“But I already advertise on Facebook. I post on Facebook every day”.
“Someone is already doing my Facebook advertising. They post articles on my page.”
“Facebook Advertising doesn’t work! I tried boosting my page and NO ONE called me.”
NO! Posting on your fan page is NOT Facebook Advertising…
These are some of the common objections I hear when I talk to people about what I do.
There seems to be a common misconception that using Facebook as a social platform is the same as using Facebook as an Advertising platform.
While you may have been able to get away with not using paid advertising on Facebook 4 years ago, the landscape has changed substantially for business/fan pages.
In 2012 Facebook began to reduce organic reach and marketers began to notice, prompting a response from Facebook in 2014.
Brian Boland, VP of Advertising Technology at Facebook stated:
Over the past few months, I’ve read articles and answered questions from many people who are concerned about declines in organic reach for their Facebook Pages. Organic reach refers to how many people you can reach for free on Facebook by posting to your page. My colleagues and I at Facebook understand that his has been a pain point for many businesses, and we’re committed to helping you understand what’s driving this change so your business can succeed on Facebook.”
He goes on to state two main reason for the decline in organic reach.
Reason One:
The first reason was that there is a substantial amount of content being created and shared every day. More than can be digested.
In addition to more content being released, people are also liking more pages, which further increases News Feed competition.
Reason 2:
The second reason involves the fact that Facebook is attempting to show people the content that is most relevant to them. Using a complex algorithm, Facebook chooses which posts to show to each person.
In this 2014 article Brian goes on to state that the organic reach is not dropping because Facebook is trying to make more money.
Considering Facebook brings in over $1 Billion a quarter, that statement seems hard to believe.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that posting on Facebook is not important and that it can’t have a positive affect on your business. It can.
What I want you to understand is that the reach of your Facebook page is likely less than 25% and the bigger your page the less organic reach you get.
So let’s assume you get 25% organic reach and you have a page with 100 fans (page likes). You are only getting your post in front of 25 people.
Chances are only a small percentage of those people will engage with your content, especially if you aren’t posting engaging content or are trying to sell in EVERY SINGLE POST.
What is a Facebook Ad?
A Facebook Ad is an advertisement that is created on Facebook’s advertising platform that is shown to Facebook users based on a wide array of targeting methods.
Facebook allows advertisers to target their ideal clients based on user activity, demographic information, device use information, advertising and marketing partner-supplied information and off Facebook activity.
Why is Facebook Advertising important for your business?
Facebook ads are so important for your business because you are able to gain extra reach and exposure for your brand.
Facebook allows you to target your dream customer so precisely that if done correctly, you will be showing your ad/content to only people that would buy your product.
Let’s say you are a chiropractor and your ideal client is between the age of 30-60, makes more than $50,000 a year, lives within 10 miles of your practice and has back pain.
You can literally target every single one of these with Facebook ads.
And you can even take it one step further and break it down to different age brackets to see which age group converts the best.
Or let’s say you are a Real Estate Agent and you are trying to sell a home fast.
You can post your listing on Facebook and then use the advertising platform to “boost” the post to your ideal clientele (i.e. people within 50 miles of the property. with income above $75,000, that are “likely to move” and that like “Zillow”, “Trulia”, and “Redfin”.)
I recently recorded a video for a Facebook Ad Campaign for Realtor’s to generate buyer (and seller) leads via a listing. Watch it here.
Now, we have all seen the option on your Facebook Fan page to Boost a post.
Unless done correctly, I wouldn’t recommend using that option as you are just giving Facebook money and likely won’t see any results.
How to use Facebook Advertising to generate leads for your business
I have gone over this in previous posts (How to get more leads for less money…using Facebook Advertising), but I want to briefly go over a few important aspects of Facebook Advertising.
- Ad Design- The Ad design is vital because it is the first thing your prospect is going to see. You first need to make sure you have an image that captures the prospects attention. Once you have their attention your text must be compelling enough to get your prospect to click the link. Your ad copy, call to action, headline, and offer need to be on point.
- Targeting- The targeting piece is extremely important. You may have the best ad in the history of man kind for Dog lovers, but if you are showing your ad only to cat or bird lovers…it isn’t going to convert. You can target your audience by country, gender, interests, age, relationship status, purchase behavior, education level, etc.
- Landing Page/Sales Funnel- One of the most important things with advertising is ensuring you have a congruent message throughout your audiences journey from prospect to lead to customer. You need to ensure your landing page is congruent with your ad, otherwise you may have a lot of people clicking on your ad, but when they reach your landing page, few or none convert to actual paying customers. The sales funnel takes your audience through a simplified process from prospect to customer.
- Testing- Test everything. Don’t ever assume that you know your audience better than they know themselves. Test ad images, ad copy, demographics, targeting, etc. The market will determine which ad is better by pulling out their wallets and buying your product, or downloading your coupon, or your listing of homes.
- Tracking- Track your ads performance. Find out if the ads you are running are profitable and set goals and metrics to track it.
It’s time to start advertising your business on Facebook
Look, I get it.
You’re skeptical.
You’ve tried Facebook Advertising before and all you did was lose money.
You’re afraid of failing or you have heard of other failing.
And honestly, I can’t guarantee you will succeed but these tips will help you along the way.
But you need to at least give it a shot, don’t you think?
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions!
Luke Shankula
P.S. If you are interested in hearing how I can help your business with Facebook Advertising, book a strategy call here.