You’ve probably already heard the news that Facebook has decreased the organic reach for pages (boo). For those of you who are unfamiliar with Facebook reach, in a nutshell, it is simply the number of unique people who have seen your content. Check out our post The Facebook ‘Free Lunch’ and we’ll explain it all. Keep in mind that Facebook considers your “reach” by determining your content’s appearance on news feeds- there is no guarantee that people saw or read your content. So, what does this mean for marketers? Simply put, you have to pay money to reach your audience. Fortunately, there are two easy and low-cost ways to reach more people on Facebook. You can create an advertisement or boost a current post on your news feed. Now, the big question remains, which should I choose? The general consensus is to review your goals before spending your ad dollars.
A post that has been boosted will appear higher up on news feeds, therefore, the fee you pay depends on how many people you want to reach with these posts. The best time to boost a post is when it helps promote a product or service offered by your business and when it encourages visits to your businesses website. Boosted posts are also a good option if the post spreads awareness of a time-sensitive campaign. Review your Facebook Insights information and boost a post that has been gaining a lot of popularity organically. You can boost a post for as low as $1.00 making this type of marketing/advertising VERY budget friendly.
If you choose to use Facebook Ads manager, you will have more options when it comes to targeting, pricing and bidding. Translation, you will have more control over who sees your ad as well as how you pay for it which stretches your ad dollar and creates a better ROI. It also means that creating successful Facebook ads can be more time consuming. Gather all of your marketing research about your target demographic and create a customized audience list for the ad.
Stay tuned for our next blog post, where we will dive deeper into the different features that are offered by both boosted posts and the Facebook Ads Manager.