Why Use Facebook Ads in Addition to Organic Posts?

organic marketing paid ads social media ads social media posts Jul 27, 2020

There is value in posting organically on social media. To be honest, I actually often turn down clients who never post organically on Facebook & Instagram because with organic posts you begin to build trust with people. If someone saw an ad for you but you where a ghost on social media never showing your face or sharing your passion for your product or service, then people likely would not purchase from you. The two really do go hand in hand. You need to post organically on social media and show up in stories and use paid ads to get see the most sales and growth.

Using Facebook & Instagram ads in addition to organic posts gives you more control. There are many benefits to using Facebook and Instagram ads, in this blog post I will talk about three benefits. Overall with Facebook and Instagram ads you gain more control over who sees your ad, what action they take, and the overall experience. You know you are ready to start running ads if you are organically selling your products or services. Paid ads are like gasoline on the fire. Meaning ads cannot magically make a product or service no one is interested in all of the sudden a best seller. Ads can take an offer you are organically selling and scale and grow that offer, bringing in more sales, revenue, and profit in a sustainable way.

Benefit 1: Target Audience

Only 5% of your page fans and followers actually see your organic posts. For example, if you have 1,000 following you then only about 50 of them will see your posts. Which leaves 950 who have already raised their hand saying they are interested in what you have to offer that are not seeing your posts. The first benefit of paid Facebook & Instagram ads to organic posts is the ability to target specific audiences including your Facebook page fans.

Another benefit to Facebook and Instagram ads is your ability to control who sees your ad. You can target audiences based on age, gender, location, interests, and behaviors. This ensures that when you are looking to expand and grow your audience that you spend your marketing dollars on an audience that fits your demographic. For example, if you are a salon that specializes in serving women then you can create ads that only show to women within 25 miles of your salon. These are the people who are most likely to make a purchase from you.

Secondly, you can create custom audiences and look-a-like audiences. As I said earlier, you can create an audience of current page fans and followers. You can create an audience based on your email list or who visited your website. With the ability to target specific audiences you ensure that your ads resonate more with your audience and increase your overall conversion rate.

Once an audience has been created, Facebook allows you to make look-a-like audiences. These audiences closely match the one it was created from, however, they include all new people. Therefore you could create a look-a-like audience based on an email list, which ensures Facebook will find as many commonalities between the list of people already subscribed and new people on Facebook. This feature gives you an opportunity to reach more people who are similar to those who already enjoy you, your brand, or your offer.

Benefit 2: Call-to-action Button

When you see an ad on Facebook or Instagram it looks very similar to an organic post, however, one key feature of an ad is a button that says “Learn More.” This small button gives you a huge boost in conversion rate. A second benefit to Facebook & Instagram ads opposed to organic posts is the call-to-action button. The highlighted button on an ad gives precedence to the action you want someone to take when they see your ad. Depending on which ad campaign you run, will determine the call-to-action button you choose. Some of the most popular options include:

Shop Now

Learn More

Download

Get Quote

Apply Now

and many more.

This button makes it clear to your audience what action you want them to take and increases the likelihood of them taking that action.

Once they click on that particular button that will automatically redirect them to a web page where they can fulfill the call-to-action. If you are asking them to apply for a scholarship then your call to action button may say “Apply Now.” Once a potential student clicks on that button they will be redirected to the scholarship application page where they can submit their application. This process makes it simple and clear for the student to know what action you want them to take (submitting the scholarship application) and complete that action (the scholarship application page).

According to a study done by Ad Espresso in 2018, not including a call-to-action button can increase your marketing cost by 2.5 times. That means if you are optimizing for purchases with a call-to-action button you may spend $10 on each person that makes a $100 purchase. Without the call-to-action button, you will spend $25 on each person that makes a $100 purchase. A beautifully designed and curated ad could still cost your company a lot of money if you do not include a call-to-action button.

Benefit 3: Extended Shelf Life

An organic post usually has a shelf life of about 24-48 hours on Facebook or Instagram. That means that your post will reach the majority of people within the first 1-2 days after you post. After that, Facebook starts pushing more recent posts out to your followers from your account or from other accounts. The third benefit to Facebook & Instagram ads is the extended shelf life. In fact, ads often become smarter and more profitable over time. Meaning the longer you run your ad the higher return on investment you will see.

For example, Facebook will target people within your set audience that are most likely to take your desired action. The longer your ad runs the smarter Facebook gets about who will take that particular action. Let’s say you are running a conversion ad optimizing for purchases to your current Facebook page fans; Facebook will target people who are currently following you and who make a purchase. As the ad runs, Facebook will learn who is most likely to purchase and who is least likely to purchase.

Within your set audience Facebook will start showing your ad more frequently to those who are most likely to take action. In order to optimize the results, Facebook needs at least 20 results per week. That would mean 20 purchases coming through the ads each week for the example above. However, the more purchases Facebook gets the smarter the ads become. The longer an ad runs, the more data Facebook collects, and the higher the conversion rate will be.

You will know when it is time to change your ad for one of two reasons. Either you see a strong decline in conversion rates, or you see the ad frequency escalate. If you see a strong decline in purchase that likely means you need to update your ad creative. Change up the image, freshen up the ad copy, and create a new headline that reflects the wants & desires of your ideal client. I know of some companies who can run the same ads for 1-2 years before seeing a stark decline in conversion.

The other thing to keep an eye on while running an ad is the frequency. Often people need seven touchpoints with your business before they feel comfortable making a purchase. The ad frequency is an average of how many times people have seen your ad. If the ad frequency is 1.5 that means some people have seen your ad twice while other people have seen your ad once. If your frequency is 7.3 that means most people have seen your ad seven times. This is a good number to keep an eye on, however, I would let an ad frequency get up as high as 11 before changing anything as long as I was still seeing a high conversion rate on that ad.

You Need Both

So there you have three benefits to using Facebook and Instagram ads alongside organic posts. Really to create sustainable growth in your business you need both. You need to post consistently, show up in stories, and use paid advertising.

If you feel confident in your ability to post organically, but want to learn more about Facebook & Instagram ads. Then consider applying to be a beta tester of my new course: Social Media Ad Lab. I am looking for 4 people to take the course for free! If you are interested in becoming an expert in Facebook & Instagram ads check out this page where you can learn more and apply for this unique opportunity.