How to Make a Facebook Post Double Its Reach (or more!)

Small and large businesses alike use Facebook as the link between their company and their customer. But many recent changes to Facebook have left some businesses wondering if they’re really reaching any customers at all – Facebook has drastically altered its algorithm to reduce the amount of posts people see from the company pages they like.

Maybe you’ve noticed this dip in Reach, one of the metrics Facebook uses to measure the effectiveness of your posts. Maybe you’ve even tried boosting it without shelling out any money. But if you’ve tried all you could and are still seeing the same results, or worse – a decline – it might be time to look into paid posts on Facebook.

First, let’s talk about the different kinds of reach – paid and organic.

Paid reach is the number of people who viewed your content via a sponsored post that appears on followers’ and non-followers’ news feeds or a targeted ad.

Organic reach is the number of people who chose to view your content either on their news feed or on your page.

The power of paid advertising reflects in the numbers.

• National brands that lead the market often use paid posts on Facebook to broaden their reach to engage new followers. The increase in audience by the top 100 national brands on Facebook grew 5.3 percent more than those that strictly used organic posting.
• The same companies increased their web traffic by 5.5 percent more than those who did not use paid posts.
• Forget just doubling your reach – depending on the amount you pay, the audience of one paid post can increase 100 times or more.
• Paid posts can be targeted to your desired demographics to make sure you’re reaching the right people at the right time.
• The average amount of money a consumer spends with a company that’s using paid posts is higher than with those who don’t.

Paid advertising on Facebook can’t be ignored – the majority of your current and potential customers are on the social network, and if you’re just relying on organic reach, too many of them will likely not see your content. And if they’re not seeing your content, they’re not sharing it.

Small businesses can especially benefit from sponsored posts and targeted ads on Facebook – first because of how much bang they can get for their advertising buck (Facebook ads are highly targetable), and second because paying to boost a post can increase their audience exponentially.

We recommend if you’re not happy with the direction your reach is going, seriously consider allocating some funds for paid reach on Facebook. Just remember that, as always (and possibly even more so), your content should be highly valuable and engaging. Even with paid posts, content is king.