I’m getting sick and tired of social media “gurus” and so-called “superstars” telling small business owners that they have to ‘pay to play on Facebook’. Meaning they have to spend lots of money on Facebook advertising to get good results from their Facebook marketing.
Even though it’s true that Facebook favours pages that invest into advertising, it’s not the optimal way to grow your business.
On the other hand, if you’ve never spent a penny on Facebook ads, it might be a good idea to create an ads account and every now and then throw a pound or two into promotion. Facebook will like you even more!
What I don’t mean is boosting every post, spending tens and hundreds of pounds on buying new likes or driving people to the home page of your website. Please don’t do this!
‘Boost post’, should you use it?
Are you tired of Facebook telling you to boost this and promote that, but every time you try it you don’t see any results? Recently, I’m realising that people usually don’t have any idea how to use ‘Sponsored’ posts.
The problem is that ‘boosting’ posts doesn’t directly contribute to any of your social media goals (if you don’t have a clear strategy outlined for your business read this). If you’re using boosting posts to build you Facebook fan base, you’ll have to pay forever because you’ll never build an engaged audience that will drive your organic reach.
Have a plan! Every action has a reaction. That is also true with Facebook ads. Have a strategy outlining what reaction you are expecting to achieve from your Facebook ads.
How to use Facebook advertising
Always have a clear goal defined and use specific ads that will deliver relevant results. The more specific your ads are the better-targeted results you’ll get! And that’s what you want: the right people to see the right ads motivating them to take the right kind of actions!
Facebook offers a wide variety of specific ads, all of which are organised into 3 main types:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversion
Explore Facebook Adverts Manager
Most people only use the awareness types to boost posts and get more likes, but what you actually want is a balanced variety of all types. Professional Facebook advertising campaigns use several subsequent ads guiding the audience to the preferred action.
The rule should be: don’t use simple options on your main Facebook page. What’s simple and obvious usually isn’t the best way to get good results. It’s better to spend more time on navigating through the Adverts Manager and creating a specific and highly targeted ad. It’s definitely worth your effort!
Always think about your goal first: what’s the action you’re expecting people to take after seeing your ad? Do you want them to book an appointment; download your newest e-book; or read a specific blog post? Use specific ad types to achieve each goal.
Ad examples:
If you want more local people to know about your brick and mortar shop, use local awareness ad ‘Reach people near your business’. This type of ad will target only people located near your shop and it will help you raise awareness of your products/services. Be specific. Pick one reason why should people visit you!
Hosting an event? Get more people interested and buying tickets by creating a Facebook event page and promoting it via ‘Raise attendance at your event’. Include a clear call to action – why should people come to your event?
Want to sell more from your website? Use a ‘Send people to your website’ ad, which incorporates a specific product URL and relevant product visuals.
If you’re selling services, you might want people to book a consultation. In this case, you can send people to your webpage’s booking form or you can use ‘Collect leads for your business’ ad and collect email addresses straight from Facebook.
Remember, the more specific and clear about the purpose of your ad you are, the better results you’ll achieve!
How to get better organic reach on Facebook without spending money on ads?
You can’t fool people and you can’t fool Facebook’s algorithm.The only way you’ll get better organic reach is to consistently post quality content that your audience wants to see, read and interact with! Instead of investing into paid advertisement (which isn’t sustainable in the long-term), invest in creating interesting content and engaging with your audience.
If you’re not sure what kind of content you should be posting, check out this blog post, where you will find general advice on keeping the right content balance. You should also regularly check your analytics to see what content is resonating with your specific audience. If you don’t even know where to start, ask people! Your fans will appreciate that you want to know their opinion.
So remember, there will be times when you want to boost posts and utilise Facebook’s various ad types to complement your social media strategy. But your focus should always remain on engaging your audience and creating consistently killer content that resonates with them.
Do you have any questions about Facebook Advertising? Ask me in comments or tweet me at @lenkakopp.
