One of the most frequently asked questions about Facebook ads is this one:
“Should I spend money trying to build up the number of likes on my Facebook page?”
Here’s my answer: Maybe. This CAN be a good use of your budget, but there are a couple factors to consider.
In this video I break down what a like campaign actually looks like, how it can get you more subscribers for less money, and why I don’t run those kinds of Facebook ads for my own business. Check it out:
I’m testing out something new on the blog today! If you’d rather read than watch, then today’s your lucky day – I’ve included the transcription of this video below. But the only way for me to know you like having the transcription of the video is if you tell me! So please leave a really short comment below to let me know if you prefer watching my videos or reading the transcription. Thanks!
Video Transcription:
Hi, guys. It’s Claire Pelletreau from clairepells.com. In this video, I’m going to ask one of the most frequently asked questions about Facebook ads which is, “Should I pay for likes? Should I pay to get more fans to my page?”
This is an interesting question. Lots of people have opinions about this. There are really two answers, ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Let me explain a little bit about what a like campaign is like first. A like campaign is when you show ads to people and you can choose the people the same way you would do it for list building ads. You show ads to people that say something about you and your page, not very much, ’cause you don’t have a lot of space, you don’t have a lot of characters for the text like you do in other ads, and an image of you or an image from your page that you select and the like button. You would probably include some kind of call to action like, “Want to get updates on how to use Facebook ads to build your business? Like my page,” something like that. Again, it’s got to be short.
Here’s why a lot of people say, yes, you should definitely pay for likes. What some business owners have found is that when they run like campaigns, they can get really inexpensive likes. Now I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they’re running those campaigns in the countries that have their target market. You can get really inexpensive likes from Indonesia or India, but let’s just say you get really inexpensive likes from whatever country your target market lives in, or countries.
Then once they’ve gotten people to like their page, they then run another ad, a list building ad, that targets only their fans with whatever free content or a call to action for me, the fan, to get on their list. When you run ads to your fans, typically they are less expensive and you can get cheaper costs per conversions. If you can get a really low cost per like plus a low cost per conversion from your fans, then maybe the effort of doing those two campaigns and mastering both of them and optimizing both of them, maybe that’s going to make sense.
I don’t run those campaigns. I’ve done it for myself. I haven’t been able to bring down my cost per like very low. It makes more sense for me to drive people over to my website and to get on my list for my free guide because that is, I guess it’s more appealing to the people that I’m targeting then like another page on Facebook so then you have even more things in your Newsfeed. Also, it’s difficult when you only have a small amount of text in that call to action to really convey what your amazing content on your Facebook page is.
The other thing, for me, is that Facebook is not really where I’m spending a lot of time and energy. I don’t feel it all that much. I let it fall to the wayside while I pay more attention, obviously, to my blog, my list, or even Twitter. There are some people who have really active Facebook pages and you can see the engagement on them. You’re like, “Aw man, how could I do that? That’s what I want.”
Maybe you have a page that already gets a lot of engagement, that you love posting on your Facebook page, that you really are building an actual community there and you weren’t so affected by the Organic Reach Massacre of 2013 (which is what I call when they slashed the great organic reach that you were getting on pretty much every page). If you’re still getting a lot of engagement, definitely try out a like campaign because even if they don’t end up getting on your list, they might still engage with you on Facebook.
One example of one of these pages that I see who was killing it on Facebook, and I don’t know if she’s running like campaigns or list building or anything, I know that she’s talked about having had success with Facebook ads in the past, is Denise Duffield-Thomas. If you take a look at her page, you can see it really looks as if she’s posting things as she finds them or as they come to her head. She’s also been really honest about the fact that so much of her business is automated, which is fantastic. It just looks so natural.
I have a client whose business really revolves around looking good and feeling good. Her amazing photos tie in with the service that she provides. When I was able to run like campaigns for her using a great professionally shot, really powerful image in that ad with very little text, it worked fantastically. We were able to get a cost per like at something like fifteen cents. Then, getting people on her list, because they were already engaged on her Facebook page, is easy.
Now I have another client who spends a lot of money on list building ads. She literally never posts to her Facebook page. I think, in the past, I don’t know, three months that I’ve been an admin on her page, I keep seeing the notifications about likes, about more fans, but I don’t see her posting. That’s totally fine ’cause it’s not a big part of her strategy, at least it’s not now and maybe it won’t be.
So I really encourage you, in order to answer this question, to think about what you are doing on Facebook and whether or not it’s working. I’m not going to run like campaigns so that then I can have fans that don’t get any updates from me because, like I said, I let Facebook fall by the wayside. If Facebook is a place where you are already getting a lot of traffic from your Facebook page, people are really engaging, then, yes, definitely, give it a try.
You can spend twenty dollars on a like campaign and see how it goes. Don’t stop your campaign after the first couple of hours because you see that your likes are, I don’t know, costing a dollar each, because, remember, Facebook needs time to optimize your campaign. It’s the same for list building ads or like campaigns or any of the others.
I really hope that answers your question if you were wondering whether or not you should spend money on ‘likes’. If you have any questions for me, leave them in the comments on this blog post or shoot me an email at info@clairepells.com. Talk to you soon!
I’m with you, Claire. I get the how people can make buying likes work (if they are targeted correctly and not just attracting randoms), but there is a real process that you need to set up to then advertise to these new fans.
I like advertising a freebie directly and aiming for email subscribers. I find that usually ads of this variety that perform well also attract a good amount of page likes anyways as a side benefit. Win-Win!
Too many people think about tactics on Facebook first, without thinking about their true overall strategy!
Damn straight, Tony! I’ve heard of people getting some CRAZY low cost per likes so when I ran this experiment myself I thought I was doing something wrong until I considered where are those cheap likes were coming from. I totally agree – yay for new subscribers, nay for semi-useless likes. :)
Transcript thumbs up over here, rarely watch videos (for various reasons) so if there isn’t a transcript I quote often don’t bother…
Got it. I’m a fan of videos myself, but I had a feeling I was losing out on a lot of my audience by not having a transcript. Wish my words on video came out a little more clearly so that the transcript didn’t require so much editing!
I love the transcript! Please continue posting with your future videos. I’m deaf and having a transcript makes things so much easier!
Wow, I hadn’t even thought of that benefit. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Jocelyn!
Deffo need the transcript. My internet connection is abysmal, and often I can’t get the vids to load properly :)
Same thing happens to me with the ol’ Argentine internet connection. Thanks for letting me know, Angela!
Hi Claire, I like both :-) i like the video with transcript. I appreciate you offering both. Did you transcribe yourself, or use a service? When i share a video, i transcribe myself. It takes time, but I don’t mind.
I have never bought likes, but I do have good engagement so I wonder if I should consider it? Thank you always for the help. I’m pretty new to your list but I’m so happy I found you!
Robin
Hey Robin! I didn’t transcribe it myself, I send it to rev.com. They are super fast and I feel like the low-cost investment is worth it!
It’s hard to say if you should try a like campaign, but if you’ve got some money to spare, why not? What’s stopping you? I’m not saying they’re easy but it might be worth a try!
I prefer transcripts!
I like the transcript! Thanks. That being said if you put together a really solid lead gen ad there’s no reason the cost per conversion can’t be lower than the like ad campaign. Recently I struck gold and have been running a campaign for the past 3 weeks or so with an average cost per click to website of 11 cents and cost per opt in lead of 33 cents, all in US (based on lookalike audience), thanks to high CTR (9%+) – and I’m also getting tons of likes and shares resulting in more free organic traffic for my ad! I thought I had to use a more indirect strategy but I found that the results were even better when I ran the ad to a larger lookalike audience instead of just to my smaller WCA.
That’s awesome Janna, congrats on nailing down a campaign that gets you results like those! I know you know that results depend on a lot of factors, and one of the biggest ones is competition in your market. Sometimes even the best lead gen campaign will be VERY expensive (like my last webinar campaign) but still earn you money.
I know Jon Loomer swears by the Like campaign that leads into list building ads, but I haven’t worked with anyone I’ve worked with.