Increasing Your Facebook
Reach on a Budget

Veronica Garcia   •   December 15, 2017

By now, we all know that Facebook prioritizes paid ads over organic content, making it harder for those without a budget to see success as an attainable factor. As marketers, we know that the point of being active on social media is primarily to generate brand awareness. We strive to inform potential customers about our product or service as well as convey our beliefs, interests and culture. But when you look at it from a business owner’s perspective, it’s all about sales and ROI, which is completely valid and part of the long-term digital marketing strategy. However, regardless of the outcome you’re trying to achieve, there is one thing we can all agree on: reaching an audience on Facebook has become increasingly challenging over the years. Read along to learn how you can leverage your page and increase your reach with a limited budget.

Optimize Your Page

The first thing you need to make sure of is that your page is optimized and filled with valuable information for potential customers. Having a phone number, address, description, profile picture and cover photo is crucial for any business page! The first thing people do when they want to learn about the new shop across the street is conduct a Facebook search, so having a credible page works in your favor.

Get Your Page Verified

Obtaining a page verification badge should be a top priority, especially if you are managing a Facebook page for a small business. This will not only add authenticity to your page but it will also eliminate any confusion users might have, especially if there are various businesses with a similar name to yours. This simple but valuable checkmark can be obtained by submitting a utility bill or business phone number. Once the requested items are submitted, Facebook will send you a message letting you know that your page will now rank higher in the search results to help attract more visitors. So this is definitely something worth pursuing if you’d like to increase your organic reach!

Create a Posting Schedule and Be Consistent

How active should you be on social media? There are countless answers to this question but the simple one is, at least three times a week. Your purpose should be to educate, promote and entertain. Having a good mix of content is important because it will allow you to cater to people’s varying needs. With that said, it is also a good idea to test what reaches more people and sparks more engagement on your page (photos, videos, links, text) and do more what you found to be successful.

Engage With Your Followers

Hold on to the followers you’ve already captured and create a good impression on those exploring your page by being responsive. Questions, comments and compliments are all worthy of your attention. Taking the time out of your day to address people’s’ concerns shows that you truly value customer service.

Now that we’ve covered a few ways to grow your organic reach, let’s focus on paid reach. As mentioned earlier, in the eyes of Facebook, paid content = king. So investing in ads and boosted posts will definitely complement your organic efforts and reach those who are likely interested in your content.

Boosted Posts

Boosted posts are simply a type of Facebook ad. They are regular posts that can be used to promote essentially whatever you’d like, but the difference is that they are able to target a specific audience and can run for more than a day. You may also select the placement of these ads and analyze the results at the end of the campaign. Another beneficial feature that boosted posts offer is the ability to incorporate call-to-action buttons. These buttons can be linked to either a website, a phone number or Facebook messenger, amongst other options making it easier to track the success of your ad. Boosted posts are able to double, or even triple the reach your organic posts get and the best part is, you have the power to choose who it gets presented to. You are able to select your target audience’s gender, age, interests, behaviors, jobs, education and more.

Page Promotion

If you are managing a small business’ Facebook page, it is vital to invest in page promotion if your goal is to build an active and engaged audience. Page promotion is a minimal-step creation process that allows you to write an attention-grabbing description about your profile along with an image with the sole purpose of encouraging people to like your page. Effective page promotions deliver a clear message that represents a particular business in 80 characters or less. These ads are placed in various locations that Facebook automatically suggests including the feed, right column, Instagram, Messenger and audience network. Once your campaign is active, you will be able to see how it’s performing based on a relevancy score found in Ads Manager. If you decide you want to change the art, copy or placement of your ad, you can do so at any point in time as long as you wait 24 hours between each change.

Now that we’ve gone over several ways to increase both organic and paid reach, will you be putting these strategies into practice? If you master your organic efforts, setting aside a monthly Facebook budget of at least $200 should allow your brand awareness to grow significantly within the first couple of months. Like all things, growing a large Facebook audience takes time. But once you gain enough momentum, it’ll be uphill from there! Contact us today if you’d like to learn how Reader Digital Agency can help your business grow and maintain an engaged audience!