With 71% of North America using Facebook, the platform has become an essential part of the marketing puzzle.
However, few business owners understand how it actually works.
For example, only 1% of your Facebook Business Page followers will see your posts. That means if you have 1,000 followers, Facebook will only show your content to 10 people.
Even if you promote your business on your personal Facebook feed, only an average of 10% of your friends will see your posts.
How do you get more eyeballs and actions on your Facebook posts?
To get more clients on Facebook, you need to take advantage of the Facebook algorithm.
Three things are important and this article will cover them.
Creating content that appeals to your ideal clients and speaks to their needs is an effective way to reach them. 2. By using the same tactics as your competition, you will only blend in. If you use the same strategies as your competitors, you’ll just blend in with the rest.
1. Use Facebook’s ‘Boost Post’ function to promote each business page post to a targeted audience. 2. Choose a niche-based audience for each post, such as ‘People who live in [your city]’. 3. Click ‘Confirm’, and your post will be shown to more people who are interested in what you do.
If you want to be successful on Facebook, it’s important to understand what the platform is trying to achieve with its algorithm, and then design your content and strategy accordingly. It’s important to understand what Facebook is trying to achieve with its algorithm, and then design your content and strategy accordingly if you want to be successful on the platform.
Facebook is like the billboard on the side of the road
Every time you post content, you are building your brand. Advertising and sharing updates on your personal feed will help people get to know, like, and trust you, and that is when they are more likely to become clients.
Running a few ads and posting a few updates on your page is not enough.
You need to understand your dream client.
• Who does your business live to serve?
• What keeps them up at night?
• What is their dream solution?
How would life be different if their problem(s) disappeared?
• How can you be helpful without coming off as pushy? • Is there a way to be of service without selling? One way to share value and resources without seeming pushy is simply being helpful. Find ways to be of service without selling and look for ways to solve the problem at hand. You’re more likely to be trusted and appreciated by coming off as helpful instead of pushy.
There are a lot of active users on Facebook, so it is important to have catchy and authentic content to make your page stand out. This process takes time and effort to build relationships with your potential customers.
Remember … it’s about THEM, not you.
Make sure to create your own content
When you share a link to the New York Times, Huffington Post, or any other third-party source, you help to promote their brand, rather than your own.
I am not suggesting you ignore other people’s content entirely. Social media is about sharing; if your feed is only about you, it won’t make you look credible. The goal is always to raise awareness about your brand.
You want to promote your own content. This includes your own words, quotes, testimonials, stories, successes, and journeys. By promoting your own content, you are able to better control the message and how it is conveyed to your audience. Additionally, you will be able to more easily build trust with your audience as they will hear directly from you.
You can use your blog content to create Facebook posts. This will help you create more detailed and interesting posts, which will engage your audience.
Create custom graphics.
Arrange to interview people who can provide information that will be useful to your client, in order to help them achieve their goals.
Most importantly, keep directing people to your website. That’s where they’re most likely to learn more about you and contact you to become a paying client.
People don’t see your FB posts unless you pay
Only 1% of people who see your business page posts will interact with it, and if you do organic marketing, that number will only increase to 10%.
If you want more people to see your posts on Facebook, you can pay to boost or promote them. Here is a quick guide on how to do it.
1. You will need to set up a Facebook Business Manager, and FB Ads account in order to advertise on Facebook.
Target your dream client by creating a custom audience that matches their demographics.
To create a post for your business, go into your business manager and create a new campaign.
4. Select “Reach” as your objective.
I recommend choosing a budget of $25 spread out over 4 days.
6. Select your dream client custom audience.
7. Select your existing post to promote.
If you want more people to see your post on Facebook, follow these steps after you publish it. This will help the Facebook algorithm show your post to more people, increasing its chances of becoming popular. Even if it never becomes viral, at least you’ll get more activity than if you did nothing.
You can increase the reach of your organic content by sharing it on your personal feed after you’ve boosted it.
I suggest starting with a budget of $25, but you can do whatever you want. Even a one-day boost of $5 is better than nothing.
Play by Facebook’s rules
Have you heard of the “Facebook Algorithm?”
An artificial intelligence decides what content is shown on Facebook. It uses algorithms to determine which posts are most likely to be interacted with by users and which posts should be hidden.
Tell me if this sounds familiar
We need to ensure we are reaching the right people and not wasting our time on those who will never convert. We need to focus our efforts on creating content that will resonate with our target audience and help us to achieve our business goals.
We try hard to make each post interesting and to include a call to action that doesn’t sound like a sales pitch.
Then… Crickets.
Sadness.
Frustration.
“What did I do wrong?”
I’m doing my best, but no one seems to care.
“Why do I even try?”
It’s a crummy feeling.
It makes us question everything.
“Am I in the right business?”
“Do I have the wrong ideal client?”
Can you relate?
It happens to all of us.
So what’s the secret sauce?
You gotta work the algorithm.
Below are 7 ways to get you started.
- Making the Most of Your Facebook Business Page
A Facebook page can be a great free marketing tool for businesses. This is because businesses can use Facebook pages to share links, images and posts about their products and services. This allows businesses to show their personality and character to potential customers.
Your Facebook business page is great for showing your brand’s personality and human side. You can be more relaxed on Facebook than on other platforms, so don’t be afraid to be funny.
After considering what your key audience would want to see, share any social media images, links, videos, etc. that are connected to your business. Be sure to check Facebook Insights to see what content is the most popular with your audience.
In addition to hilarious videos of dogs walking in tiny shoes, a store specializing in footwear might also post an article about how to measure your foot size accurately, what kind of shoe inserts are best for different sore feet woes, etc. A nice mix of humor, educational resources, and posts about updates to your store is ideal.
- Facebook Advertising: Classic Ads
Facebook ads are less expensive than some other forms of online advertising, such as pay-per-click. Facebook offers advertising with Facebook ads, which appear in the side columns of the Facebook site. Facebook ads are less expensive than some other forms of online advertising, such as pay-per-click.
One possible way to increase your Facebook likes or website clicks is to incorporate Facebook advertising into your Facebook marketing strategy.
Facebook advertising features include:
- Demographic targeting by Facebook user data on age, location, education, and interests.
- The ability to set ad budgets.
- Ad testing, multiple ad versions can be run simultaneously to compare ad designs and setup.
- Built-in ad performance measurement tools.
- The ability to advertise for your particular area – great for local businesses.
- Facebook doesn’t release information about its ad CTRs, so it’s difficult to know how successful Facebook ads really are. In our Facebook Ads vs Google Display Ads Infographic, we found that Facebook ads generally have a CTR of 0.051%, and an average CPC of $0.80; however, a business’s Facebook advertising cost can vary a lot depending on the targeting options set and competition.
If you’re looking to increase your business’s visibility on Facebook, one way to do so is by boosting your “likes.” Once a user likes your page, they’ll see your posts in their Facebook news feed and essentially become followers of your business.
This means more people are interacting with you and your brand, forming relationships that could eventually lead to conversions.
- Hosting Facebook Contests
Hosting Facebook contests, sweepstakes, or promotions is an effective way to increase fans and brand awareness.
You can’t do it through Facebook itself if you want to hold a Facebook contest. You will need to use a third-party app and then direct users to the app from your Facebook page.
- Facebook Promoted Posts
Facebook Promoted Posts is a feature that allows page owners to pay a flat rate to have their individual Facebook posts reach a certain number of users, increasing the post’s reach and impressions.
Some businesses want to know why they have to pay to make sure their post is seen by users who are their followers. If a user likes their page, shouldn’t their posts always be on the user’s news feed? The answer is no because it assumes that users spend all their time on Facebook’s news feed, which hopefully isn’t the case for the health and safety of Facebook users.
- Sponsored Stories
A Sponsored Story is an ad that appears on Facebook which uses a user’s interactions, such as a ‘like’, as part of the ad. This story then gets shown to that user’s friends.
Sponsored Stories aims to make users take the same action as their friends to capitalize on the “word of mouth” marketing concept. Advertisers can select what kind of action they want more of from users, whether it be page likes, offer claims, etc.
Facebook’s current Sponsored Stories product automatically uses whatever action verb makes the most sense for the story being told. Sponsored Stories are not only applicable to likes or offers – they can be utilized with any Facebook Open Graph app. If a friend has just installed Scramble With Friends on Facebook, Sponsored Stories can display to users that their friend has just played the Scramble game, with an invite to “challenge them,” “play with them,” or any similar wording. Facebook’s current Sponsored Stories product automatically uses whichever action verb makes the most sense for the story being told.
According to Facebook, Sponsored Stories have a 46% higher click-through rate and 20% lower cost-per-click than regular ads, making them a viable marketing strategy.
To create a Facebook Sponsored Story, open the Facebook ad create flow and select ‘Sponsored Story’ from the ad objective drop-down menu. For an Open Graph Sponsored Story with a customized call to action, select ‘Open Graph Story’ from the ad objective drop-down menu and use a third-party provider.
- Facebook Open Graph
Open Graph is a feature of Facebook that lets businesses label a user’s action, such as playing a game or listening to a song, with their app. Billions of these interactions are posted every day.
businesses can make apps that connect to a user’s Facebook and post something on Facebook when the user does a certain action with the app. Facebook’s Open Graph has lots of different options that are more interesting than just “like” or “comment”. For example, posts can suggest that users do things like “listen”, “taste”, or “read”. It’s up to businesses to be creative.
By signing in with Facebook, the user is allowing the site or app to access their Facebook profile and connect them with other users who have also signed in with Facebook. In other words, the Facebook Open Graph is a way for sites and apps to connect users with each other.
Spotify is a great example of how Facebook Open Graph can be used as a powerful marketing tool.
It all starts with a Facebook login prompt.
After this, there is a request for permission, which many users click on without thinking. I found that I had given permission to 130 apps, 95% of which I could not remember why I had given them permission.
Once a user has obtained permission, they are able to stream the songs their friends are listening to on Spotify.
- Facebook Exchange (FBX)
Assuming you want a summary: Facebook Exchange (FBX) is an ad retargeting tool that allows advertisers to bid on ads in real-time. Advertisers can target users based on data from their web history, meaning that if a user visits a product page on a retailer’s website but doesn’t make a purchase, the retailer can display an ad for that product on Facebook.
Because Facebook retargeting ads were only appearing in the side columns, they were not getting as much attention. Recently, however, Facebook has allowed these ads to appear in news feeds, which is much better because response rates are 10 to 50 times higher.
How well do Facebook Exchange ads perform? They have a 40% lower CTR than other web retargeting ads (such as those from the Google Display Network). They also cost less per click, but this may change as FBX ads become more common in people’s news feeds.
Parting thoughts
To get the most out of your Facebook business page, you need to constantly learn from your customers and experiment with different types of content. Keep track of the metrics and data you collect to see what works best.
The rules we’ve described are effective for business pages, personal feeds, and organic marketing. Use them to boost the success of each new campaign.
