Initially published in Sept 2019, the methods I cover in this post and the video remain the same and still highly effective! My preferred method remains the ‘lead magnet’ and I am currently using it with great results as of October 2020! Enjoy. And if you have any questions, join my the new No Bullshit Marketing Facebook Group!
Why use paid ads to build a free Facebook group?
If you’ve got a monetization method behind your Facebook group, paid ads to the group will ignite growth faster, and with more scale then waiting for content shares, members to join, or manually adding members (after tackily sending them a friend requires).PROBLEMS with Traffic Ads To Group
The common sense method would just be running traffic ads straight to the groups ‘join page’– where people can just fill out there info. Of course Facebook won’t let it be that easy. Facebook ads will disapprove with the direct link to group in the ‘link settings’ of ads manager. They will also catch on to redirects as with the example of ad below that was disapproved. So to make this happen we need to get a little crafty… Here are the 3 types of ads.Engagement Ads
Ads targeting engagement are apparently exempt from the rule in traffic ads prohibiting the Facebook group URL. Be sure to point out the value users will get from joining the group. If the group already has some members, note it as I did on the image for social proof! Then drop a direct link in the text body.
Traffic Ads With CTA
Let your audience come for a piece of content, but then capture them with a CTA! In this case I use a traffic objective ad sending users right to a blog post that is related to what my group is about. On the landing page I put in ribbon CTA that loads above the header… clearly visible, directing people back to the group. There is an X button for the people that it annoys.
Lead Magnet Ads
This one is the trickiest to set up…. but it also gives you the most clear idea of who is joining and how effective your ads are (there is no direct way of tracking which ads lead to group members Create a ‘lead magnet’, and run an ad using Facebook lead objective. For the form field capture name, email, and whatever other qualifying information you want. I capture ‘company’ as that is the most indicative of my avatar. Then on the thank you page, place the link to the group as seen below.
From there you can compare names from people that opted in, to those that join the group. I find the join rate is highest using this method; around 80%. The down fall is the cost.