I want to share, step by step, how in one week I added 1188 people to “Spread Jesus Today!” Facebook hasn’t been an easy road for me, I’ve made it a point to study under every “guru” out there, to learn what works and what doesn’t and to be honest. Facebook is very straight forward.
1. Relationships build a Facebook community and a good Facebook community will build Relationships.
2. Advertise by using Facebook ads, quality posts, likable pictures, church bulletin, church email.
3. Post every day!
4. Participate in the conversations.
5. Minister to people.
6. Be available.
These are the basics but you first need an audience or you‘re just “preaching to an empty choir loft.”
I’m going to talk about a blueprint that WILL bring traffic to your Facebook fan page. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to cover:
- How to create an effective side banner.
- creating a welcome page that converts visitors to fans,
- creating content that demands a conversation or other fan page essentials.
If you would like more instruction on those topics, please visit my tutorial site at http://getyourchurchfanpage.com/fm
Let’s dive in.
Have a professional side banner that clearly explains your mission.
Like I said, I cant go into everything but lets take a brief overview to look at the banner.
Start by maximizing the side banner to its full potential as it provides a great avenue for promoting your Church’s Facebook Fan Page. I strongly suggest to use this banner to let people know what your Church Fan Page stands for by clearly defining your mission into that small ad space – in a fashionable way. When making a banner, I always make it a point to follow the standard size of 180W x 540H pixels. You can experiment with smaller sizes if you choose.
If you’re not familiar with creating banners, I’ve got some free template designs as well as an easy to follow tutorial series that teaches how to design a professional looking side banner. Easy Easy.
Make sure you post every day.
When I was just starting Facebook, I tried looking around at other Fan Pages and saw that the most popular ones were those pages which posted every day. It didn’t take me long to notice some significant similarities between the successful fan pages and the unsuccessful fan pages.
So I took my studies even further into how Facebook’s Fan Pages work. The average Facebook user forgets about your page the second after they like it if they do not see new posts.
With that in mind, regular and timely updates are the key for my Church Fan Page to achieve better Facebook engagement. Meaning, it is not enough that I post, it also matters what time of the day I make my post.
Luckily for me, I stumbled upon a great tool which helps me schedule my postings on Facebook, it’s an application called “Sendible.” I was so impressed with Sendible’s service that I made a walk-through lesson on how pastors or ministers could take advantage of Sendible’s scheduling features. It’s a life saver!
Facebook Ads: How to make them work for you and not break the bank!
OK, I know everyone wants something for nothing! Let’s look at this. Would you get a yellow page ad for free? Radio ad? Tv ad? Why are we so cheap when it comes to Facebook. For the results, NOTHING is cheaper. I spent $15 dollars a day for a total of $105. Thats it!
Getting a Facebook Ad is practical and frankly the best way to reach Facebook users. It is hands down, one of the best church advertising vehicles available. However, it takes careful planning in order for it to be effective. In my experience, here are some of the steps that I took to bring significant traffic to my Fan Page.
How I created killer ads that perform and are dirt cheap!
My biggest concern, like every newbie, was the cost of placing Ads on Facebook. For that reason, I’ll try to make this as plain as possible.
Make sure it stands out –
Which ad stands out more? Ad 1 or Ad 2? Ad 2 outperformed Ad 1 by 350%. Remember that there are millions of Fan Pages on Facebook. In designing your Ad, consider who your target audience are and what appeals to them. I read somewhere that the more provocative Ads ALWAYS outperforms the bland ones by a 15:1 ratio. That is why I make it a point to use bold language or images in every Ad to attract more people.
Use pictures that are close up.
Referring to the same Ad above, I discovered that close-up face shots are far more appealing to an audience as compared to a group picture of people. It’s not enough that you use a face shot, make sure it’s a close-up shot. Notice also that Facebook liked both ads’ performance and gave me low rates, but the face shot blew the other away in performance BY FAR!
Get cheaper rates by targeting your Ads by location.
In setting up your Ads, you also need to pin pont your target audience by location. I have to tell you– the wider the scope you set, the more expensive your Ad rates will be.
This means that if you target EVERYONE on facebook, Facebook will “dislike” your ad and penalize you! So, it is really important to carefully select your audience in order to get lower rates from Facebook.
For example, if you are in Dallas- mainly target Dallas. For my Page, I regularly get .11 cents per person by targeting my audience by using keywords like “I love Jesus” or “Bible”. Otherwise, Facebook will charge me $1.50 – $3.00 per person that clicks on your ad.
Target your Ads by keywords.
Bible, I love Jesus, Christian, Church are all keywords that I use to target and limit who sees my ads. Also, you could reverse that logic and target people with words like alcohol, beer, party animal or other “non church” terms as a way to witness.
So, if you design your Ads for a specific person and limit your audience for those ads, you make Facebook “happy.”
The result: You will spend very little and reach a TON of people in return.
Change your Ad regularly.
I learned from experience that a typical ad will work for 1 to 2 weeks before people get tired of it or simply stop noticing it. People on Facebook respond better and are more attracted to an original and new concept.
To avoid that lull, I usually create a new ad just like it and change the picture. There are simple ways to change or re-design an existing ad such as:
- Put a border around it
- Change the background color
- Put the person on the other side or change the color of the text
Do any ONE of these items at a time and reserve the other changes for future use. If you keep doing this, you’ll notice that making tiny changes are big enough to put your ad back on the Facebook users radar.
By the way, I also recycle my Ads by keeping the old ones to run down the line a month or two later.
Make sure it is the right size.
Just like what I’ve mentioned with the side banners, taking into account the size of your Ad before doing the design will spare you from problems later on. The standard size of a Facebook Ad is 120 x 80 pixels.
Here’s a cool tip that I’d love to share: After I’m finished making one Ad, I also do at least 5 variations of that ad and see which one works the best. I’ve often been surprised at which ads work and which don’t.
These are some suggested variations that you can do:
- Try 3 Ads with one pic – 3 Ads with another
- Try targeting one town with an Ad and then another town with the same Ad and see which town likes you better
- Try a red border around one of the ads
- Try your smiling mug shot on one ad
- Women’s face shots outperform men’s faces 10 to 1 (most times) – test, test, test!
- Try a solid color with white text
Keep your ads short.
Since these Ads serve as my invitation to my audience, I must be able to catch their attention as well as keep their interest. That is why I try to keep the photos simple. The more complicated it is, the harder it is to understand my message.
I also choose to relay my message in easy to understand language by keeping the text short and sweet. This works all the time – one to two lines are enough. It loses its impact the longer it takes for it to be read.
Call to Action.
Here is a simple yet effective way to get new fans. At the end of your ad, simply put “Like This Page.” They will!
To test this for yourself, run an ad that simply says: If you love Jesus… Like This Page! People will do it and connect with you with that simple phrase.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to easily get more Fans for your Facebook Fan Page. If you follow the simple steps I did with my own Page, you’ll soon be reaping the rewards on your Page, too!
If you want more instruction, If you want a Fan Page your church will actually use, go to http://getyourchurchfanpage.com/fm and receive your free training on “how to get your first page up today!”
You will also find more advanced courses for seasoned vets wanting to take their page to that next level.
3 Comments
Chad, thanks for your post today! I especially like that a) you're speaking from first hand experience, and b) you did a lot of testing to figure out some excellent best practices.
Love this!
Thanks, its been a long journey of trial and error… Hope to save ministries the ERROR part. The most frustrating thing for me to see is how many GREAT ministries are out their and just don't know how to drive traffic to their ministry page… I hope this helps. – chad