Tips to Make Meta’s Social Media Ads Work for Your Blog

^{The Classic Movie Blog Association previously published a different version of this piece in the June 2023 edition of their newsletter, CMBA Today. I drastically revised the piece for my blog.}

Have you ever taken out a social media ad to promote special blog posts? I have via two of Meta’s platforms, and I found it can be a great way to raise awareness of my blog and increase readership of its promoted posts. My ads maximized engagement on my blog’s Facebook page—from likes to comments to link clicks. It can work for you, too! Read on to learn more about my experience and get tips to make Meta’s social media ads work for your blog.

1. Be selective when choosing which posts to advertise.

I promote Facebook posts that feature links to individual blog pieces, and I choose posts that are special to me. They could be of a high-profile subject that deserves greater attention, like my interview of Turner Classic Movies host Alicia Malone. Or they could feature a personally important topic that I wish to expose more people to, like my post for the 2023 Luso World Cinema Blogathon called “Three Classic Films Featuring Portuguese-Americans: A Critical List.”

The Luso World Cinema Blogathon and its posts are very niche subjects. I co-created the blogathon to raise awareness of the Lusophone contribution to world film. The average American possesses low awareness of Lusophones and their descendants. Since the latter group feels overlooked and underrepresented in American media, I want them to find and feel celebrated by the blogathon’s entries. I know the readers most engaged by its topics will find these posts over time by Googling. Taking out an ad helps me capture that audience’s attention better and faster.

2. Choose your social media platform(s).

As of today, I have run all my ads on Meta’s platforms, Facebook and Instagram. Perhaps some day I’ll explore advertising elsewhere. Meta lets advertisers choose to run ads on one or both platforms. I usually select for my ads to appear on both.

3. Set a reasonable limit on how much you will spend.

I spent $20 on my ad, which ran for 4 days on Facebook and Instagram. Meta lets advertisers cross-post between those platforms. Now, I wouldn’t do this for every post because advertising for $20 a post would get expensive over time.

4. Target your ideal audience.

I targeted people age 18+, who lived in major film-going cities plus my hometown area, and who like Turner Classic Movies and the Criterion Collection.

5. Take advantage of special advertising offers.

Also, there is a way to stretch your $20! Meta is eager to convert page-owners into advertisers, so it often offers to double your ad money. Spend a minimum of $20, and Meta will give you a $20
ad credit to run another ad later. That’s exactly how I paid for my latest Meta ad! I used a $20 credit. If you run a Facebook business page for your blog, check your Facebook-associated email for this offer.

6. Examine your advertising results.

To show you how well an ad can target your ideal audience, I’ll share the statistics on two posts for the blogathon, one boosted and one not.

Boosted 2023 Facebook Post

Unboosted 2021 Facebook Post

Let’s take a look at the ad I took out for the 2023 piece. As you can see from the images above, audience reach and reaction went up significantly. Facebook and Instagram used to show posts to audiences by the algorithm, which gauged their interest in a page or topic. Now the algorithm favors ad-promoted posts over unpromoted ones. Boosting my Facebook post grew impressions from 9 to 1.8K; 350 people became engaged; likes leaped from 1 to 318; and the number of Facebook comments rose from 0 to 17 (including my own replies). Best of all, twenty-six people clicked the link to my blog. No one did in 2021.

Was it worth it?

Overall, the ad was well worth it for my purposes! I got exactly what I wanted, greater reach and engagement on Facebook that resulted in more people visiting my blog post. You can experience the same results if you’re selective in promoting your posts to the right audience. Give it a try and let me know how social media ads work for you!