Let’s be clear about one thing. Yes–Facebook is available for anybody and everybody to use free of charge; yes–it is your portal to a plethora of potential customers; but no–effective marketing on the social media platform isn’t free.
I want to focus on the qualifier effective. There are many things you can do on Facebook without spending a single penny–things like setting up a page, and reading and sending messages–but in order to effectively and reliably reach a targeted audience you’re going to have to pay for it.
I’m choosing my language carefully, and you’ll notice that I haven’t yet mentioned making a post. Facebook posts are free, right? Right–but in order to be effective, posts have to have reach; that is, they have to show up on the news feeds of your fans and potential customers.
A Decline in Facebook Reach
Many social media observers have been calling attention to a rapid decrease in organic reach, meaning the number of users who find a non-promoted post in their news feed. Social@Ogilvy recently ran an analysis of 100 brand pages which confirmed this trend. In February of 2014, organic reach was at 6% of followers–about half of what it was in October 2013 (for big brands with more than 500,000 followers the reach numbers were even worse–only 2%).
Of course this is a trend that has been underway for quite some time now. In far-off 2012, organic reach of brand pages was about 16%. So does this spell the end of Facebook as an effective marketing channel?
The Increasing Importance of Facebook Advertising
Well, at SalesBlend, we’ve never really thought of Facebook as a free marketing tool. Relatively less expensive, yes, but not free. We’ve been preaching the importance of advertising and promoted posts on Facebook for some time now, and not because we’re on Mark Zuckerberg’s payroll. We simply recognize that a little bit of money spent on advertising can go a long way (and produce ROI), as long as it’s targeted and managed appropriately.
It’s interesting to note that in a blog which we wrote two years ago we pointed out that organic reach was “only 16%.” Now that it’s at 6% and dropping (some predict that it will eventually reach 0%), it makes even more sense to invest in Facebook advertising. Besides, what organic reach has lost in numbers, Facebook advertising has gained in sophistication and effectiveness.
Since the summer of 2013, Facebook has rolled out:
- Objective-based ad buying, which makes it easier for advertisers to create ads and measure their impact specifically around the ad’s goal.
- Custom audiences, which lets you deliver your ads to highly targeted audiences, such as your website visitors and email subscribers.
- A highly improved version of their reporting tool, making it easier to get the insights you want on the performance of your ads.
And while organic reach is the free way of getting word out, advertisement and promotion on Facebook are not exactly expensive. Blogger Brian Carter makes a comparison of a number of different marketing channels–internet-based and otherwise–and shows that Facebook is the cheapest way to reach people. He estimates that a mere 25 cents are sufficient to reach 1000 people, compared to $2.75 on Google AdWords or $32 in the newspaper for equivalent results.
These are uplifting figures (although CPM obviously isn’t the only metric that matters), as they show that successful Facebook marketing isn’t over just because the day of organic reach may be coming to a close. In fact, it may be even easier than before to deliver your message on target.
Facebook marketing is over but that just means it’s time to adapt. Are you advertising? Please let me know in the comments below and if you liked this post, please subscribe to our e-mail newsletter!
