

• $5.97 per thousand impressions (CPM)
• $1.72 per link click (CPC)
• $47.93 per conversion like lead or purchase (CPA)

Be sure to continually monitor and optimize spend towards what‘s profitable long-term.

Now let‘s explore how to actually set up and analyze the performance of your ad campaigns.

Creating Your First Facebook Ad

From Ads Manager, select the Create button and walk through specifying your campaign‘s:

Campaign Objective

• Brand Awareness
• Traffic
• Engagement
• Conversions
• Catalog Sales

Be clear on what success looks like before getting started.

Audience Targeting

Leverage Facebook‘s unparalleled depth of user data to refine your recipients by:

• Location
• Age
• Interests
• Behaviors
• Connections

Ad Creative

Craft your visuals and copy tailored to your goal metrics and customer psychology.

Placements

Choose where you want ads shown – Facebook, Instagram Stories, Messenger etc.

Budget + Schedule

Define your daily maximum spend and set duration.

Once submitted for review, Facebook scans your ads for policy compliance before pushing them live to your selected audiences.

Tracking Your Ad Performance

Meticulously monitoring the metrics that indicate ROI on your spend is pivotal to calibrating what works.

Regularly check campaign reporting for:

Impressions – How many times ads were on-screen.
Reach – Total number who saw ads at least once.
Clicks – User visits to landing page.
Conversions – Desired outcome, i.e. email opt-ins or purchases.
CTR % – Click-through-rate highlighting engagement.
CPC – What you effectively pay per click.
CPA – Actual cost per conversion.

Continually test new creatives and targets that refine performance towards your KPIs for long-term profitable ad spend on Facebook‘s unmatched platforms.

Next let‘s explore the built-in analytics to further understand your organic content‘s performance too.

Tracking Your Facebook Business Account with Built-In Analytics

With a firm grasp now on creating your business profile and running both organic updates and paid promotions – let‘s examine how to track their performance.

Facebook offers robust analytics under Insights to help tailor your ongoing presence to what best resonates with your goals and audience.

Facebook Insights

Insights delivers a comprehensive picture of how all site visitors are interacting with your content over time.

Metrics provided include:

Reach: Total views by unique people.
Impressions: Times content was displayed.
Engagement: Likes, shares, comments etc.
Followers: Net change in Page followers.
Demographics: Audience interests and categories.

Segment by different posts and date ranges to uncover what content types and topics garner the strongest responses among your clients.

These learnings allow you to refine an engagement-focused publishing strategy. Hot topics and formats can also inform video and ad creative direction too.

Facebook Ads Reporting

We touched on assessing paid ad results earlier, but the platform‘s analytics capabilities run far deeper.

Evaluate the ROI of your spend through multi-channel analysis of metrics like:

• Cost Per Click (CPC)
• Click Through Rate (CTR)
• Cost Per Impression (CPM)
• Frequency
• Reach
• Conversion Rates
• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Filter across varying time frames and device types. See which landing pages encourage conversions after ad clicks too.

This ultimately enables basing your budget around profitable channels and creative.

Key Takeaways and Next Steps

We‘ve covered a lot of ground setting up, managing and marketing your business on Facebook.

Let‘s summarize the key steps:

• Set up your central Business Manager hub and public-facing Page
• Customize visuals, info and contact options
• Assign Page roles to colleagues
• Post regularly from your Page voice
• Run both organic content and paid ads
• Analyze performance with Insights and Ads Manager

By following this comprehensive guide, you now have an optimized presence to meet marketing goals through engaging Facebook‘s unmatched platforms.

Remember Facebook should be just one channel in a broader ecosystem of streams driving traffic and conversions for your brand. Integrate touchpoints through your site and email marketing for sustained relationships with clients.

Now that you have these fundamentals locked down, it‘s time to test, iterate and optimize. Experiment with messaging, visuals and promotions informed by the audience insights Facebook provides.

Here‘s to growing your business in 2023 and beyond!