How to Perform a SWOT Analysis for SEO
This article was originally published in Search Engine Journal on February 18, 2021. Marketers considering an SEO initiative have a seemingly [...]
For companies posting regularly on your Facebook business page, some of the key metrics you should keep an eye on are reach and engagement. Reach refers to the number of people your post appears to, and engagement refers to the interactions with your post such as likes, comments and clicks. When posting you have the option to either post organically or invest budget into boosting your post to try and increase its reach and engagement.
It’s no secret that over the past decade, organic post reach on Facebook has been on the decline. By the end of 2020, the average reach for an organic post was around 5.2% – down from 7.7% two years prior. This means when posting organically on your page only about 5% of your followership will likely see your post.
Having an ongoing content calendar and publishing regularly to your Facebook page is a great idea. It demonstrates your company’s responsiveness, keeps the content on your page fresh and relevant, and allows you to monitor engagement to see what’s working for future strategies. However, there may be times when you’re looking to reach beyond your followership-base to gain new followers, increase Facebook reach and engagement and even create opportunities for leads. You may even have a new Facebook page with a small number of followers, meaning your posts go largely unseen, and in this case, opting to boost your post is an excellent idea.
The minimum budget for a boosted post on Facebook is $2.50 a day. The average cost per click on a boosted post on Facebook is $0.43, making it an affordable option compared to other paid ad campaigns you can run on other platforms such as Google’s Search Network.
Aside from boosted posts, Facebook also offers other paid campaign options based on your goals through Facebook Ads Manager. Through Ads Manager, you can hone in on your audience, targeting people by age, location, gender, income, job title, interests and more. You can set up objectives for your campaigns, such as website traffic, brand awareness or email sign-ups. You can also specify on which platform you’d like your boosted post to appear (Facebook, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and their Audience Network). Facebook’s robust options for targeting make it one of the best platforms for creating and refining a select audience to receive your message.
If you’re looking for lead generation, or to drive traffic to your website or landing page, you may opt for a website click campaign set up through Ads Manager. However, in this article, we’ll be focusing on how to increase your Facebook engagement and reach by using boosted posts. These posts appear on your Facebook Business page and in the newsfeed of viewers that fit a defined target market. It should be noted that when boosting a post, your options for targeting are more limited than if you were to set up your ad through Ads Manager, however, there are advantages to Boosting vs Ads
Before you embark on setting up a paid Facebook ad campaign on social media, it’s best to outline your goals and define the customer persona that reflects who you want to reach. Having a strong definition of your ideal customer will help guide your messaging and will aid in targeting options. You should already have a good idea of who purchases your product or service or who you would like to reach. Creating a persona that reflects this type of individual is your first step in setting a proper foundation for all other digital marketing and advertising. When developing a persona, focus on your target’s motivations to purchase, how your product or service can help them solve their problems, what they value (and what they don’t), and what your goal is as a company in marketing to them. You can also research your competitors for additional insight into persona development. If you want to target your persona through Facebook or Instagram, it’s a good idea to confirm that this audience is active on Facebook or Instagram to increase engagement opportunities.
Keyword research is also crucial in developing a persona. What kind of keywords would your target market use to find you? Having strong keywords can help in SEO development and paid ad campaigns such as Google Ads, but they are also great to refer to when developing your ad creative for Facebook. Remember to craft messages that will resonate with each of your individual customer personas. You may even want to create a negative persona, someone you don’t want to reach, in order to further define your audience and targeting.
The next stage is developing content for your social media calendar. Be sure to include keywords from your research you think will appeal to your audience, and schedule your posts to go out regularly. Create appealing graphics using free and easy-to-use digital tools such as Canva to accompany your content. You can create any kind of content you like, blogs on industry topics, service highlights, featured employees, videos, infographics, and much more.
You may want to post on a weekly basis or more often, depending on your industry. Monitor the engagement rate of each post as they are published through Facebook Insights and if you see a post with an engagement rate of 5% or more, this may be a viable option for boosting. Ensure the post aligns with your business goals, then take this opportunity to boost the post to reach beyond your followership.
It should be noted that although boosting a post is one of the easiest ways to advertise on Facebook, it may not be the best option based on your company’s goals. Facebook’s Ads Manager offers more options on objectives for your campaign such as lead generation, brand awareness, directing traffic to your website, post engagement and more. When boosting a post, Facebook automatically determines your objective and placement for you. Also, when you set up the boosted post your options for audience targeting are also limited.
Opting to use Facebook Ads Manager to create custom goals and audiences is a more cost-effective way to achieve success. You can also integrate the Facebook Pixel on your website to target people who have interacted with your brand online and develop look-alike audiences for further potential conversion. That being said, if you are new to Facebook advertising, boosted posts are a good option to get your feet wet, test hypotheses on engagement and get a better understanding of Facebook metrics and reporting. However, if you are comfortable with Ads Manager and have clearly defined goals and objectives, you’re likely to find more success by setting up a campaign with this way to refine the audience this post can appear to, allowing you to fine-tune your target market and increase the likelihood of engagement.
RTOWN understands the complexities of Facebook Ad Campaigns and how to achieve the best outcomes. Contact us today and let us plan and execute your next Facebook Ads Campaign.
