When it comes to marketing on Facebook,
there are two different schools of thought. One is earned (organic) media, the
other is paid media. Even though businesses would prefer organic media, a
recent study shows that this will only go so far.
According to a study done by comScore
and Facebook among the top 100 brand pages on the social network, those who use
paid advertising are able to reach a much greater audience. Most people would
assume that to be true regardless, but the fact that the audience is 5.3 times larger
on average for the paid media when compared to the organic media might shock a
few people.
In fact, according to comScore, some
brands managed to expand their reach with paid media a hundred times over when
compared to organic media (for a single post).
Even though it may be an investment, for
companies who may actually benefit from casting a wider net and reaching a
wider audience, it does sound like a solid investment. The only question
remains is whether the increased impressions also led to more sales. According
to comScore, Facebook users reached by paid media were more likely to buy
online (66% more likely) and in store (45% more likely). This clearly suggests
that these were not just mindless clicks, but ads actually worked in targeting
and gathering excitement from the user.
Even though $30,000 (the Facebook
suggested ad investment per post) is too much for many companies, anyone
developing a PPC marketing strategy would be foolish to discount the impact
that this study has.
