I never really plan ahead for anything.
But I think that’s working to my advantage!
Things are changing so fast, that planning more than a month ahead feels kinda pointless to me.
I would never have planned to get 200,000 visits from Facebook this month.
Or to make over $15k from it.
But well, it happened.
You know I’m an oversharer.
So in this email, I’m going to share with you exactly what I’m doing on Facebook that’s working so well.
So you can see if it might work for you too.
Let’s do it. 🙌
First, some caveats…
- I was a social media manager on and off for years. But I’m far from an expert at this. I’m rusty and just getting back into it.
- I’m not saying this is the best strategy for you. It’s the strategy that works for me. Every site is different.
- Facebook is a fickle beast. It bans pages. It turns traffic on and off. Anything you do is at your own risk.
I followed someone’s advice on Twitter and used an auto-posting tool on one of my smaller Facebook pages and this happened…
That’s on me though, not them.
So, this isn’t advice.
But here’s what I’m doing to make $15k per month with Facebook…
The TL;DR version is that I’m posting links on my Facebook page that send people to my blog. I then monetise that traffic with display ads.
Now here’s the step-by-step…
1. Pick a niche
My niche is travel and the target audience is aged 40+.
That makes it perfect for Facebook.
Not all niches are suited to Facebook.
It helps if it’s something that people are obsessed with.
Do you have an auntie who’s mad about it?
Then it’ll probably work on Facebook.
Are you in a WhatsApp group dedicated to it?
That’s a good sign too.
Your niche must be fun, popular and family-friendly.
But importantly, it has to be something that people LOVE.
You also have to be into it yourself. Because if you make a mistake, people WILL call you out on it.
2. Build a following
The great thing about Facebook is that you don’t need a big audience at all to make money.
Quality > quantity.
My Facebook page that drove 200k+ people to my site in the past month has under 20k followers.
If you have just a couple thousand followers who love the niche, you can drive a decent amount of traffic.
How to get followers?
Well, there’s the free way.
- Send people to Facebook from your website, email list or other social channels
- Post great content on Facebook
- Invite people who engage to follow the page
You can invite people who have engaged with your content in bulk from the homepage of Meta Business Suite.
It’s slow though.
You can speed things up a lot by paying for Facebook ads that attract followers to like the page.
My followers are roughly half organic and half paid for.
I’ve spent $905 on 7,337 fans so far.
That makes them 12 cents each.
3. Setting up Facebook ads
Good followers can cost anywhere from 5 to 20 cents each.
If you want to give this a go, you’ll need about $5 per day to play with.
Here’s how I set my ads up in Meta Business Suite:
- The campaign is for page likes (I also have other campaigns for things like driving website clicks or email signups)
- The ad set is who you are targeting (people in the US, the age range, their interests) and where (Facebook feed)
- The ad is your creative
I’ve tried different ad sets such as people who visited my website, people who follow me on Instagram, people who look like people on my email list etc.
But the one that works best for me is just people who are interested in the niche. Simple. (But, test.)
When it comes to the location of the ad, Facebook will tell you to show it in every position, in stories, on Instagram, in FB messenger and down the side of the sofa.
I ignore it.
After testing, I found that Facebook feed ads work best so I turn everything else off.
When it comes to ads, the best one that works for me is an eye-catching image, with text that says something like: “Like to travel? Follow me for tips.”
The key here is to test, test, test.
I set up 20 different ads and after a couple of days, I turn off the worst-performing 10.
Then add 10 more. And repeat.
Each time, your cost per like will decrease.
Other factors affect it too, like the time of year.
People like to plan travel in January, so I’ll ramp up my spend then.
4. What to post on Facebook
Video works great on Facebook, and I know people who make a LOT of money from this, when Facebook places ads on their reels (hello 👋).
That’s definitely worth looking into, but I haven’t explored it properly yet, so I’m not talking about that here.
That’s one for next year.
Images also get a lot attention on Facebook.
Sometimes, they go viral, like this one that was viewed 16 million times.
There’s limited value in this though.
For example, this post that half a million people engaged with attracted about 1,500 new followers.
A decent number, but they’re not the kind of followers I want.
Most of them aren’t from the US and they’re unlikely to want to spend time on my website.
If you get too many of these types of followers, it can ruin your page.
This happened to me on Instagram.
I had a couple of reels go viral that were particularly popular in India. Now I have thousands of Indian followers who aren’t interested in the rest of my content.
I don’t want that!
Why? Platforms like FB and IG push your content to a few of your followers at first, and if they engage, then it goes out to more.
If your followers aren’t engaged, it can really harm your reach.
Links to blog posts are my focus with Facebook.
When I post these, people click through to my site and I make money from display ads via Raptive.
For example, this link post was viewed a quarter of a million times…
But because it sent 61k people to my website, it made me $5,861 from display ads.
Woohoo!
Notice how many more people clicked the post than liked it?
100 times more!
So when your Facebook post only has 5 likes on it, don’t worry!
That could mean that 500 people have clicked it. And that might have made you $50.
The metrics the public can see (follower count, likes on a post etc) are pretty meaningless.
Of course, not all posts do this well. Some hit, some flop.
The ones that hit will be reposted every couple of months.
6. How I format link posts
The way I do a post is really simple:
- Short caption (2-6 words)
- Emoji (to attract the eye)
- URL (This shows up as an image and meta title)
People keep telling me I’m doing this wrong.
Some say you should upload the image and have the URL in the caption.
Some say you should have the URL in the first comment.
I tried these, they didn’t work anywhere near as well for me.
With all of this, it’s important that you test things yourself!
What works for one account might not work for another.
Facebook is weird like that.
6. How often I post
I have my VA post to Facebook about 5 times per day.
That takes her about 30 mins.
For a new account, you may want to start with once per day.
I don’t know how much Facebook thinks is too much before your page gets banned and I suspect this limit is flexible.
My VA is from the UK and is a huge fan of the niche.
If you’re looking for a VA, your Facebook page or email list may be a good place to find someone.
We use Social Pilot for scheduling.
It’s pretty good, a little buggy sometimes, and it’s not cheap. It cost me about $500/year.
Cheaper versions are available or you can use Facebook’s own scheduler for free.
Final word
Facebook traffic is great, but it’s also very volatile.
You think Google algo updates are bad?
Facebook can turn your traffic on and off like a tap, with no warning or reason why.
If you have a niche that could work with Facebook, it’s definitely worth a try.
But don’t invest more than you’re willing to lose.
Ramp things up very slowly and test, test, test is my only advice.
Good luck!
Did I miss anything? Let me know and I’ll try to include it in a future email.
I’m on my way to Lapland to see Santa right now though, so I might not be able to reply.
Thanks for understanding.
And MERRY CHRISTMAS if you’re celebrating.
– NSL
P.S. Here’s how I can help you:
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