Every time Facebook tweak their algorithms to decrease the organic distribution for brands and publishers, many turn to paid content distribution as a solution.
But there is an even better reason to always work with paid distribution, especially for brands: With paid distribution, you will have much better control over who sees your content.
Publishing organically on Facebook can, of course, be an excellent way to get free distribution, but you can never guarantee that the right people have seen and interacted with your content. And for most marketers, it's often much more critical to reach the right audience than to reach as many people as possible.
But first of all, you need to focus on the content.
Your content is, indeed, the most important thing to focus on.
So, if you have a budget and a story you want to get out there, what should you keep in mind? KIT is a new, Swedish publisher who publishes our editorial and commercial content primarily on social platforms. While working exclusively on social platforms, we've quickly learned that in this competitive environment the quality of your content is, indeed, the most important thing to focus on. Here are five reasons why:
1) Your product has ceased to exist.
Since you, as a publisher or brand, no longer control what the users will see in their newsfeeds, you must understand that every piece of content is out there on their own and needs to earn its way into someone's newsfeed.
2) The persona is no more.
Marketers love to create target groups and build content and products on the idea of a "persona". But in our social feeds, we're never personas; we are complex and composite individuals who can love politics, cats, knitting, and cooking at the same time. This means that we won't consume content aimed at a mysterious persona, but content that interests me as a person.
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3) Content trumps brand
I would never read or watch something just because it comes from a specific brand – if I'm not interested in it I will just scroll away. But at the same time, I wouldn't avoid consuming content just because a specific brand is the source – if it interests me. Even if brand still matters, the right content will trump brand all the time.
4) Content trumps budget
Anyone who has ever paid for distribution in social knows that this simple rule applies: It's expensive to distribute bad content and cheap to distribute good content. This means: If you're working with bad content or wrong content you'll have to put significant budgets behind it to get the effect you want. But if you're sending out the right content to the right audience, it will find its readers and viewers almost by itself.
So, what every marketer needs to understand before pouring tons of money and huge budgets into social is: the quality of your content is crucial in the extremely competitive newsfeeds.
A few tips and tricks that can elevate the success of your content even further.
But what then. When you have your incredible content ready for distribution? Well, at KIT we're always more concentrated on creating the right content, but we have a few tips and tricks that can elevate the success of your content even further.
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1) Think about placement – put your content in the right context.
Since you are working with content, not the usual banner ad, you should, of course, place it in the newsfeed. This makes it more "native" to the user.
2) Match the target group.
Before you start sponsoring your content to all kinds of target groups, remember who you had in mind when you created your content. It's no use wasting your money trying to push your content to an audience who doesn't want it.
3) Know your goals.
At KIT we never optimize on reach, we always optimize on consumption. It wouldn't be worth spending all that time creating the right content if the audience doesn't read or watch it, would it?
4) Be particular about packaging.
Spend some time working on the look and feel in your post. Even if you have created award-winning content, you still have to make sure people discover it in their feeds. And remember: if your post doesn't take off, try changing the thumbnail, picture or copy.
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5) Try different ad sets.
It’s always a good idea to start out with two different ad sets, which gives you a chance to do some A/B testing on a small scale.
6) Experiment with the budget.
You know your goals, and you probably have a budget. Now you can either start with a low budget and increase it when you see which posts are taking off, or you can start with a bigger budget to give your ad sets a kick start. Just don't be afraid to try different strategies.
Now, if you've created the right content and distributed it in the right context, to the right target group, with the right messaging and the right budget, you should just be able to sit back and relax - and watch your content flourish.
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