Facebook ads are a bad idea. Here’s why…
The Short Version:
Facebook ads for a specific event, resource, or product may be effective, but if your goal is grow a community of engaged followers, try a different strategy. You may get a lot of people to click the like button, but they probably won’t engage with future content and will eventually drag down your engagement rate and result in a lower reach as a page.
The Longer Version:
First let me clarify by saying that if your main goal is to sell a product, promote attendance at an event, drive downloads of a resource or anything similar to that, Facebook ads might be a great use of your marketing dollars. I’m talking to brands/organizations that are trying to grow a community of engaged followers.
If you’re still reading, my guess is that you fall into the second category. Props to you for trying to create authentic community on Facebook! In the long run, I truly believe that this route will also be the most effective method for achieving other goals like profit or attendance, but it just can’t be the mindset when starting out.
So when you launch a Facebook ad campaign with the goal of brand awareness, trying to get as many likes/follows as possible, here’s what happens… Facebook is smart and the algorithm is really good, so they’re going to show that ad to people that are likely to hit that follow button. Good news, right? Probably not. Just because someone clicks the follow, it doesn’t mean that they are signing up to be a fan of your brand and join you on the ride. They saw an ad, they clicked. They didn’t learn about your brand, they didn’t engage in a meaningful way, they just made one click and now you have more likes, but not necessarily more fans. What’s the difference? A follower is someone who clicked the like button, but they’re not seeking out your content, continuing to engage with it and being an ambassador of your brand. A fan is refreshing their feed looking for your posts, sharing it to their timeline and posting about you in groups. One fan is so much better than a thousand followers.
So let’s play this scenario out a little further. You ran an ad campaign with a lot of marketing dollars and your page has 100,000 followers. Remember though, because they were likely to click the follow button, that doesn’t mean they’re now fans of the brand. So let’s be really generous and say that only half are followers, not fans (in reality, I would expect this to be far more). Your next several posts are getting more likes/comments/shares than you’ve ever seen! This sounds good on paper, but as a percentage, you’ve actually declined. If originally, the algorithm showed 5% of your followers the post and 80% engaged, you’re looking at a 4% engagement rate. After the ad campaign, the algorithm shows the post to 5% of your followers, but now only 50% of them engage. You may have gotten more actual engagements, but your engagement rate just dropped to 2.5% and Facebook notices. They see that a much smaller percentage of your audience is engaging with your content and as a result, they show the next post to less people. It still isn’t performing as well as it used to so the cycle continues. The only way out of this hole is by growing a massive number of organic followers that are true fans of the brand and hope that they eventually outweigh the “followers.”
All that to say… Facebook is an amazing tool. But just like you wouldn’t use a saw to hammer a nail or a hammer to cut a log, a tool is best served when you realize it’s strengths and weaknesses. When it comes to building an engaged community, Facebook ads probably isn’t the best tool for the job.
Until next time,
Crush it on social. Reach more people.
