Front-End and Back-End Digital Marketing: All You Need to Know

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Difference Between Front End vs Back End
• Which is More Important: Front End or Back End?
• When to Use Front-End or Back-End Strategies
• Conclusion

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Introduction

New customers or old customers: which group is a smarter investment for your time and money? And how can you shape your marketing strategies to appeal to these groups for optimized profit? The answers come down to knowing your audience, your brand, and when to use front-end and back-end digital marketing.

My name is Hannah Robertson: Force Media’s copywriter with years of writing experience. Today, I am going to cover front-end and back-end digital marketing, why they’re both important, and how you should use them to get the results you are looking for.

The Difference Between Front End vs Back End

“Front-end digital marketing” refers to any social media post that is shared directly onto your feed and is therefore accessible to the general public. Specifically, it reaches both those who are already following your account and those who may stumble upon your account in their explore page.

While front-end digital marketing can also be used to draw in new customers, it performs best with returning customer appeal, such as maintaining existing customer relationships and encouraging customers to conduct business with your brand again. 

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“Back-end digital marketing” refers to posts delivered specifically to those within your target demographic who do not follow your account. Unlike front-end digital marketing that appears in explore pages, back-end posts appear in the feeds of those matching the advertiser's specific target age range, location, etc. under the word “Sponsored.”

That said, back-end digital marketing performs best in new customer acquisition by reaching people that have never done business with your brand but are in the market to do so. 

Which is More Important: Front End or Back End?

In a podcast interview with NexHealth, our founder, Jordan Agolli, had this to say about front-end and back-end digital marketing: 

“The front end is important. It shows your followers that you're still active, and it shows anybody that goes to your page that they're active. Whereas the back end is going after a cold audience of people to make them aware of your brand. You can't get more customers if new people are not aware of you, right?”

As he said, both front-end and back-end strategies are important for finding digital marketing success because profit is composed of both new and returning customers and neglecting one group means less profit in the end. 

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When to Use Front-End or Back-End Strategies

It depends on the business you are running, but, for social media, the best marketing strategy is usually to dedicate more time to new customers through back-end digital marketing. 

Unlike front-end social media posts, back-end posts feature targeted marketing specifically built for businesses. Back-end digital marketing also helps you to grow your following online and to, therefore, improve the success of your front-end posts. Due to the effectiveness of this strategy, we typically recommend dedicating...

• 80% of digital marketing to back-end marketing;
• 20% of digital marketing to front-end marketing.

However, there are reasons to alter this formula as well. Generally, it is easier and less expensive to earn results from front-end digital marketing since returning customers already know and trust your brand and therefore need less convincing to make a purchase. That said, if your brand is well established and more likely to have repeat customers, it could be smart to invest more time than initially recommended to front-end marketing.

Regardless, it is important to have an established presence for both strategies, especially back-end digital marketing, in order to maximize profits earned from your time online.

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Conclusion 

Key takeaways

• “Front-end digital marketing" refers to any social media post accessible to the general public whereas “back-end digital marketing” refers to posts delivered specifically to those within your target demographic who do not follow your account.
• Front-end performs best with returning customer appeal while back-end performs best in new customer acquisition.
• Both front-end and back-end strategies are important for finding digital marketing success because profit is composed of both new and returning customers. 
• Typically, we recommend dedicating 80% of your time online toward back-end digital marketing due to the effectiveness of social media marketing tools.

Knowing which marketing strategy to use is ultimately decided by first knowing your brand. For businesses selling inexpensive or impermanent products or services, it is smart to dedicate more than 20% of your time online toward front-end digital marketing that appeals to returning customers. Conversely, businesses that sell longer-lasting and limited products or services will benefit from spending around 80% of their time online toward back-end digital marketing targeting new customers.

Either way, it is important to invest in both front-end and back-end digital marketing to make the most out of your marketing campaign, and Force Media is here to help! We have years of experience customizing marketing campaigns for businesses and their audiences to maximize results. 

Want to see what Force Media can do for your marketing strategies? Fill out our discovery form, and our team will be in touch with you within 24 hours. 

And there you have it! Now you know all about front-end and back-end digital marketing, why both are important, and how to use them to maximize your business’ results. Thank you for reading, and we look forward to meeting you soon!

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