Pay To Promote

There have been a lot of changes on Facebook lately. First, every business page was moved over to the Timeline format, then the company went public, now the options of scheduling your posts, or promoting them, are available.

I was immediately curious to see how the option to promote my posts would work. I use Facebook for marketing, A LOT, so I’m always interested in any way I can improve those efforts. With the new changes and the fact that a large percentage of my fans {people who opted to sign up for my updates} are not even seeing my announcements, I was intrigued by the new way to improve that number.

So, I thought, why not promote a post. The estimated numbers looked great! Instead of 500-1000 people seeing my posts, Facebook estimated that for a mere $20, I could reach 3,400. That seems reasonable, right?

Maybe not so much.

I selected my payment method and my budget. I really wanted all of my fans to see this update, so I chose the highest amount offered. In my case that was the $20. Facebook said it would promote my post over the next three days. So, I waited and I watched.

I watched my budget being spent rather quickly and my viewers reached growing, but slowly. As it turned out, 1,455 people saw that post. Not 3,400. That was roughly 2,000 less than they estimated. $17.10 of my budget was actually spent. Even though I was disappointed and the results weren’t near what was predicted, I still succeeded in reaching more people … barely.

Other posts on my page from the same week reached 495, 578, 745, 999, 629, 1215, 983, 1182, 1062, 1046 and 964 respectively. So, why the drastic differences? In reality, my paid post didn’t do much better than the link to Mindee Doney’s terrific guest post on my blog. {read it here}

Facebook uses an algorithm to decide who sees what. This algorithm, called Edgerank, has been used for quite a while. It determines what is interesting and should be seen in newsfeeds. If it deems your post boring, it will likely never be seen. So, how is this determined and what can you do to ensure your posts are seen more frequently? Here are a few tips.

First of all, videos and photos are ‘weighted’ higher than status updates and links. And, your fan interactions are rated differently too. All interaction is good, but shares rank higher than comments and likes. When it comes to interaction, be sure you’re responding, or at least liking, all fan comments on your page. This can increase your rank.

When are you posting? If you’re posting when none of your fans are online, chances that they’ll see the updates are slim. If you’re posting back to back or continuously, most likely posts will get lost. And, if you aren’t posting often enough, what you do post is seen as less important. Be sure to post interesting content and engage. The more engaging you are, the higher your posts will score.

There are other things that are taken into consideration as well. For instance, how connected with the brand is the viewer? If they have a lot of interaction with the page, they are more likely to be shown the updates and vice versa. And, as time passes, the scores go down. ‘Old news’ is much less likely to be shown than new. It’s not an exact science. I recommend trial and error. Try different combinations, post at different times, utilize different tools and then monitor your insights.

In the end, Facebook can really do anything they want. They don’t need our permission. We have to be flexible and adapt to changes. We have no choice; unless we want to discontinue using the site altogether. This is one of the many reasons I advocate for a diverse marketing plan. Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket. Spread your efforts out; and market in different, creative ways. All of your efforts should complement one another so that other things can fill in while you improve your Facebook strategies.

Have you promoted a post? Visit our forum and talk about your experiences!

Comments

[Jessica]

Great Post !