Facebook is a great place to showcase your personal brand. In this blog, I’ll suggest a strategy to consistently grow your page with a modest but consistent ad spend.
Focus on your organic content strategy first
Before you run Facebook ads, spend some time developing a content strategy to test.
It’s important to note that Facebook will look at the history of your page and rank it when you start running ads. If you only start posting organically when you first start advertising your ads will cost you more money. Start to build a high-quality page with consistent posts now. Go deep on the pain points of your ideal clients and who they respect, admire and therefore are likely to follow on Facebook.
Brainstorm content subject ideas which your ideal clients will find interesting. Two or three of these should focus on your services, products, results, case studies, behind the scenes and ‘authentic you’. Now for the content. You don’t need to create it all yourself. A great tip is to share content from other high-quality sources. Examples are:
- inspiring blogs by people your ideal clients admire
- links to videos providing value
- user-generated content if it works for your vertical
I currently share around 70% curated content versus 30% created on my Facebook page. You can choose a ratio which works best for your personal brand.
Schedule your content
Carve out time to post your content. Don’t fall into the habit of doing it on the hop. If you plan space in your day, you will find you enjoy it so much more. Facebook’s scheduling tool works well, especially if it’s your only channel.
Ensure your copy talks to your ideal client. Make them feel you are really talking to them and don’t forget your call to action with each post, for example:
- direct message for more info / with your questions
- click the link to learn more
- send me any questions via email.com
- tell somebody who might benefit from this
- Like and follow the page if you want to stay in the loop
- Join the Facebook group to get more value
Facebook loves engagement – if you can have folk commenting on your posts you are on to a winner! Always try to use positive language in your copy. Facebook doesn’t like negative talk. So, pain, struggle, etc are no goes, whereas ‘develop a sense of calm’, ‘live a life you love’ should do well.
How to develop a successful posting strategy
Frequency and timings of posts are things you will have to test. The answer will depend on your vertical and your audience. The important thing is consistency. Facebook likes you to show up regularly so, test, test, test and work out the best schedule for your audience.
Also, test different formats. People consume content in different ways. Test images, videos, links, carousel posts, and slide shows. And go LIVE!
Focus on engagement
Responding to comments and encouraging further authentic engagement (if appropriate) is key to success. The algorithm loves engagement and if it sees meaningful engagement on your posts it will show that content to more people.
Encourage your fans to select ‘see first’ in their ‘following’ tab. This helps to get your content in front of more of your fans, rather than leaving things in the hands of the algorithm.
How to engage with influencer accounts
Facebook presents a great opportunity to demonstrate your expertise, create new connections with people and develop relationships.
‘Follow as your page’ any engaging accounts which have the ear of the audience you are trying to reach. Access your Pages Feed regularly and engage, as your page, with these influencer accounts. Get involved in conversations and aim to leave some value or your thoughts on a few posts each week.
What about boosting?
If one of your posts takes off, give it a boost. People are resonating with it, so show it to more people.
Boost functionality is improving all the time and you can now choose to drive traffic, get more engagement or get messages. Test boosting to followers and their friends to get more social proof initially, or create an audience based on interests. I suggest using the boost to gather more engagement. You can then use the post as an ad later and it will get a head start because of its social proof.
Don’t forget to invite people who engage with your content to like your page. Note: putting money behind a bad post doesn’t make it perform better!
If one of your posts takes off, give it a boost. People are resonating with it, so show it to more people. Remember, putting money behind a bad post doesn’t make it perform better! #Youpreneur Click To TweetPut the groundwork in before you start running ads
Some top tips before you get started with ads:
- Set up your pixel to capture website traffic
- Use the audience tool in Ads Manager to build out warm audiences. For example:
- People who have watched 50 / 75 / 100% of your different videos
- People who have engaged with your Facebook posts
- Website visitors (once your pixel is set up)
- Lookalike audiences of the above
- Build out a couple of interest based audiences to test, based on your knowledge of your ideal clients.
Campaigns to test
Work backwards from your end goal and build your ads strategy focusing on that. Some ideas:
- Traffic campaign to your latest blog
- Video ad optimised for ThruPlay to build trust and with a view to building retargeting audiences
- Retarget warm audiences with a lead magnet to build your list. Test a Conversion or Traffic campaign for this.
- If you are starting from zero consider a Page Likes campaign initially
Top tip: use an existing post with good social proof in either a Page Likes, Traffic, Engagement or Conversion campaign. The algorithm works to find the people who are most likely to take the action you ask it to and social proof is a green light to Facebook. Therefore, a well socially-proofed ad running on a conversion objective should make for cheaper leads.
For more ideas on how you can use ads please feel free to check out my article Do you have a Facebook Ads Strategy for 2019.
How much do I need to spend on my Facebook Ads?
The more you spend, the quicker you understand what works.I suggest putting £10 a day behind an ad set to understand if it’s working. Run this for 3 days before considering turning ads off. If after 3 days your soft stats are not good, turn off the ads and try something else.
If after 3 days you are happy, leave them running. If you get results, you may want to scale – why wouldn’t you? Allow £300 per month as a starting point, but with a budget this low you need to test one campaign, one ad set at a time.
Keep track of your analytics
Check your page analytics weekly to ensure your content is resonating with your audience and your numbers are steadily growing. Keep an eye on ads data daily. Take benchmark data before you start implementing your new strategy – focus on the stats which match your social media objectives.
Key metrics are generally Reach, Engagement, Engagement Rate, Post Clicks, Page Views, and New Page Likes. You should also keep an eye on Google Analytics. Additional Ads Manager stats to be mindful of are:
- CPM (cost per 1000 impressions)
- CTR (link click) – 1% + on a cold audience, 3% on a warm
- LPVs if Traffic or Conversions campaign (always optimise your Traffic campaigns for landing page views)
- Frequency – keep it below 3.5/4
- Relevancy (or the new quality scores if you have them) – if things are working and these are low, don’t worry too much
- Conversions
Kirsty is a social media marketer based in the Isle of Man, with expertise in cross-platform social media marketing and Facebook advertising. She is passionate about the impact and influence that social media marketing can create and loves the continuous learning opportunities this fast-paced industry presents.
