If you're a network marketer using Facebook ads to reach your potential prospects, then you know costs are rising.
So to help you understand and deal with this reality, let’s look back a couple of years to see what's causing Facebook to become more expensive.
In 2008, when Facebook first introduced advertising it was a bit like the wild, wild West.
You could advertise almost anything you wanted, and it was dirt cheap.
It also looked much, much different than it does today.
You could place ads in the News Feed and in little boxes in the right column – with few restrictions.
Advertisers would be obnoxious to raise their click through rates – like putting red borders around ads and such – anything to get more clicks.
Facebook made it so cheap and easy that small businesses, like the mom and pop down the street or the online “solopreneur,” could easily get their message out there to everyone on Facebook.
It didn’t really matter then what you were advertising
…as long as it wasn't something completely obscene, like gambling or pornography.
One of the things that made advertising on Facebook so enticing was that their Ads Manager interface made it super simple to advertise – unlike Google AdWords, which was much more complex to use and difficult to master.
In those early days, Facebook had HUGE inventory.
And it wasn’t a public company, so they didn't have to answer to shareholders.
Just like what happened with Google ads, as the Facebook ad platform continued to develop and grow, so did the scrutiny.
Facebook wanted to tame the “wild West” and clean up its advertising process.
They had huge inventory and not enough users.
In fact, advertising was so new that…
People weren’t expecting offers and advertisements to show up in their News Feeds
They hadn’t become blind or jaded to ads yet, so it was not only simple to advertise there, it was really profitable.
Advertisers noticed.
Eventually those two- or three-cent clicks attracted more and more advertisers as the word spread.
What happened then?
Well, there are a limited number of users on Facebook and a limited number of spots in the News Feed for ads, right?
Let’s say, for example, that clicks cost ten cents apiece and there are a million advertisers.
What happens when the number of advertisers doubles to two million?
Now you have the same (limited) amount of space available for ads and twice as many people advertising.
Any sort of economics class will tell you this is the law of supply and demand.
When there’s a fixed supply of available ad space and double the demand, what has to happen next?
Facebook can now charge more for their ads because they have twice as many people willing to buy them.
And because Facebook keeps making advertising on their platform so much easier and more intuitive, and because everyone now wants to advertise their business on Facebook, the law of supply and demand continuously enables them to raise their rates over time.
Make sense?
So let’s review Facebook advertising
In a nutshell…
- There’s a fixed amount of space for advertising in the News Feed.
- Facebook isn't going to open up any more ad space. (In fact, Mark Zuckerberg announced a couple months ago that he was going focus the News Feed less on ads and more posts from friends and family to improve the user experience on Facebook.)
- Less ad space will drive up the cost-per-click, because there's less inventory.
- Ad costs will continue to rise unless you are able to create highly targeted, highly engaging ads.
Here’s the thing:
Facebook rewards you when you create engaging ads.
So to combat the rising cost-per-click, you’ll need to create an engaging experience that moves people to sign up for your Messenger broadcasts because they actually want to hear more from you.
Once you can communicate with people directly in Messenger, you are no longer dependent on the News Feed.
Because you can reach them through Messenger ads, the News Feed won’t matter so much anymore.
You’ll only have to use the News Feed to attract prospects for the first time.
Facebook Messenger ads are the next big thing to master
As entrepreneurs, as network marketers, that’s exactly how we're going to combat the rising costs.
As the traffic guy at Elite Marketing Pro, I've been hunkered down in our bunker, coming up with all sorts of training.
We want to implement this Facebook Messenger strategy for our own community, and show you how you can implement it, too.
You’re going to see a lot more of Messenger training, showing you ways to attract people from your News Feed and lead them to Messenger.
You’ll still advertise in the News Feed to attract initial interest from people who want to hear more from you.
Then you’ll use Messenger to engage and communicate with them directly, instead of constantly trying to stay in front of them in their News Feeds.
You’ll be able to get those people that are interested in what you want into Messenger and deliver a message they know they want to hear, instead of constantly worrying about negative comments on your ads.
Messenger is the new way to advertise on Facebook
If you want to keep costs down, that is.
Essentially, Messenger ads are evolving into a hybrid of Facebook Ads and email marketing.
You’ll still use the News Feed as the place to get people’s attention, and then you’ll sign them up in Messenger.
Once you get people onto Messenger, you don't have to keep advertising to them!
You'll be able to communicate as often as you want to without using the News Feed or email.
This is just one of the ways that Facebook Ads are changing to combat the fixed limit of ad space versus the growing number of people that want to advertise on Facebook.
And like I mentioned, you will be seeing more training on this tactic in the very near future.
In the meantime, it's important to keep the big picture in mind…
Profitable traffic generation is predicated upon these 5 pillars
- Identifying your perfect prospect
- Writing a winning landing page
- Following a winning ad formula (which now includes Messenger ads!)
- Promoting a “self liquidating” lead generation offer
- Leveraging the social traffic ecosystem
And we've put together a point-for-point tutorial revealing this exact process in this 100% FREE traffic workshop, which is hosted by none other than Tim Erway, CEO and co-founder of Elite Marketing Pro.
Simply pick a time and register right here.
You’ll discover how you can put together an ad campaign in just 10 minutes a day with as little as $10 in initial ad spend.
And Tim will show exactly how we do it and help you prepare for the coming changes with Facebook ads.
So if you haven’t registered yet, what are you waiting for?
Pick a time that works for you to attend Tim’s traffic workshop right here.
Until next time,
Matt Baran
Director of Customer Acquisition
Elite Marketing Pro
- How to Combat the Rising Costs of Facebook Advertising - July 5, 2018
- The Six Most-Effective Targeting Methods to Use on Facebook Right Now - February 8, 2018
- 5 Key Factors of Becoming a Successful Affiliate Marketer on Facebook - February 1, 2018
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