If you are versed in the principles of search marketing, SEO and PPC, you are at an advantage as a marketer on Facebook.
It’s an important point, arguably the one thing you need to know about the new Facebook as a marketer, so let’s repeat it.
If you are versed in the principles of search marketing, SEO and PPC, you are at an advantage as a marketer on Facebook.
How?
More than ever, Facebook’s changes have been influenced by the strategic principles that propelled Google to undisputed search dominance.
For those of you old enough to remember, Google holds the rare distinction of being both their industry’s dominant player and last-to-market. Before Google, the search landscape was ruled by indefatigable titans such as Altavista, Lycos, Infoseek, and Yahoo!
Even in those glory days (the 90s) marketers recognized the advantages of having a high ranking for relevant search queries. Savvy webmasters gleefully stuffed their websites with keywords, gaming the system. Yahoo! sold off top rankings to the highest bidder.
Enter Google. While known among techies but less so by marketers, Google’s ascent into dominance was built on their commitment to relevance and the user experience.
What does a user want when they enter a search query? Relevant results.
What type of effect did the gaming and paid placement have on search engines? They produced less relevant results for their users.
Google was the first of the major search engines to recognize this fact and built a system predicated on relevance. If Google’s search engine does not return relevant results, it has failed in its mission. So successful though was Google at delivering relevant results that their very name came to represent the category of online search.
With superior relevance and user experience, Google attracted more eyeballs than any other search property. Advertisers looking to take advantage of these eyeballs were greeted by one of the industry’s most innovative and effective marketing models: pay-per-click marketing.
The rest was history.
What does this have to do with Facebook?
SEO and PPC
The new Facebook will provide visibility to brands similarly to how SEO and PPC produces visibility for brands in search engines.
Consider a search query for the phrase “Caribbean cruises.” Google will return what it believes to be the most relevant results in its organic listings, highlighted below in red.
SEO: Organic Listings - Google
Attempts to improve visibility in these non-paid, organic listings is known as search engine optimization or SEO. The art of SEO is a complex one, and involves, more or less, work to convince Google that your website is worthy of higher organic rankings. SEO is accomplished by attracting links from credible sites, thorough tagging of site elements and properly sculpted architecture enhancing site visibility.
While the benefits of SEO are immense, the process is slow and arduous. Enter, pay-per-click marketing or PPC.
PPC: Paid Listings
In the above image, the areas of a search engine results paid highlighted in red are purchased through Google. The art of PPC is complex as well. Ever committed to the user experience, Google does not simply allow any advertiser to buy visibility for a given keyword. Advertisers must (generally) be relevant to the keyword they choose to advertise under. PPC allows advertisers to obtain visibility as a media expenditure rather than as a function of natural relevance to a specific keyword.
Facebook Visibility
Prior to September 2011, the bulk of Facebook updates were delivered to users in chronological order. If my friend made a post at 3:00 pm, a brand I was following made a post at 2:00 pm, and another friend I was following created an event at 1:00 pm, I would see those updates in that order from top to bottom: the 3:00 pm post is most visible at the top followed by 2:00 pm branded update and and the 1:00 pm event creation.
As discussed in part one, with the introduction of Top Stories, Recent Stories and the Ticker, this is no longer the case.
Now, Top Stories, the most visible part of the Facebook user experience, is controlled by a Facebook algorithm. Based on the posts you’ve liked, commented on and interacted with in the past, Facebook figures out automatically which posts are most likely to be relevant to you and gives them prominent visibility.
Sound familiar?
Top Story: Facebook Organic Visibility
In essence, brands that fail to produce relevant content, which in the context of Facebook, is content that is liked, commented upon, shared and interacted with, will be punished with reduced visibility.
Such, the analogue to SEO. The art of SEO is creating a website that, by improving relevance, promotes organic visibility in the results pages of search engine. Creating visibility for your brand’s posts on Facebook, formerly a product of chronology, will now be a function of relevance, which for Facebook, is measured by user engagement.
Sponsored Stories
Not everybody can be a winner at the organic game. What if you just want to buy visibility?
Enter Facebook Sponsored Stories.
Sponsored Stories: Facebook Paid Visibility
Let’s say somebody likes your brand’s Facebook page. This action is likely not something that will be shared or commented on, and as such, be less likely to be visible in the new Facebook construct.
By paying for Sponsored Stories, Facebook allows you to increase the visibility of this new “like”. When purchased by the advertiser, the friends of the person who liked your brand will see this “like” as a prominent sponsored story in the right hand column of the page.
“Likes” are not the only action that can have their visibility powered up by Sponsored Stories. Perhaps more importantly, if your brand issues a post about an upcoming sale, purchasing Sponsored Stories will ensure that more of your fans see this post. Specific likes or comments on posts, app uses and check-ins also can be promoted via Sponsored Stories.
Just as with Google PPC marketing and Facebook’s current ad platform, Sponsored Stories can be tightly targeted. If you’re promoting an extreme energy drink, you can create parameters that ensure your sponsored story only shows to males ages 18-34 in your targeted geographies.
Sponsored Stories are purchased on a cost-per-click or cost-per-impression basis. It should be noted that if you choose cost-per-click, which most advertisers will, Facebook is not in the business of giving you free advertising. If your sponsored story doesn’t generate a click, Facebook will stop promoting your message.
So just as Google did, Facebook is leveraging the sheer amount of eyeballs it owns to charge brands for prominent visibility.
Should You Buy Sponsored Stories?
Like any good answer to a generically asked marketing question, it depends.
With any luck, you’ve been very diligent about paying attention to the metrics of your Facebook page generated through Facebook Insights. If you haven’t, that’s okay.
If your brand posts according to an editorial calendar or on a schedule, keep a careful eye on the news feeds impressions through Facebook Insights, particularly if you have a KPI whose effectiveness depends on this metric. If you notice a decline in the number of people viewing your posts, you need to consider:
- Rework your posts to drive more engagement – more shares, comments and likes.
- Consider purchasing sponsored stories to drive up impressions, and track the subsequent results
The New Facebook for Marketers by Russell Herder
Introduction: The New Facebook for Marketers
Part 1: Facebook Ticker and How the New News Feed Works
Part 2: Getting the Most Out of Facebook Insights
Part 3: The One Thing That Marketers Need to Know About the New Facebook
Part 4: What is Facebook Timeline?
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