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Is Boost Promoting Your Facebook Page or Post a Waste of Money?

Boost Promoting Your Facebook Page

 

What is boost promoting your Facebook page?

Did you know, in order for people to actually see your posts these days, Facebook is forcing you to pay for visibility?

Doesn’t that seem rather odd? Being that people have basically opted to follow your business page by casting their vote and hitting the “LIKE” button, wouldn’t it make sense when you create a new post, your followers would see it?

Well, it doesn’t work that way anymore. Today if you want more eyes on your posts, you will have to pay for it! (and dearly I might add!)

In the example below it will cost you $100 to reach an estimated 12,000 -33,000 people based on the interest or keywords you have chosen. Seems like a lot of money for little reach on a platform that has over 1 billion users.

Target-Audience

I came across an execllent article from Derek Muller of Veritasium,  check out his video below in what he calls “The Problem With Facebook”  and why boost promoting your Facebook page or post is a waste of money!

If you really want to know how to waste money on Facebook advertising, Check out Derek’s video on Facebook Fraud which talks about promoting your page for more “LIKES” below. It will make you sick!

The Facebook Like Boost Test!

Okay so back in June of 2013, when Facebook wasn’t quite as greedy as it is today, in the post below you can see that 35 people organically viewed the post.

Facebook Post Boost

Fast forward to April of 2014, I decided to run a test to see if using the boost post feature on Facebook would be worth the money spent.

Via another marketing campaign I am using, I created a few different coupon offers to share on my business page. As you can see below, the coupon for a free smoke detector without paying to boost the post was only viewed by 8 people. Pretty sad don’t you think?

Facebook page post

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next it was time to break out the credit card!

I decided to spend $15.00 and targeted my advertising to specific people interested in home security. The result, 7480 people saw the post. Not bad but who are these people and how engaged are they?

coupon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I must say, I’m a little miffed with Facebook’s tracking stats. As you can see, there are three different conflicting results showing.  Above, 7480 people viewed the post. The question is, of that number, how many were organic vs paid?

Simply hover over the orange bar (shown below) in the “Reach” section and it shows 209 are organic. Which means 7271 resulted in paid views… Good to know! But…

The confusion lies in the Engagement and Post Clicks… In one section it shows 42 post clicks, (at the top) and in the bar graph below, it shows only 28 post clicks. Why the difference? Same holds true for the “likes”.

Facebook stats

Interestingly enough, if I dig deeper in the stats and click the “See Results” I get yet a different set of numbers. 6819 paid results vs the 7271 number above, with only 13 engaged as opposed to 26 listed above.

boost-see-results

At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter why the numbers don’t match. All that matters is the ROI of the budget spent. After all,  boost promoting your Facebook page has one purpose, to generate leads and sales, right?

Well, in the end, according to Facebook’s crazy tracking methods, the long blue bar in the screen shot above shows 7 “Link Clicks”. Which breaks down to $2.14 per click, not my idea of cost effective pay per click advertising!

Honestly, I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out the difference between Link Clicks and Post Clicks. If I paid to boost promote my coupon, and someone clicked on the coupon (post), that is a direct link to my ad.

How does Facebook figure I only had 7 link clicks when in the screen shots above they list 28 or 42 post clicks, depending on which stat you choose to believe!

Come on Facebook, which is it?

I would feel a heck of lot better if the real number is 42 clicks, that would bring down my CPC to .36 cents. Even at 28 clicks, the CPC would be only .54 cents. Those are numbers I can live with.

So what are your thoughts? Is boost promoting your Facebook page or post a complete waste of advertising money?

If its still not clear, watch Derek’s video below on paying to promote your Facebook Page. You will be shocked to learn how many fake likes you are paying for!

There are plenty of courses on How to Promote Your Page on Facebook that will teach you how to get as little as 3 cent clicks. But after viewing Derek’s videos, I have to wonder if paying and promoting your Facebook Page for Business is worth the time and money spent.

Instead of  dealing with high Facebook advertising costs, in an upcoming article we will examine the possibility of  promoting your Facebook page using the Tribe method. Check back soon!

RichardP Richard Petrillo

Connect with me on Google+ Facebook & Twitter

Tell us about your successes or failures on this topic in the comment box below. I would love to know if boost promoting your Facebook page has paid off for you.

{ 6 comments… add one }
  • Airnet Technology 05/14/2020,

    I agree, blogging is probably the best way to build a personal brand.
    It positions you as an expert, lets you connect with your audience, and drives traffic.
    What more can you ask for!
    I personally think blogging is one of the best ways to build a reputation online, but it does take a long time
    Great read, thanks for sharing these tips.Great tips man! Worth reading.
    To be honest at first sight I thought you’ll use the same old tips people used to write on their blogs,
    but here I learnt some new things in this key Point, something out of the box!
    You gave us lots of information, along with examples that are very helpful for me. Thank you so much for sharing.

  • Richard Petrillo 01/17/2015,

    Hey Leon,
    I’m sorry to hear you’ve been having so much trouble with FB and CC charges. I have not run across those kinds of issues. I just wasn’t very pleased with my results when boost promoting a page or post.
    RichardP

  • leon levy 12/16/2014,

    Face book has been charging my credit card for the past six months I imformed them to stop the advertising and did not boost my ads. The only way to stop these crooks from steaing my money was to cancell my card. I have laid complaints but if has gone on deaf ears.

  • Richard Petrillo 04/23/2014,

    Thanks Leon for sharing your experience with us.

    I would have to agree, Facebook advertising, the little I have done has not produced much revenue. I’m glad to hear Groupon is working for you.

    I know it can bring in a lot of customers, most who are just coupon and deal seekers, which don’t necessarily turn into repeat customers. That is the big complaint I always here about Groupon.

    Any thoughts on that?

    Thanks again,
    RichardP

  • leon levy 04/23/2014,

    I decided to spent some money on facebook advertizing. I chose some new product lines to do some testing. I also gave away a deal that I offered on Groupon. The results were zero. I will rather give my money to Google ad or deal through Groupon as these companines bring results. Results meaning leads.I turn the leads into sales and get a good return for my money. Groupon brings be revenue.
    Facebook is a waste of money when it comes to advertizing ,trust me a flushed lots down the toilet.Leon Levy CEO Klingshield South Africa

    • Richard Petrillo 04/23/2014,

      Thanks Leon for sharing your experience with us. I would have to agree, Facebook advertising, the little I have done has not produced much revenue. I’m glad to hear Groupon is working for you. I know it can bring in a lot of customers, most who are just coupon and deal seekers, which don’t necessarily turn repeat customers. That is the big complaint I always here about Groupon.

      Thanks again,
      RichardP

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