If you’re managing a Facebook community, you may have felt pressure to devote dollars to advertising. But is it really necessary? Facebook has admitted that on average, only 16% of your community sees your content in their newsfeeds organically. Reliably reaching more of your community requires a targeted Facebook advertising strategy.
How Facebook Ads Work
There are several different types of Facebook ads, including more typical display ads that you might be familiar with from the web as well as the adored ‘social ads’ that let you to tout messages from your own page or promote interactions that other users have with your content.
Facebook ads can be paid as pay-per-click, which requires that a user click on your ad before you are charged. Similar to Google ads, each advertiser is competing against others as they bid for placements against demographic data. Prices vary depending on the audience you are targeting, but you might be surprised at how affordable Facebook ads can be.
Ad Placements
Facebook has a variety of ad options to suite your needs. Here is a breakdown of the main places where Facebook ads can appear:
- All Facebook: These ads show up directly in the desktop newsfeed, on the right sidebar of the homepage or directly in the mobile newsfeed. This type of promotion is usually more cost-efficient.
- Newsfeed: These ads only show up on the mobile or web newsfeeds—the two most engaging placements on the site. Usually, you’ll see a higher engagement on mobile.
Ad Products
Now that we’ve covered where the ads show up, let’s go through the different types of ads you can purchase.
- Page Post Ads: These are posts of your own that you want to promote to a larger audience—they can be a photo, text update or video.
- Page Like Ads: These ads only appear in the right side of Facebook.com, but can be great to run if you want to boost your Facebook community.
- Mobile App Install Ads: This is a great option for increasing mobile app installations. When a user clicks “download now,” Facebook takes them directly to the app download store.
- Offsite Ads: Traditionally, these ads show lower engagement rates than the ones that keep users within the Facebook platform, but they can be great for driving traffic to your website or blog.
Ready to get started? Head over to Facebook advertising, where you can test out different targeting in the Power Editor and launch your ads. For promoted posts, you can also launch these ads directly from your page.
Don’t forget about your content! While a Facebook advertising budget can help increase impressions, it does not guarantee engagement. Your Facebook content strategy is still just as important to ensure that you are promoting content that your audience wants to consume and share. Always solidify a strong editorial calendar first and then distribute your paid dollars to your top performing content.
Have you begun to navigate social advertising for your brand? We’d love to hear about your experience in the comments.
Find our complete Symantec Partner social media series.
