Facebook Advertising: Reach More People Using Promoted Posts

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Facebook Marketing. In my last blog post, I talked about the power and potential Facebook has as a vehicle for engaging with your target audience and potential customers on your business page.

Ideally, you’d like to reach people organically. The more people you get to “like” your page, the more people you can potentially reach when you post information on your page. The best way to have your posts show up in News Feed for the people who like your Page is to post things you think your audience will like, comment on, or share with their friends.  This is called “organic” reach.

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But what if you’ve only just launched your Facebook page and you don’t have many “likers” yet? Facebook gives you many affordable advertising options to promote your page – you can even run a campaign purely to attract page likes. 

Facebook Ads can help you reach more people with your message. Ads can be targeted to help you reach specific audiences, based on their Likes, interests, age, location, gender, and other parameters, such as your own customer list (know as "Custom Audiences" - more on this another time). All of the available targeting options are based on authentic information that people share about themselves, giving you the ability to go beyond basic demographic targeting. 

When people like or interact with your business on Facebook, their name can be featured in the ads that appear to their friends. Just like a recommendation in person, a friend recommending a business on Facebook is very powerful. You've probably seen a page suggestion on your News Feed : "Jane Doe likes this page"?  Facebook research shows that people who see a friend’s name in a Facebook ad are more likely to remember the ad and twice as likely to remember the brand. When people interact with brands on Facebook, the stories they generate may or may not be seen by their friends, due to the dynamic nature of News Feed.  Cue "Boosted Posts"...

Boosted posts appear higher in the News Feed, so there's a better chance your audience will see them, which increases the chance you'll reach a larger number of people and, when they interact with your post, their friends will see it too. 

You can opt to boost your posts to “people who like your page and their friends” or you can select specific targeting options based on gender, age, demographic location and a selection of interests. I love this feature, it gives me very specific targeting options that is hard to achieve with traditional advertising platforms.

This screen snap shot shows the potential reach of a post boosted for $100, targeted at "People who like your Page and their friends"

This screen snap shot shows the potential reach of a post boosted for $100, targeted at "People you choose through targeting". The est. people reached figure is slightly lower, but Facebook will place this post in front of people with the specific interested I've selected

Boosted Posts are an affordable way to reach more people. Most posts can be boosted for as little as $5. The more you spend, the greater the potential reach. If you're a hairdresser or own a bakery or cafe, this is a great option for promoting special offers or sales and is useful for driving foot traffic to your physical location.

Once your boosted post budget is "exhausted", Facebook notifies you and gives you a quick overview of how the post performed.

For a B2B company like Sharpe Design Solutions, I often use boosted posts to promote my services and to share special achievements. I recently boosted a post sharing the news that Sharpe Design Solutions had achieved a page one Google search result for my client Emma's Floral Designs.

The screenshot (left) shows you a snapshot of the performance of the post. It reached 2,499 people, attracted 67 photo clicks, 2 link clicks (directed to my website) and scored 1 new page like... all for $15. 
I'm very happy with the outcome.

Of course you can use Page Insights to get a more detailed synopsis of outcomes, but the information provided here (engagement, age/gender and country) is sufficient for me to decide that using Post Boosting is a worthwhile marketing tool.

For more information on Facebook advertising, visit www.sharpedesignsolutions.com.au. If you'd like to make an enquiry about our Facebook Page Management & Marketing services, I'd love to hear from you at: jody@sharpedesignsolutions.com.au

Author: Jody Sharpe, Sharpe Design Solutions

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