A lot has been written about Facebook’s decrease in organic reach, with postings that used to appear to hundreds, now only visible to a handful. For brands it has resulted in paying for boosted posts on Facebook, which has become essentially a paid medium for businesses.

At Magneto, we have worked with non-profit client PaintCare, Inc. to disseminate information about paint buying, reuse and recycling messages to Oregonians for the past year. A component of their annual marketing campaign was to create and launch an Oregon PaintCare Facebook page focusing on their activities across the state. When we launched PaintCare’s Facebook page, it was a low cost way to reach a large group of people statewide. When Facebook tweaked their system, we saw a dramatic decrease in unpaid reach, making it more difficult to share PaintCare’s messaging, decreasing the effectiveness of its Facebook presence.

We then embarked on running paid sidebar ads on Facebook in an effort to improve reach and engagement levels. We looked at where we were spending our digital ad budget, our targets and several other analytics to help PaintCare Oregon’s Facebook page be successful. After limited results, we chose to try another paid avenue and were very pleased to discover an effective method that other brands might consider using. Here is what we learned, as well as a few other insights about advertising on Facebook.

Facebook ads

When placing ads on Facebook, consider where the ad appears on the page. It’s all a matter of positioning. With PaintCare, we started with Marketplace Ads; the small ads located on the right sidebar. According to Facebook, we appeared to be “reaching” hundreds of thousands of Facebook users, but clicks, engagement and new likes were nowhere to be found.

We pulled the sidebar ads and replaced them with Newsfeed ads, which are far more visible, easy to read and can be visually appealing. After a few hours, new likes skyrocketed and engagement has never been higher.

Knowing your audience

Facebook is no different than any other piece of marketing – it’s knowing who you’re trying to reach and how to best do it.

What sort of content will be of the most value to your audience? How will it help them or emotionally connect them to your brand?

By keeping these questions in mind, you can start the content planning phase with clear messaging points. From there, it’s easier to create the kinds of content that will resonate with selected Facebook users (hint: images typically work best).

Reaching out

It can be tough to spread the word about your Facebook page on a shoestring budget, but there is strength in numbers. Other pages have similar problems and are looking for ways past it. Try reaching out to businesses or groups like yours with the idea of cross-promotion. By sharing the others’ pages, you tap into potential new followers and increased reach.

With PaintCare, we work with their drop-off locations throughout Oregon. We post quotes and painting tips from paint professionals and share the location’s Facebook page. We’ve also reached out to real estate agents and other industries that might benefit from knowing about paint recycling.

Optimize posts

An easy way to increase organic reach is to learn when your audience is online, and posting on those days and at those times. 3 a.m. posts won’t reach many people, but a Thursday afternoon is bound to be better.

Take a look at Facebook Insights. On which days and times did you have the most likes, comments, clicks or shares? Try posting more often then. If you have a newer Facebook page and post consistently on the same days and times, try spreading out your content a little more and testing what times work best.

Create the right content 

While you’re looking at post times, look at which content performed the best. Did graphics elicit more comments than just a text post? What about a video? Take past content into consideration when planning new content and use analytics as a roadmap.

Don’t be afraid to test

Success on Facebook is a constantly moving target, and it’s okay to try many new things (like ads, pieces of content, timing each post) with the eventual goal of creating an airtight Facebook plan. Keep track of your efforts and move forward with the pieces that see the most positive engagement. The important thing is to connect with your audience in an authentic, genuine way.

Need some help?

Sometimes getting started is the hardest part and we’re here to help. What social media questions do you have? Let us know at info@magnetoworks.com!

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