This guest post is by Samuel of Internet Dreams.
Would you like some more cake after having a first slice?
Most of us wouldn’t be satisfied with just one slice of cake, so we end going back to the table and grabbing a second one. Heck, some of us would go for a third or fourth slice if we could!
For bloggers, the same goes for likes on Facebook. Facebook is like that party you want to go to—and it’s a big one since Facebook is the largest social network on the planet.
Most blog owners I know would love to get more likes on their Facebook pages.
Today, I want to share how I tripled my Facebook likes. This technique worked to help me get the Likes I wanted to see.
The right way to use Facebook ads to gain Likes
This technique is going to require some money, but it’s a small investment that’s worth every penny.
I’m a student that really doesn’t have much money at all.
But still, I can find a way to make the right investment for my blog. Just a small outlay—in my case, $5 a day—can propel your blog to new heights.
It helped me get thousands of new Likes for my Facebook page in a few weeks!
Let’s step through the best way to create an ad quickly, and use Facebook to target the people who are most likely to be interested in your blog.
4 Easy steps to tripling your Facebook Likes
Step 1. Create a new ad space in Facebook
First off, log into your Facebook account, look for the Ads option in the sidebar.
Create a new ad, and insert the URL to your Facebook page.
1. Choose the Get More Page Likes option
As you can see in the image below, there are several options you can take in order to grow your brand’s presence on Facebook.
But for our purposes today, choose the first option. This can be one of the best ways to spend your money on Facebook!
2. Design your Facebook ad
This part needs to be well thought out, so take your time with it. Your ad is what all of those users will see—it needs to convince them to like your page.
Make the ad unique—something that will make users want to Like or check out your Facebook page. Consider your audience, and think about a message that will make them feel good about your brand or page.
I used the tagline “Want Your Dreams To Come True On The Internet?” It’s worked really well for me and has gotten the attention of many on Facebook.
3. Optimize your ad for the “right” people
What we want to do here is target the right people and get the most targeted Likes that we can.
Your topic or type of Facebook page might be different then what I chose, but take a look to see how each area is edited to best target my audience.
The arrows in the image above point out the most important areas that you need to edit.
Go over your blog and identify the most important keywords that you can use for the ad. Those keywords will be turned into topics that can be used as interest keywords.
Also, I like to target English-speaking countries since they seem the most responsive to my offers and updates.
4. Set up your money and budget for the ad
How much you spend is up to you. If you are looking to triple your likes in the shortest time possible, add as much money as you can to the campaign budget.
I personally started with a budget of $5 per day, which gave me a chance to see if the ad was performing at its best.
Also, set your pricing to Cost per Click, as this keeps it simple and ensured you’re only charged for user actions.
The $5-per-day budget has really worked for me, and let me triple my likes for Internet Dream’s Facebook page. Plus, I was able to do that very quickly and gather such an amazing amount of targeted likes.
Step 2. Network and connect
Of course, don’t forget good old networking and connecting as the most organic, and cost-effective way of encouraging others to check out your Facebook page.
Building real relationships is the deepest way to give other users a good impression of yourself. Have friendly conversations with the people you connect with on Facebook, and offer to help with your answers to their questions. Once you’ve done that, you can suggest the person Like your page
Here’s an example of a message I use on Facebook after I have connected with someone:
As you can see, I thank them for connecting with me, which encourages them to feel good about themselves and our connection.
I also direct them to my Facebook page and invited them to Like it, since people are more inclined to act if you ask them to.
There are many ways to connect on Facebook, and some of the situations you may face now could give you the change to gain a nice Facebook Like. Here are a few examples:
- email conversions
- commenting
- Twitter conversation
- Facebook profile status
- Facebook friendship connection “Like the example above”
- any form of conversation with a human being on the other side of the screen!
Step 3. Add a “Please like this blog on Facebook” CTA to your blog
If users land on your blog, they should appreciate it if it has a usable design and offers great content.
The main focal point of any blog is the article. This is your chance to rack up some free Likes.
At the beginning or end of the article, include a linked CTA to Like your Facebook page. Make it stand out, so it’s clearly visible to the eyes scanning your article.
Also placing your Like CTA in the sidebar will make it visible all of the time, no matter where the visitor is on your blog.
This makes the Like CTA persistent, even though it is not as effective as the CTA in the article. I made the mistake of placing the CTA too low in the sidebar, and just recently bumped it up, which has given me more Likes.
4. Use plugins to help you generate Likes more easily
There are several plugins that can help you get Likes for your Facebook page. Some are paid, but some are free for you to use.
One technique I use for my blog that helps me get likes is through the Thank You for Commenting page that I set up for my blog, which is shown below. This is a fine way to connect with those new users who have just commented on your blog. Asking them to like your Facebook page on your Thank You page can be a great way to get an extra Like.
As you can see, I ask users to follow or Like Internet Dreams on Twitter and Facebook.
A great plugin to use in this situation is the Comment Redirect plugin by Yoast. This free plugin will help you redirect your commenter to the right page after they comment—you’ll need to make sure to set up the Thank You for Commenting page like mine above.
Some other plugins I’ve found helpful for getting more Likes include:
Who wouldn’t like more Likes?
In this post, I have shown you some of the techniques I’ve used to rack up some new Likes.
I have found these methods to be the most rewarding, and I’ve worked really hard on each of them to fully enjoy the benefits they provide. The results are reflected in the title of this post—but only through the hard work I have put in order to receive those results.
I cannot guarantee the same results for you, since this largely depends how much work you are willing to put in. But I can promise you that with the hard work you put in through these four steps, the results will come.
What are some ways you get more Facebook Likes? Share them with us in the comments.
Want to reach higher goals with these top wordpress plugins? Maybe learn how to get more followers? I am Samuel and I own Internet Dreams. Internet Dreams is a place where you can engage and learn how to set up and succeed with your blog or site.
It is nice to see such a great Tip. But I have experienced a Bad Time with Facebook advertising. So i Provided downloads at my Blog,arranged giveaways and asked readers to Like Facebook fan page for my blog in return
Hey Ravi, that’s great!
You don’t always have to pay for advertising to get likes!
Those methods of getting likes on your blog is exactly what you should be doing!
Hey Samuel, nice to see you on problogger. Being a friend of yours, I know that when people read this they don’t have to worry.
Facebook ads are a great way to build more likes. However you may be like I was when I first started: I had NO money!! They will also allow a minimum payment of $30.
Hey Wade, how’s it going my friend!
Money can be a very big problem for the majority, but I always say that advertising is not the only and best solution to use.
Find other intuitive ways that are smartly done to attract likes.
Thanks for the support on Problogger man :)
Hi Samuel,
It is good to see you have explained everything in detail. The good thing is that Facebook advertising provides probably the most specific opportunities on the web todiscover new clients and interactions. You can select who’ll view the ad by age group, gender, marital status, location and even more.
It’s wonderful!
Regards,Amrik!
“It helped me get thousands of new Likes for my Facebook page.”
Could you let us know which of your Facebook pages has thousands of Likes?
Oops, a misprint.
Thanks for letting me know David!
Will get that fixed.
It should say, “It helped me get a thousand new Likes for my Facebook page in a few weeks!”
Sadly, the title of this article is misleading and thus, I’d file this under what the “old school” ProBlogger would call Link Bait. The reality is, the content is great, informative and well written, but the title of the arcile should be: How to maximize your returns with Facebook ads, or: Proven strategies that works with Facebook ads.
Anyone and everyone can triple their FB likes, it’s just a matter of how much time you have to wait, how much interesting content you’re putting on Facebook and how much money you’re willing to throw at ads / dedicate towards promotions. If a FB page has 10 likes, getting to 30 isn’t hard. If a FB page has 500 likes, getting to 1500 becomes more of a challenge, especially if those first 500 took several months. If you’re talking about geo-specific Facebook pages, like retail businesses or restaurants, the total targeted demographic has shrunk far more than your specified “English speaking only” tick-box in the ad form.
Lastly, and not a knock to the guest writer at all, but I remember the days on here and other marketing blogs when the emphasis was “Increase your email newsletter subscribers” which was then followed by “Increase your RSS subscribers” and then Twitter and now FB & G+. The methodology is all the same, the applications here are even the same, albeit FB has revised and made advertising affordable to everyone compared to the much broader spectrum that Google Adwords offers. The point is, having a large number of fans, likes, followers or subscribers is 100% irrelevant if they aren’t engaged with you, or even in your target demographic, thus cutting down the chances of turning a profit, either via ppc ads or affiliate sales, or for brick & mortar businesses, real product sales.
Hey
Excellent post, Facebook has a nice feature of targeting the right audience to get more fans. I usually run campaigns on CPM and it helps me to get 1000 fans easily in $20-30 budget.
Thank you for awesome post :)
Sure, Facebook ads do help increase the likes of one’s page.
The CPM “feature” can work too. Just haven’t had a chance to work on that one.
Thanks for the comment John!
Smart tips Samuel.
Network, connect and ask people to Like your Page. Easy way to get more Likes.
The ad angle is creative. Why not invest to target followers are will Like your page? This is an effective way to augment your free marketing techniques and build your brand effectively.
Hey Ryan.
Thanks for the support man!
Networking is such a huge investment worth taking on your own in order to gain more likes.
The ad is something I really wanted to share with the Problogger readers :)
Hey
Excellent post, Facebook has a nice feature of targeting the right audience to get more fans. I usually run campaigns on CPM and it helps me to get 1000 fans easily in $20-30 budget.
Thank you for awesome post :)
Thanks for sharing the above, i will implement the above steps so that my facebook fans also grow as skeptics always thinks that facebook is not that important but in my view it is very important if you want build a reputation for a website.
Good tips. I especially like the thank you page idea after commenting. Now if only I could figure out how to set something like that up with DISQUS.
This post makes me think I can do this. The Open Graph process has always spooked me, and I consider myself a good DIY kinda person! The fact that there are WP plugins makes this work for me. Thanks for creating this tutorial.
Nice tips.
Wow Samuel! Nice to see you here.
I really love your tips on this and the funny thing about this, is that, I never thought about this.
Thanks for opening the eyes of my understanding
Thanks
Stay blessed
Thanks for these tips.
I never thought about all this– you just opened the eyes of my understanding
Thanks
Dan
I like all the tips and tricks you have mentioned in the above post. As now days online marketing or social marketing is on the boom and everyone have to gain maximum of it so this will be very handy for them.
“Triple your likes by spending money on advertising.” Well, who’d have thought it?!
Hi Martin,
It looks like you haven’t read the whole article man :)
I included other ways in the article that one can do in order to get more likes.
One doesn’t have to only spend money on advertising to get more likes! Never.
Networking has been a huge success in gaining me new Facebook likes as well.
Nice tips about how to get likes on Facebook. What is your conversion rate like though? How many do eventually turn up at your blog? I’m also a student now, and somehow I can’t find it in me to justify that $5/day. It really adds up over time!
My problem with the idea of FB advertising is you can spend that 5 dollars to grow your likes, but then you have to spend another 5 dollars EVERY TIME you post something to reach all of them. Facebook is a great place to share your content and drive traffic to your site. For a business to not have a Facebook page you’d almost be considered outdated and ancient.
However, the problem is, it’s a well known fact that even the most engaged pages still only reach between 30 and 40% of their fan base for free. So yes, you can grow that magic number to make yourself feel all warm and fuzzy inside with 5 dollars – but odds are you’re wasting 50% of that money on people who you’ll never reach again unless you cough up another 5 dollars.
For the past six months I have done a study of our Facebook likes compared to our competitors. As of yesterday, we had 814 likes and 349 Talking about. One of our competitors (whom I believe is buying likes) has an amazing 49,494 Likes and 1584 People Talking about it. By my calculation, we have a conversion of 42.9% while they have 3.2%. I don’t think it’s the size of your audience, it’s what you do with it….
Great!!! i think all are want this because much of traffic coming for blog by Facebook so this is very helpful for us thanks for sharing../
This great idea..
but, i dont have credit card to pay this advertise..
is there any other way that I can advertise on facebook?
The number of Facebook ‘Likes’ is meaningless. The only thing that matters is people who buy your product, or if you target advertising, the number of unique visitors to your blog. Buying ‘Likes’ is similar to buying Twitter followers, a complete waste of time and money. Do you think if you buy someone that they really like you? Pfft!
Hey that’s incredible info on facebook and page likes. Though I have been using some of the stats, will try out few soon as discussed above.
Thanks for sharing!!!
I’m thinking of giving a try to facebook ads and comments plugin to attract more subscribers for my blog.
Very informative, thanks for sharing. I don’t get a lot of activity on my Facebook page, then again I’ve only been at this for about 8 months. I think time is the most important component. People who prefer to get their information via FB will fan your page eventually.
Really this will help me a lot to drive more traffic in my site… Great work.. Keep it up.
this is surely an incredible way of getting more likes in your facebook fan page i will follow this process to make sure i get more likes thanks for the post
Nice see ya here Samuel, neve tried Facebook ad, but heart a lot of it. Is it that active to get quality likes?
Great angle. We actually get quite a few like the old fashioned organic way and by leaving meaningful comments, however this is a great way to push the interest out there.
Great advice all around the table here! The best that you can do is try, and to be sincere when networking or asking people to like your page. Conversion is really the goal!
This method is new to me, when i purchased likes last time, that get disappeared in few days. Facebook has filter to find and delete fake likes. So, your method only the way to get more likes in these days.
Thank You for the chance to share my opinion.
Stephen