11 Powerful Ways to Increase Relevant Facebook Likes with Ads

Everyone wants more Facebook Fans. Marketers are a bit obsessed with it. It’s a number that in and of itself doesn’t mean a whole lot.

But you absolutely should be looking to increase your number of relevant Facebook Fans. These are the people, if targeted appropriately, will help lead to more business.

The number one way of doing this quickly is with Facebook ads. Below are 11 powerful ways that you can increase your number of relevant Facebook Likes with ads!

[As always, it's recommended that you use Power Editor. If you don't, some of these won't be possible!]

1. Run Page Like Sponsored Stories

This is the easiest way to increase Page Likes. A Page Like Sponsored Story is simply promoting that “Friend A Likes Brand X.” Such ads target only friends of Fans and can appear within any placement (sidebar, desktop News Feed or mobile News Feed).

This is social proof! If my friend likes something, maybe I should, too?

Such an ad includes a Like link, and does not allow for comments.

2. Use Basic and Relevant Targeting

When you set up any ad on Facebook, you need to make sure you use at least the most basic of targeting.

Here are a few of the ways you can isolate potential Fans and avoid wasting money on people who won’t care about your brand:

• Geography (Country, state/province, city, zip code)
• Age
• Gender
• Interested in (All, men or women)
• Relationships (All, single, engaged, in a relationship, married or not specified)
• Languages
• Education (Anyone, college grad, in college, in high school)
• Workplaces

If your brand only applies to people in the US, there’s no reason to waste money outside of the country. Same goes for language, age, gender and the other targeting basics.

3. Use Precise Interest or Broad Category Targeting

You can also pin down your basic targeting a bit more by entering in some relevant keywords, phrases and brands within Precise Interests.

Think about your ideal customer and the things that interest them!

If you don’t want to enter every relevant phrase, you may instead choose to enter a couple of Broad Categories…

Choose either Precise Interests or Broad Categories — not both! I prefer Precise Interests.

4. Run Marketplace Ads

This ad unit is what appears within the sidebar. Unlike a Sponsored Story, you can customize the title, copy and imagery.

Such an ad takes more thought, but it also opens the door for split testing and optimization. Try many different variations of creative and targeting to find what works best!

5. Target Friends of Fans

Sponsored Stories will only appear to friends of Fans, but other ads will give you this option. Make sure you run options targeting this important group!

6. Run Facebook Sponsored Search Ads

Particularly if your audience is in the early growth stage, you should be using Facebook Sponsored Search Results.

You can target more popular (and relevant) Facebook Pages that users are likely to be searching. Once again, think about the types of Pages your ideal customer likes.

It looks like I’m being targeted in such an ad!

7. Target Your Email List

Let’s say you already have an established email list, but you’re just now focusing on growing your Facebook Page. You can leverage that list with Custom Audiences!

Target members on your list who are not currently Fans with a marketplace or search ad to remind them to Like your Page. Since they’ve already proven to like your content, conversion rate will be high if you have a quality list!

8. Target Lookalike Audiences

If your email list is high quality but small, you can expand it through Lookalike Audiences. This can help you target potential Fans who are similar to people on your email list.

Within Power Editor, click your list and then “Create Similar Audience.” From there, Facebook will find users who are either within the top 1% or 5% of similarity compared to your list.

9. Target via Partner Categories

Within the US, marketers have the powerful ability to target users based on purchase behaviors (online and offline) away from Facebook through the use of Partner Categories.

Targeting by interests is dependent on users providing accurate and updated information within their profiles. But Partner Categories allow you to target by actual purchase history and behaviors.

This is a powerful way to target your ideal customer!

10. Give to Get

If you run a marketplace ad, consider giving something away in exchange for a Page like. Of course, make sure that whatever it is you give away is highly relevant to your product or service. Use this as the hook within your ad copy.

Examples could include an eBook, access to a program or a discount to your product or service. Ultimately, you want people interested in what you provide to like your Page. Avoid giving away iPads!

11. Run and Promote Contests

A good way to quickly increase Likes is through running a contest. Once again, make sure that the prize is relevant!

I use ShortStack to create my contests.

While you don’t necessarily need to use ads to push a contest, I strongly advise that you do. The exception would be if your main goal of a contest is to reward current Fans. But if you’re reading this post, you’re looking to attract new ones. In that case, use ads!