Still Paying for Page Likes? Please Stop.
As long as social media advertising has been a thing, business owners have wanted to use it in one way: gain followers & fans. But the truth is that it’s a terrible, no-good way to spend that hard-earned money of yours. Take, for example, the time I had a client who was obsessed with page likes. She had a number in her head that she wanted her company’s Facebook page to reach, and she wouldn’t rest until she (read: I) achieved it. The result?
Spending hundreds of dollars on Facebook’s Page Like ads each month, encouraging people to like a page, only to see meager gains.
As a strategic-minded social media manager, it killed me to see my client insisting on throwing money at what I knew to be a vanity metric when I had developed many other tactics that would generate actual revenue for his business. At the same time, I understood where she was coming from – not only did she want the numbers to reflect her company’s popularity and success, but she also had the preconceived notion that if someone liked her page, they would see every single organic post that we published. But that’s not the case any longer.
Back in the day, before Facebook Ads were as common as they are today, Facebook placed greater importance on chronological feeds that directly reflected the pages you liked and the people you were friends with. Changes to the algorithm ushered in a new era that ditched chronology and users’ likes in favor of content Facebook anticipates you will prefer based on what you and users similar to you have engaged with. The goal of the algorithm is to show users content they enjoy, which will encourage them to keep scrolling, which will result in them seeing more ads, which keeps Facebook’s lights on. The bottom line? Liking a page does not put that page’s organic content at the top of your feed – in fact, you may never see it at all. The downward trend in Facebook pages’ organic reach has reflected this truth, and the writing is on the wall for businesses in the social media space: you’ve gotta pay to play.
In the increasingly competitive, monetized social media space, it’s essential to have an advertising strategy that reflects your business’s long-term goals. My stance now is the same as when I was trying to convince my aforementioned client: don’t pay to get people to like your page when you could be paying for them to go to your website, book an appointment or purchase a product. While I don’t think there’s value in paying for Page Like ads, I do believe in the potential value that lies in social media’s captive market. With over 1.8 billion daily active users on Facebook and over 500 million daily active users on Instagram, these platforms offer you a direct line to your ideal prospects. The key is to devise intentional, smart strategy to reach them, convince them and convert them. With an emphasis on ad strategy that leverages the marketing funnel, I work each day to do just that for my clients.
If you’re interested in finding out how social media advertising could benefit your business or organization, I’d love to chat with you. Reach out today to schedule a free 15-minute consultation.