Facebook tricks: The playbook for social media marketers

If you’re looking to harness Facebook’s potential for your brand in the face of an ever-changing algorithm and tweaks to business features, you need to stay abreast of the best Facebook marketing tricks to keep in your back pocket.

These include:

• Creating targeted ads with AI.
• Prioritizing posts and formats – like Live videos – that spark engagement.
• Boosting direct sales with Facebook Shops, live commerce, and in-app checkout.

Facebook has an overwhelming amount of features. Luckily, we’re here to guide you through key Facebook tricks of the trade so your brand can take advantage of its growth opportunities. Let’s jump in.

Use Facebook’s eCommerce features to help your brand sell products

Hot Facebook tip: Some features are tailor-made for the needs of eCommerce. Facebook Shops allows businesses to list and sell their products directly within the platform, making for a streamlined user experience.

To make the most of Facebook’s eCommerce features for brands:

• Set up in-app checkout: If your brand is set up with Facebook Commerce Manager and is located in the U.S., you’re in luck. (And if you need to set up Commerce Manager, go here.) Both Facebook and Meta’s other mainstay, Instagram, now allow businesses that meet those criteria (among other requirements) to accept payments directly in the app. Don’t sleep on setting this up. When users don’t have to leave the platform to make purchases, they are much more likely to buy.
• Use live commerce features: While Live Shopping is no longer a separate feature on Facebook (R.I.P., product playlists and the ability to tag products within the livestream), you can – and should – showcase products on a live Reel, engage with viewers, and direct them to your website or Facebook Shop for purchases. Because users will need to click a couple more times than they did in the Live Shopping days, make sure you have your strongest sales pitched prepped and ready.
• Display your best-sellers in Facebook collections: Organize and curate your products using Facebook collections. Sort your items by product type to make it easy for users to find them – and don’t forget a best sellers section.
• Hook customers with a compelling CTA: Create a custom CTA button for your Page based on the desired action and send interested audience members to the next step that’s most valuable for your business.

Community: The ultimate Facebook hack

Don’t discount how much your users want to engage with your business on Facebook. One of the greatest Facebook secrets is just how useful your loyal customer base can be for your business.

Here are a few great ways to nurture community on Facebook:

• Create a Facebook Group where fans of your brand can learn about promotions and events, share experiences, and interact. Instapot has a public Facebook group, Instant Pot® Community, with 3.2 million members who swap recipes and share cooking experiences.
• Increase conversions with User Generated Content (UGC). Encourage followers to share content and reward the ones who contribute. You can see customer content that tags or mentions to your brand on the UGC tab in Commerce Manager.
• Create content that drives engagement. Post interactive content such as polls, quizzes, and challenges to spark conversations and keep your community involved.

Use Reels to increase engagement

Video is a powerful tool on Facebook and Instagram. It’s among the most popular content types on both platforms – and it helps you sell. In fact, 88% of marketers are convinced that video has helped them generate leads. Cross-post Reels between Meta’s platforms to maximize your impact.

These Facebook hacks will help you win on Reels:

• Be authentic: Users want entertainment, not a sales pitch. Try emulating UGC when creating your own marketing content. Ensure there is always a helpful takeaway regardless of whether the user is interested in your product at this moment in time. They may be later, and you want to leave them with a positive brand impression.
• Post consistently: Focus on engaging your audience by posting consistently, ideally, once a day. Post too little, and you’ll be forgotten – post too much, and your audience may associate “pesky” with your brand. Not a good look. Posting at least once a day is the sweet spot that was cited by 46% of consumers in Emplifi’s latest survey.
• Trend spot: Stay on top of viral trends and incorporate them to increase visibility.

Hack Facebook’s algorithm by going live

Major Facebook algorithm trick: Go live. The algorithm continues to place Live videos higher in users’ feeds and notifies users when an account they are following goes live (unless a user opts out of those notifications).

Here’s how to seize the power of Facebook Live for your business:

• Host tutorials, masterclasses, or demos.
• Promote your live event.
• Announce the winners of a previous Facebook contest.
• Go behind the scenes at your company.

The ultimate Facebook trick: AI

Let’s talk more about AI. Sure, it’s a bit of a buzzword these days, and maybe something of a controversial one. But AI is a fantastic tool to maximize your potential. Here are some ways to do just that:

Optimize your Business Page for local searches

Facebook now has a feature that helps users locate your business. Make sure your profile is up to date with all the relevant details. If your brand has a physical storefront, encourage customers to check in at your location. It’ll boost your visibility in “local” searches.

Create targeted ads with AI

Once you’ve found your customers, use this hack to get the most out of your ad strategy. Facebook now has the capability to help you really understand what customers want. That’s powerful information to use to deliver it to them. On average, ad campaigns using Meta’s generative AI ad features resulted in an 11% higher click-through rate and 7.6% higher conversion rate compared to campaigns that didn’t use the features.

Some of the best ways to accomplish that:

• Generate ready-to-publish content to streamline posts across platforms.
• Utilize “social media listening” to analyze customer sentiment on posts and trending topics so you can stay on top of fast-moving trends in the news cycle.
• Use AI-powered image quality prediction and scoring to determine which images will most appeal to your audience.

It’s remarkable how much you’re now able to learn about your customers, and just how powerful that information can be when it comes to your ad strategy.

Use AI to communicate directly with customers

AI chatbots can change customer service from a dreaded experience into a smooth and easy one. Here’s how:

• Automate customer interactions
• Analyze questions to provide instant responses to FAQs
• Customize the next experience by gathering details from the first one

There’s nothing like a pleasant customer service interaction to build positive relationships that create repeat customers.

Tap AI as your personal event planner

We’ve already discussed Facebook events as a great way to get customers to interact with your business. AI can make things substantially more manageable during the event itself. Use the tool to automatically generate and add captions to videos. Users hate glitchy video. AI can improve quality in real time and filter inappropriate comments during live streams.

Facebook Messenger hacks to boost customer loyalty

Customer experience is the most important factor in ensuring users keep coming back. Frequent social media users most commonly jump to Facebook (55%) and Instagram (47%) to get customer service-related issues solved, according to Emplifi’s 2025 brand engagement survey.

Facebook Messenger is a powerful way to meet consumer expectations for quick responses.

Reply to messages instantly with chatbots

Great customer experience is important but replying fast on Facebook is even more important. Customers expect speedy replies. Meet that demand for instant gratification by using Facebook’s Response Assistant.

Use it to set up instant responses to all incoming messages. Here’s how to set up your Facebook Messenger bot:

• Go to your Facebook Business Page and click on Settings in the top right-hand corner
• Click on Messaging in the left-hand column
• Scroll down to Set Up Automated Responses and click on Set Up

You can set up a customized away message and instant reply. There are options for automated reminders for appointments, applications for jobs, and a section for frequently asked questions. Even better, use an AI composer that’s unified with the rest of your social media management tools to ensure your messaging stays on point.

Final thoughts on Facebook tricks to grow your brand

Facebook is a powerful tool that can grow your business and help you build lasting relationships with customers from a single platform – if you know how to use it. AI can help you understand exactly what your customers want and streamline the process of giving it to them. Showcasing User Generated Content on your Page creates a collaborative space where customers get invested in participating. There’s a ton of value to be found on Facebook, once you have the secrets to unlocking it.