Attract Facebook followers with a ‘likes’ campaignAttract Facebook followers with a ‘likes’ campaign

What if, by spending $10 a day, you gained 15 new Facebook followers who could become shoppers? If you haven’t considered placing ads on Facebook, now’s the time to start.

In 2013, many business owners with Facebook pages experienced a drop in reach, or the number of followers who were seeing posts. Speculation has it that Facebook changed its algorithm to favor businesses that spend money to advertise. So if you want to quickly attract more followers and continue to engage your community on Facebook, you’ll have to spend a little.

A perfect way to grow your audience is through an ongoing Facebook ads “likes” campaign. This has proven to be effective: In a two-month campaign targeting healthy living keywords for nonprofit LiveWell Colorado, I gained more than 9,300 new page likes at the average cost of 56 cents per like.

These ads appear in others’ news feeds, as well as in the right column of Facebook pages. Your budget, of course, is up to you. Here’s a brief how-to for getting started:

1. In Facebook Ads Manager (facebook.com/advertising), click “Create an Ad.”

2. Choose “Page Likes” and then your Facebook page.

3. Follow the step-by-step instructions. You’ll upload six photos, letting you test different imagery to see what works. Ensure these photos pass the “20 percent text” rule, meaning that only 20 percent of your image can be text. You can pretest your images using Facebook’s grid tool to see if they fit the requirement (facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay).

4. Next, add your headline (usually the name of your business) and text. Type a brief teaser explaining what people will get by following your page, such as coupons, recipe ideas or healthy living tips. Then preview how your ad will look.

5. Define your audience. This is the most important section. You can define geographically or by age, gender, language and much more. Consider your core audience, then match up the settings with that audience. As you change these settings, your potential reach will go up or down.

6. Pay attention to the interests field. Fill in lots of keywords applicable to your customers. You can choose from Facebook’s suggestions or type in keywords manually. The more specific, the better you’ll target your ideal audience.

7. Choosing more categories is another way to filter your audience, but it usually limits your potential reach significantly.

8. Set your budget and schedule (time frame for the campaign to run), and give the campaign a name such as “Ongoing Page Likes Campaign.”

9. Click “Place Order” and wait momentarily for Facebook to review and approve your ad.

Caren Baginski is the digital and social media strategist for Denver-based LiveWell Colorado.