When social media first became a “thing,” plenty of businesses complained about the fact that there wasn’t enough data available to track ROI on social media marketing. Then as these platforms matured and got more aggressive with their monetization, many of the same people threw their arms up about pay-to-play models.
Facebook ads can also be delivered to Instagram with a few extra clicks. With more than four billion users between Facebook and Instagram, the amount of activity that takes place on these platforms is absolutely massive. This reality leads to the average Facebook/Instagram user following lots of brands. And as businesses of all sizes often do, some started abusing this customer interaction. These factors led the sites to become overrun with promotional content, which caused Meta to step in and tweak its algorithm.
Although it’s still possible to reach Facebook or Instagram fans free by simply posting an update, if you want to reach more users, you’re going to have to pay for it.
Facebook/Instagram Ads Are Complicated But Very Powerful
If your business has an active Facebook or Instagram page but hasn’t done anything with ads, I recommend boosting the next post you publish with a $5 budget for Facebook only. This tiny experiment will give you a better feel for what’s possible in terms of reach with Facebook/Instagram advertising.
However, what I don’t recommend is establishing a monthly budget for Facebook/Instagram ads and then limiting yourself to boosted posts. While you will reach more people, it won’t be in a way that’s optimized around specific objectives like driving website clicks or gathering leads.
Making the most of Facebook/Instagram ads requires diving into the Business Manager in your Meta account. This is where things can get quite complicated but also give you access to a level of targeting that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.
From promoting keys pieces of content to retargeting website visitors, the options available with Facebook/Instagram ads are almost endless. That’s why it’s so important to come up with specific objectives and a clear strategy for accomplishing those objectives. By putting plenty of time into planning before diving into spending money on Facebook ads, you’ll have a reliable way to understand your results and continue optimizing your campaigns to ultimately deliver the best possible ROI.
If you want expert help creating the right Facebook ad strategy, be sure to take a look at how Web Strategy Plus can help.
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