Facebook is Tricky
Facebook Advertising offer you a lot of options on things you can advertise. However, your basic choice is to advertise your page for likes or to advertise something else such as a product, website, or service. The problem with advertising your page is that Facebook blatantly works against you in order for you to double spend. Let me explain how this should work in a perfect world.
If you select to advertise your page, you can create an audience that Facebook will show the ads for your page. On the ad itself, there will be a place where users can simply click “Like” and they will instantly Like & Follow your page. From there, it would seem like the right thing would be for Facebook to show any of your posts, videos, or pictures to those who Like your page (also called Fans). After all, these users have already demonstrated to Facebook that they are interested in your content. Unfortunately, this is not how this works at all.
Paying for Facebook Likes is Double Spending
When you select to advertise your page for likes, you are letting Facebook win. They are now not only going to make you pay for your likes, but they are also going to make you pay virtually any time you want your fans to see one of your posts. Facebook works on complex algorithms that will only make your posts visible to your fans if it determines this is a post your fans will certainly engage in. For instance, if Facebook knows that you get engagement when you post memes on your fan page, they are likely to show those memes to your audience. However, if that is the type of post your audience primarily engages with, then Facebook will likely not promote/show any other type of post. If your audience prefers memes to your blog link posts, then good luck getting your audience to visit your blog.
Stay Away From This Type of Campaign!
Facebook controls its advertising and is getting better every day at squeezing the last dollar out of their customers. Like Google Adwords or other Google products, Facebook squeezes the life out of the small spender on Facebook Advertising. They would rather manage a few large accounts spending hundreds of thousands of dollars rather than hundreds of thousands of small accounts spending a few dollars. The margins with Facebook Advertising becomes smaller and smaller with each passing day.
So the question is, “Should I pay Facebook for Likes for my page?” If you don’t feel I have answered that question already, let me be clear: NO! There is no reason to double spend for your advertising. There is one exception to this rule, though. If you are just starting a page and have 0 Likes, then it would be okay to spend a small amount to get your first 100 – 1,000 Likes or so. It doesn’t look good for consumers to visit a page that has 12 Facebook Likes. If you want more Likes for credibility then you may consider this. However, if you believe that you are going to build up a large number of fans in order to sell something to them, then skip paying for the Facebook Likes and advertise to them directly.
