After Facebook changed its policy about the content it would display on people’s news feed, resulting in priority being given to meaningful personal interactions over posts from brands, it’s now more challenging than ever to get your organic content in front of the right people.
You need to make sure your content is doing everything possible to reach your audience, otherwise you’ll get swallowed up in the noise of your competitors.
However, this is even harder to do when you consider how many myths are out there about what works on Facebook and what doesn’t. You need to be clear about what is fact and what is fiction so that you can make the most of your Facebook marketing.
Here are a few of the most common myths debunked:
1. Bigger Audience Always Lead to Better Results
This goes against the notion that bigger is always better. But when working on Facebook, it’s true that getting in front of less people can actually be more effective.
It all goes back to quality over quantity. If you can get in front of people who are more likely to take an action, then it doesn’t matter how many people you actually reach. Successfully converting 20 percent of a group of 100 is more cost effective than only converting 2 percent of 10,000 people.
Make sure to narrow your post’s target demographics as much as possible, targeting people by age, sex, location and preference. Also consider creating custom audiences by either going after ones that are similar to your current targets, or by pursuing groups of people in your business’ geographic location.
2. More Budget Means Improved Performance
We all seem to think that if we just throw more money at our problems we’ll be able to fix them. But nothing could be further from the truth. If you’re not producing the right content, then it doesn’t matter how much money you spend on it, you still won’t get the results you want.
The key is to first focus on creating engaging content based on your audience’s interests. Then, when you start having success, you can begin to scale things up by boosting a post.
Pay attention to your analytics, as they will tell you which ads are doing well and warrant a little extra investment.
3. You Should Boost Every Post
When a post isn’t performing well, it’s tempting to just hit that boost button and hope things will improve. But doing this without any real reason is essentially a waste of money. You need to have specific motivations—grounded in research and analytics—for doing so, otherwise you’re just draining your budget without any hope of getting a decent return.
Only boost posts that have a clear objective or that are already performing well. Or, consider boosting some organic posts that have already had some time to work, as this might give you a nice jump in response.
Overall, don’t believe everything you hear. Facebook ads are a great way to reach your audience, but you still need to have a plan and a clear strategy to make sure you’re getting the most from your investment.