Facebook Isn’t Free: Advertising Opportunities For Your Business

Author: Carolyn Menz Category: B2B, B2C, E-commerce & Retail, Marketing, Nonprofit, Social Media & Digital Date: April 25, 2014

It’s no secret that your Facebook reach and engagement are down from last year, or possibly even just a few months ago. You are probably doing everything that you should be doing, such as:

• Posting photos
• Posting at peak times of engagement & reach for your followers based on your Insights report
• Using engaging content that provokes a response or comment
• Offering promotions, giveaways, discounts or sweepstakes

But, your reach is slowly declining. What!? Did you think Facebook was going to be free forever? I mean, it still is free for the millions of users that spend their entire days on it. But, Facebook is not going to allow businesses to profit off of their “free” platform forever. I don’t blame them.

Facebook is basically using an algorithm of engagement, reach, interests and timing to determine how many posts, which posts and when your posts will be shown to your followers. In order to increase your reach, they’ve created the “promoted post.” You can boost your post with a few bucks.

Facebook has introduced a number of different Advertising Opportunities (promoted posts are essentially paid advertising, are they not?). Depending on the goal of your social media marketing as well as your business’s goals, this will help determine which type of Facebook advertising you will excel at. Let’s take a look at what you can do to increase your reach (though paid) on Facebook:

1. Page Like Ad

This is where you advertise your page and it shows in people’s Newsfeeds. Rachel likes Paradigm Marketing & Design. The Like button is really big and Rachel’s friends can now Like Paradigm Marketing & Design also just from that little ad. It’s a quick way to get new followers that are friends with your existing followers.

2. Page Post Ads

The page post ad is the best way to get your business up off the ground. No one is going to find your page unless you tell them to go there. There is no real search function on Facebook that allows a complete stranger living on the other side of the country to find your page. So, you want to promote it through a Page Post Ad. It is effective at both engagement and conversion on a website, since now you can have photo clicks to your website.

3. Offers

Offers are advertisements for a specific discount or promotion that the business is offering. You can physically redeem the discount either at the storefront, by calling the business or going to their website and redeeming it online.

4. Promoted Posts

Promoted posts are when you post something and, let’s say that Facebook only wants to show it to 2% of your followers, you “boost” the post and now 50% of your followers are going to see it. And, the more followers you get, the better engagement, and the better the engagement (i.e. comments and likes), the more Facebook is going to show it to your followers. It’s a Catch 22 but it is profitable for Facebook.

5. Sponsored Stories

The sponsored story is making sure that something you’ve done is going to show up in your followers’ Newsfeeds. You can choose whether it is liking your page, checking in, commenting on a post, etc. This is generally content that would normally show up in a Newsfeed but because of Facebook’s algorithms, it probably won’t. A sponsored story is basically an action that could potentially show to a user’s friends. For example, if you ‘Like’ a certain business’s photo, then your friends are going to see something that says “Rachel likes Paradigm Marketing & Design’s photo” in their Newsfeed.

Why is your business using Facebook for social media marketing? In 2014, it is almost imperative that you use dollar bills to promote your page in order to get the exposure that you are used to getting. Because of this, you’re now going to have to budget it into your overall marketing budget. Have you had a chance to do this yet? If you have any questions about Facebook advertisements, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at rachel@paradigmmarketinganddesign.com. Thank you!