Facebook has problems. They are forcing page and group owners to advertise in order to reach their fans by manipulating organic reach and preventing direct communications with page fans. For the most part you can only expect single digit percent reach of page posts to page fans. Boosting posts --paying-- is the only way to reach them all. Page owners don't like this. Many page owners are slowly devising strategies to take their fan base outside of FB. This is particularly problematic when you spend money inside or outside FB to build an audience that, ultimately, FB does not allow you to own. And, again, they make you pay again and again to reach them.
Then there's the issue of fake likes or paid likes that fall outside your campaign specifications. You pay for likes from the US and get a barrage of likes from Bangladesh.
The next issue is engagement. People like pages because they like the pictures or something else in the ads. After that they have zero engagement with the page.
This, coupled with limited reach of posts on your page, means that your posts might reach a bunch of people who are utterly irrelevant to your mission (Bangladesh) or absolutely disengaged (love the pictures). We advertised for a page, reached hundreds of thousand of people and received a real education as to the minefield that FB can be. I am absolutely convinced that the same amount of cash would have produced vastly better results had we spent it on Google ads. We would end-up with a list we could communicate with, groom and grow rather than a page with people who's relevance, targeting and engagement are in question. And, to add insult to injury, we have to pay dearly to reach with each and every message.
Yes, to answer the question, we are transitioning our list away from FB as quickly as possible and will not advertise at all after that. Live and learn.
We've heard that Twitter can be far better than FB in many regards in terms of reaching and connecting with your audience. I'm sure we'll learn all about that in the next few months.
Then there's the issue of fake likes or paid likes that fall outside your campaign specifications. You pay for likes from the US and get a barrage of likes from Bangladesh.
The next issue is engagement. People like pages because they like the pictures or something else in the ads. After that they have zero engagement with the page.
This, coupled with limited reach of posts on your page, means that your posts might reach a bunch of people who are utterly irrelevant to your mission (Bangladesh) or absolutely disengaged (love the pictures). We advertised for a page, reached hundreds of thousand of people and received a real education as to the minefield that FB can be. I am absolutely convinced that the same amount of cash would have produced vastly better results had we spent it on Google ads. We would end-up with a list we could communicate with, groom and grow rather than a page with people who's relevance, targeting and engagement are in question. And, to add insult to injury, we have to pay dearly to reach with each and every message.
Yes, to answer the question, we are transitioning our list away from FB as quickly as possible and will not advertise at all after that. Live and learn.
We've heard that Twitter can be far better than FB in many regards in terms of reaching and connecting with your audience. I'm sure we'll learn all about that in the next few months.