Facebook: Advertising vs. Posting

If you are like the vast majority of business people, you are quite aware of Facebook as a customer engagement platform.  However, if you are spending time managing a Facebook page as you would a personal page; posting updates and trolling for business, you are truly wasting your time. It’s increasingly a pay-to-play platform and you need to know about the fundamentals of advertising on Facebook if you’re looking for real sales results.

Facebook has more than one billion users because it’s found a way to integrate with our daily lives. At the same time, they are gathering information that allows advertisers to target audiences with incredible precision. Facebook gathers a treasure trove of information about each user. That means you have innumerable audience targeting options that ensure you are reaching the right people with your message. Advertisers can access data like demographics, page likes, browsing behavior, website and mobile app activity, as well as lifestyle and behavior information.

Why Facebook May Not Show Your Post

So, why you should pay when you can post on Facebook for free? With recent changes to Facebook algorithms, businesses posts are probably seen by less than 6% of your followers. With the average small business having a few hundred to a few thousand followers, that effort you are putting in may be seen by a few dozen folks. Facebook organizes unpaid content based on the preferences and content habits of each user.  Bottom line: if you want to be seen, you have to pay to play.

Paid Facebook Boosts

At the first level, boosted posts are a great way to dive into the world of Facebook advertising. After a few clicks and thoughtful targeting selections, your post is delivered to the audiences you’ve defined as being relevant to your message. You can experiment with targeted boosts with very little investment.

It Takes More Than A Boost

While boosted posts are a great start, there are limitations that prevent you from maximizing Facebook’s advertising potential. Think you’re doing your business a favor by boosting an industry-related blog article that was shared to your page but written by another company? Think again. While you may be satisfied with the number of likes your post received, you essentially made a charitable donation to the blog author. The money spent on that boost doesn’t bring your audience any closer to your sales funnel. Was that your intent?

Boosted posts give you a taste of the targeting capabilities but don’t offer many of the detailed selections that can make or break an ad campaign. For instance, if you choose a particular geography where your business is located,  your boosted post will be shown to people who live there, recently visited, or are traveling to that location. Other tools in Facebook offer you a more targeted campaign.

Facebook’s Advanced Ad Manager

Facebook’s Advanced Ad Manager takes your ads to the next level by allowing you to choose from 12 various objectives such as increasing brand awareness, encouraging audiences to learn more about your business and converting them into customers. Furthermore, the number of targeting options the Advanced Ad Manager offers is significantly higher than those offered by the Boost function. This allows you to create a deeper audience profile and a more optimized campaign.

Want To Learn More?

Maybe it’s time to embrace the full value Facebook advertising has to offer. If you’re interested in understanding the complexities beyond boosted posts and want tips to create successful, results-driven strategies, connect with the FMDi team – we’ve done dozens of Facebook ad campaigns and are happy to discuss the options with you.