One nightmare of any Facebook advertiser is rising CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions). We have almost no control over CPM because it is based on supply, demand and the competitiveness of your particular industry.
Ultimately, Facebook is still and auction-based platform and whoever pays the most wins the piece of advertising real estate in Facebook’s news feed. Facebook does a great job of hiding this fact. It’s automatic bidding is proposedly designed to focus your attention on the results while letting them help you find your lowest priced conversions.
This is one of the biggest struggles during q4 because the competition is very high.
That said, there is one week we can use to lower our CPM to get better results.
What’s the Trick?
It’s your Facebook Page organic post engagement and content.
The majority of Facebook advertiser’s ignore organic engagement. They use Facebook only for advertising and do not play with in Facebook’s ecosystem to provide content to their users.
That’s because a few year ago, Facebook decided to annihilate the reach of organic posts from Facebook pages. It did this because many businesses had found a little loophole; they could avoid paying for ads and instead use free organic page post to advertise. So Facebook destroyed the reach of organic posts.
However, if you are a Facebook advertiser you can still experience lower CPMs with your Facebook ads by also providing organic content to your Facebook page followers.
Let me explain this further to ensure you understand.
Why Organic Reach is Important?
Facebook is now a go-to source for people to check for the latest news and updates on the topics of interest. Facebook is a content providing machine, so people deliberately go to Facebook to consume content. That’s the core of Facebook business: to allow its users to consume content from their friends and the brands they follow.
That’s why today, Facebook actually watches your post engagements to see if you are playing within the ecosystem.
If you Facebook page and your business works with Facebook’s ecosystem and helps it achieve its goals as a content provider, you will be rewarded.
This is why posting content on your Facebook page on a regular basis is important. In fact, we verified this with one of our Facebook representatives. He confirmed that Facebook actually looks at each advertiser’s Facebook page organic engagement.
If your brand or business is often engaged by users on Facebook, it rewards you with a lower ad CPM than other advertisers who do not help Facebook ecosystem.
This is not a theory. Here’s a direct comparison of two Facebook ads accounts with the same ads, same ad copy but two different pages.
The first is from a Facebook page that frequently posts organic content and has tons of engagement. Take a look at the CPM
Now, this is from other Facebook page which does the opposite and has no organic engagement. Compare the two CPM’s
The Difference
Both of Facebook pages are getting exactly the same audience. There is no difference in the setup and targeting. However, the CPM is dramatically different.
The screenshot with the much lower CPM shows a Facebook page that shares content frequently and has high organic engagement. The other page barely shares any content, so it has little engagement.
Easy to see who Facebook rewarded, right?
HOW YOU CAN INCREASE YOUR ORGANIC REACH?
Now, you might be wondering, “How often should I post?” or “What should I post?” or “What should I do if I am just starting out and I do not have the budget to create enough content to post?”
First, I can’t tell you exactly how often you should post, there isn’t any magic number. But, in general I believe you should be posting at least three to five times a week to keep your engagement rolling.
I do a minimum one post a day and up-to 3 post a day. Ever since I started doing this for my business, I have noticed decrease in CPMs on my ads.
Why Should You Post?
Post content that your followers will actually want to read and engage with. Each industry is different and so the content. But, if you are living within your industry coming up with these should be simple for you.
Now to answer your last question, “What should I do if I am just starting out and I do not have no budget to create enough content to post?”
The answer is simple:
You can curate content from viral articles, blogs, or content providing websites. Everything you need is just a search away so don’t use this as an excuse and put in the work.
Remember the more you play with in Facebook ecosystem the more it will reward you. So start posting on your Facebook page with engaging content for your customers!
