Once upon a time, you could give away a few ipads and gain 100,000 new Likes for your Facebook Page in a single weekend. With those days long gone, many media pages have tried ‘Like Ads’… hoping to buy their way to a bigger organic audience. Spoiler alert – it doesn’t work. You end up buying lots of low-quality Likes and find yourself no better off in terms of organic Reach. And now that Facebook is favoring Followers over Likes as the measure of your potential audience, Facebook Like Ads are an even worse idea. Ok, so now that you know what NOT to do … let’s talk about what works when you want to grow your Facebook Page Likes and Followers:
Redirect your boost budget
Instead of using your marketing dollars to boost a story here and there, redirect that same budget to a consistent, “always on” ads strategy. On average we’ve seen a 6-8% increase in Facebook Page Followers during a single calendar-quarter for brands who run always-on traffic or always-on lead-gen ads instead of boosts. And some media partners have even seen as much as a 16% increase in Followers using this strategy for just one calendar-quarter.
Leverage your best content, automatically
When considering a long-term social ad campaign, it’s critical to have a real content strategy. (Unlike boosting, you can’t just throw a few dollars at a random story you feel good about that day.) You also need a workflow that’s sustainable, simple and automatic – so you aren’t asking your team to do more work. SND’s proprietary Dynamic News Ads (DNA) technology is all those things and more. When you work with the SND Ads team to manage your ads, we leverage our DNA technology to identify your best content in real time, and automatically turn it into an ad.
Think of the ad as an empty – always on – container. SND’s DNA technology is working 24/7 to create a collection of your very best content and updating that collection in real time as you produce more content. We’re then filling that empty ad container with the unique stories from that collection… based on what the end-user viewing the ad is most likely to care about. Each ad is unique, and populated with the best content you have to offer at any given moment.
Because the ad is always on (and always filled with fresh content) … you are reaching a much wider group of people than you would with a boost. As Facebook users engage with your content in the ad, they see more of your content and become more aware of your brand page. Thus leading to the increase in Followers and Likes.
Get two KPIs for the price of one
Increased Followers is just one benefit of running and always-on ad campaign featuring your best content. Your ad will also be optimized to get additional website traffic (clicks), email newsletter sign ups (lead gen), subscription purchases (conversions) or app downloads. This helps you get the most out of your budget and work toward success in multiple performance metrics at the same time.
Reach beyond your fanbase
The SND Ads team of Blue Print Certified ad specialists can help you set up ad targeting that will reach the best possible audience for your brand. For example, you can specifically target ads to people who don’t yet follow you on Facebook, ensuring your advertising dollars are helping you reach the right people at the right time. Or you can reach out to both existing fans and new followers. You can even target people who like your competitors. We’ll show you all the tricks. 😉
Invite your new audience in
Last tip … when Facebook users engage with your content in ads, you’ll see an option to “invite them to follow” you on Facebook if they don’t already. Take a moment and do it! This tactic feels personal to users and leads to much higher conversion of new follows.
To learn more about our SND Ads team and how you can leverage our Dynamic News Ads technology, reach out to us here.
