As Facebook prioritizes content that maximizes user engagement and relevance, organic reach has dwindled significantly. In fact, some say it is downright dead. This decline presents a significant obstacle for small businesses, as they typically lack the substantial advertising budgets of larger enterprises to invest in paid posts as a countermeasure. “In today’s Facebook landscape, a sobering reality exists: a mere 1 out of 50 existing page fans will actually view any given post you make on your Facebook business page,” remarked Sam Underwood, director of business strategy at digital agency Futurety. “The days of posting with the expectation that a majority, if not all, of your followers would see your content are long gone.”
However, there’s no need for despair, small businesses—hope remains! We present 22 strategies to help you identify and engage your target audience effectively, even with limited financial resources, by delivering valuable content and experiences. >> Before we begin, ensure your Facebook business page and other essential listings are in optimal condition with our free business listings grader.
1. Post strategically.
Christina Hager, head of social media strategy and distribution at Overflow Storytelling Lab, emphasizes the need for small businesses to communicate more deliberately with their audiences. **“**Simply posting content on Facebook and hoping for visibility is no longer sufficient,” she asserts. “Each post must have a clear purpose and a subsequent plan of action”—specifically, whether to allocate budget for boosting it. Vicki Anzmann, chief creative officer at Creativation Marketing, advises utilizing Facebook Insights to establish an effective posting frequency and content variety.
2. Strive for organic integration.
“Explore creative approaches to convey your brand message—be it through humor, unconventionality, information sharing, or uniqueness,” suggests Eric Johnson, SEO specialist and digital marketer at FeedbackWrench. “By doing so, you’ll effectively reach a wider Facebook audience.” Consider the example of grocery chain Meijer.
Johnson points out that this particular post yielded subpar results because its design and copy overtly hinted at a promotional agenda. “With the inclusion of a product purchase link, Facebook’s algorithm likely detected the overt promotional nature of the post,” he explains. “Consequently, the post’s overall impact was underwhelming.” In contrast, another sunscreen-related post from Meijer garnered over 15 times the engagement. This post resonated because it focused solely on the entertainment value of nostalgia.
Johnson notes, “By avoiding a direct sales pitch, this post achieved a significantly broader reach and generated substantial engagement, effectively raising brand awareness for Meijer—a feat that a direct sales approach couldn’t match.”
3. Implement a content calendar.
For effective planning, a content calendar is crucial.
Via Falcon.io Dan Towers, senior manager of digital marketing at Arcane, highlights, “A content calendar is the most efficient way to maximize your marketing efforts while minimizing time spent on Facebook.” “It enables you to plan content in advance, and with scheduling tools like Buffer or Sprout Social, you can automate the posting process,” he adds. “However, don’t adopt a ‘set-it-and-forget-it’ mentality—continuous post monitoring and active community management are essential. Your audience will appreciate the effort.”
4. Optimize your profile page.
Mackenzie Maher, social media account manager at Power Digital Marketing, stresses the importance of well-organized tabs on your Facebook business page. These tabs serve as the navigation bar, guiding users to the information they seek. Optimizing tabs, refining their hierarchy, and strategically including or removing them enhances user experience. “If you run a service-based business, ensure your review tab is enabled. Group tabs linking to your other social media profiles together. For event promotions or job openings, activate and utilize dedicated tabs for wider visibility,” she advises.
Via HubSpot “Often overlooked, these seemingly minor yet crucial tweaks can make or break the user experience. Your audience should never struggle to find the information they need.”
5. Establish a community page.
Ben Taylor, founder of HomeWorkingClub.com, suggests that community pages on Facebook tend to achieve greater organic reach compared to traditional business pages. “Making the page invitation-only fosters a sense of exclusivity among customers, nurturing one-on-one relationships,” he adds. Taylor reveals that he drew inspiration from the NicheHacks private mastermind group, which centers around affiliate marketing. Subsequently, he established his own advice group for HomeWorkingClub.com, attracting roughly 25 to 40 new members each week.
“An invitation to join the group is extended to individuals upon subscribing to my email list,” he explains.
6. Create a dedicated Facebook group.
Maria Mora, content director at Big Sea, advocates for creating a Facebook group not solely for promotional purposes but as a platform for information exchange related to your business. “For instance, if you sell essential oils, establish a Facebook group specifically for pet owners exploring aromatherapy,” she suggests. “The key is to identify a niche within your customer base and provide a dedicated space for connection. As the group expands, you can strategically share relevant content like articles or whitepapers.” She cites the Ethical Aromatherapy group, managed by Stillpoint Aromatics, which boasts over 13,000 members. This group, Mora explains, was created as a resource for consumers to discuss essential oil sourcing, safe usage, and experienced organic growth through member invitations. However, she cautions against using the group for overt sales promotions or calls to action. The Ethical Aromatherapy page, for example, encourages discussions and recommendations even for other essential oil suppliers.
7. Choose your group name strategically.
Marketing consultant Ron Stefanski recommends aligning your group name with terms people actually search for on Facebook. This tactic increases its discoverability. He employed this strategy when establishing a Facebook group for his website, BengalCatClub.com, which has since amassed over 10,000 followers. “I believe this approach holds potential for businesses across industries—Facebook groups effectively boost brand awareness,” he states. “It’s a valuable strategy that seems underutilized.”
8. Maintain an active Facebook Story presence.
Bernie Clark, founder of Majux Marketing, highlights the casual nature of Facebook Stories, making frequent posting less daunting. “Stories don’t have to revolve solely around company news; they can encompass anything from engaging questions to intriguing links—anything to keep your audience captivated and more likely to visit your profile,” he explains.
Nedelina Payaneva, a digital marketing specialist at Asian Absolute, echoes this sentiment, adding that Facebook Stories don’t demand high-end production quality. “This content format thrives on a spontaneous, behind-the-scenes feel,” she says. “It resonates with users. Similarly, live feeds are gaining traction. From makeup tutorials to studio tours, brands leverage live sessions for real-time fan interaction. These sessions can be saved, shared, and retain value upon replay.”
9. Don’t fixate on vanity metrics.
Tommy Baykov, marketing manager at WPX Hosting, acknowledges the typically tighter marketing budgets of small businesses. He emphasizes focusing on metrics that directly impact the bottom line rather than those offering temporary gratification, like likes.
“Metrics like CTR, 50% video views, and messages received are far more meaningful and actionable, depending on your business and strategy,” he adds.
10. Leverage Facebook for customer service.
Rafi Bitchakdjian, head of social media at Cue Marketing, suggests that smaller businesses can utilize Facebook for customer service, much like corporations employ bots for online client communication. “Audiences anticipate prompt responses, often within minutes, and Facebook serves as an ideal on-the-go platform for addressing issues or even expressing gratitude for positive reviews,” he says.
11. Incorporate a (modest) paid budget for posts.
Underwood recommends allocating a paid budget, even a small one, to ensure your posts reach their intended audience. “Experiment with diverse content formats, messaging, visuals, and posting times. Utilize Facebook’s built-in A/B testing to maximize your ad spend,” he advises. “Posting without any paid support is now essentially futile—occasional posting with a minimal budget is far more effective in getting your content in front of valuable customers and prospects.” Underwood shares that a national restaurant chain client, over recent weeks, has experienced an average per-post reach of 1.06% of their total Facebook likes. Similarly, a Midwest-based food client has witnessed their per-post reach plummet to less than 7% in recent weeks. “These cases exemplify a trend we’re observing across all our client pages lately,” he adds. Keri Lindenmuth, marketing manager at KDG, agrees on the effectiveness of Facebook ads, citing their ability to precisely target audiences based on location, age, and more. She also highlights the store traffic objective, which enables local businesses to advertise directly on Facebook. “Sometimes, the most effective ads resemble regular Facebook posts,” she notes. “We’ve found that promoted videos and image posts yield the best results.” RELATED: 62 Creative, Practical & Engaging Facebook Post Ideas
12. Refine your target audience.
George Schildge, CEO of Matrix Marketing Group, stresses the importance of audience refinement and testing to determine which segments yield the best results for your objectives. “Think of it like conducting TV ad campaigns and testing their effectiveness in different cities,” he explains. For instance, for EspressoLuv.com, a small-batch coffee roaster, he narrowed down the Facebook audience to those who already follow Blue Bottle Coffee, a similar brand. From there, he researches the additional interests of this demographic.
“I repeat this process until I’ve identified around 30 relevant pages, allowing me to refine my target audience before initiating ad creative testing,” Schildge adds.
13. Consider boosted posts.
Greg Bullock, marketing manager at TheraSpecs, highlights the benefits of Facebook’s boost post (or sponsored post) feature. It enables users to significantly expand their post reach and target highly engaged, relevant prospects with minimal budget allocation. “Not only does it help counteract the impact of ongoing algorithmic changes on organic reach, but it also increases visibility, ultimately driving traffic to your content or generating purchases for your product or service,” he says. “In fact, we’ve seen our most successful posts generate thousands of clicks for as little as a few cents per click.” While Bullock acknowledges the value of comprehensive Ads Manager campaigns, he notes, “Sometimes, you need a quick boost to get started. Boosted posts offer a straightforward solution—simply define your target audience, set your budget, and you’re good to go.” He cites an example of a this boosted post from TheraSpecs, which garnered nearly 1600 paid clicks at a cost of $0.02 per click.
However, Tommy Burns, marketing specialist at Bluehouse Group, cautions that small businesses need to be particularly discerning about budget allocation, as boosted posts offer fewer targeting, bidding, and pricing options. “This ultimately translates to a lower return on investment for each ad placement,” he warns. “Small businesses often resort to boosted posts due to their convenience and time constraints. Unfortunately, this approach sacrifices control over the advertisements their target audience sees.”
14. Leverage boosted posts for ad optimization.
Kevin Namaky, founder of Gurulocity, proposes a sequential approach utilizing both Facebook ads and boosted posts. He suggests creating two ads and allocating a small budget of around $50 to each for an initial boost, driving initial engagement. By analyzing metrics like likes, shares, and comments, businesses can identify the higher-performing ad. Subsequently, they can create a Facebook ad within Ads Manager, aligning it with their conversion goal. Instead of starting from scratch, they can reuse the successful boosted post as their creative, complete with the accumulated social proof. “This strategy increases the likelihood of ad conversion compared to using fresh creative with no prior engagement,” he explains. To replicate the post with its social proof, Namaky provides instructions: “Navigate to your business page, locate the boosted post, and click on the date and time stamp at the top. The URL contains a unique post number, which you can copy and paste when creating the ad. Click on ‘use existing post’ and enter the ID under the ‘Creative’ section.”
15. Master Facebook’s Power Editor tool.
For those serious about Facebook advertising, Burns recommends mastering Facebook’s Power Editor tool for post promotion. “This tool empowers you to set up A/B test campaigns, create custom audiences based on conversion pixels, and leverage advanced bidding models,” he explains.
16. Utilize Facebook’s product catalog ads.
Kevin Simonson, CEO of Metric Digital, considers neglecting Facebook’s product catalog ads a missed opportunity. “This template offers a streamlined way to create an engaging browsing experience for shoppers, encouraging product discovery and interaction,” he explains. “It’s also an ideal tool for implementing dynamic retargeting. Furthermore, it allows you to connect an existing catalog from another platform, such as Google.” He shares an example of an ecommerce client who witnessed a 300% increase in sales from Facebook remarketing after implementing Facebook’s product catalog. “Their ROAS skyrocketed from 600 to 3000%, while their CPA plummeted from $45 to $9,” he adds.
17. Structure your pixel strategically.
Scott Selenow, president of Immerse Agency, explains that the Facebook pixel gathers data about your website visitors, enabling you to retarget them later. Facebook also offers a lookalike feature, allowing you to target individuals with online behaviors similar to your website visitors. “Your subsequent ad campaigns will be significantly more effective if you can target individuals you know are predisposed to interact with your content,” he explains. “The pixel facilitates this intelligent targeting.” However, Simonson cautions that a poorly implemented Facebook pixel can be detrimental, as you won’t capture the necessary data.
“Smart brands prioritize streamlined conversion tracking, optimization, and remarketing. The pixel is an indispensable tool for achieving these goals,” he asserts. “Surprisingly, many companies we audit haven’t implemented it.” He cites a small business client who successfully leveraged Facebook into an eight-figure spending channel, surpassing all other paid channels. “This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without a properly configured pixel,” Simonson adds.
18. Retarget video viewers with Facebook Custom Audiences.
Andrew Schutt, founder of Elevated Web Marketing, highlights one of the most consistently effective strategies: retargeting warm audiences using video ads. “Facebook Ads Manager’s ability to create custom audiences based on video view duration is incredibly powerful,” he says. “For instance, a dentist might run a video ad for a general audience, emphasizing the importance of dental cleanings. After a few days, we can set up a retargeting ad offering a discounted cleaning for new patients.” Schutt explains that the dentist can choose to display this ad only to individuals who watched over 50% of the initial video. “This approach ensures that we’re targeting individuals already interested in teeth cleanings, making our ad far more relevant and effective,” he adds. “Presenting the discounted cleaning offer directly to a cold audience would result in significantly lower engagement.” Schutt has successfully implemented this strategy for a solar panel installation company and a chiropractor to generate leads. “The key to its effectiveness lies in targeting the free offer solely to those who watched over 75% of the initial video. This prequalifies them to an extent, as we know they’re interested in the benefits of chiropractic care,” he explains. “In just one week, with minimal ad spend, we generated 18 leads for a free chiropractic adjustment.”
19. Create saved audiences.
Chris Smith, co-founder of Curaytor, distinguishes Saved Audiences from Custom Audiences, explaining that they are configured through standard Facebook Ads targeting options. Instead of manually configuring your audience for every ad or boosted post, Saved Audiences offer a reusable template for your campaigns.
Via Udonis “This is particularly beneficial if you consistently target similar audiences across your ads and boosted posts,” he says. “It saves significant time and money, especially when scaling your ad campaigns and boosting posts regularly.”
20. Experiment with different bidding strategies.
Stacy Caprio, founder of Accelerated Growth Marketing, stresses the importance of testing various bidding strategies, including bid amounts and types. “You can create multiple ad groups (four or five) for the same ad, each with different bid amounts and types. Let them run for a week or two, then discard the underperforming sets while allowing the most successful bids to continue,” she advises. Simonson adds that Metric Digital’s audits of over 1000 small businesses since 2013 revealed that some companies utilize conversion bidding without tracking enough events for effective optimization. “Facebook recommends a minimum of 15 to 25 conversions per week per ad set to provide sufficient data for optimization,” he explains. “This can be challenging for businesses with limited budgets and newly launched advertising campaigns. Our audits often reveal conversion bidding being used for ad sets falling short of this conversion threshold. If your ad sets can’t achieve 25 purchases per week, consider setting your conversion event to add-to-carts or another higher-funnel event.”
21. Don’t overlook ad placement testing.
Namrata Arya, head of digital marketing at Radix, recommends testing both Newsfeed and right-hand-side ad placements to determine what performs best for your business. “While cheaper than Newsfeed ads, right-hand-side ads might not generate the desired clicks or conversions,” she notes.
22. Capitalize on link retargeting.
Louisa McGrath, content manager at Rebrandly, advocates for link retargeting alongside Facebook retargeting ads to maximize conversions and website traffic. This strategy allows you to expand your retargeting lists and reach new audiences who haven’t visited your website but have interacted with your brand on social media. “Essentially, link retargeting allows you to embed Facebook retargeting pixels within your short links when sharing curated content. Anyone clicking on this content becomes eligible for retargeting with relevant ads,” she explains. “This allows you to retarget individuals who’ve engaged with media coverage, reviews, or industry news related to your business, even if the link directed them to an external website.”
McGrath shares that Rebrandly is currently employing this tactic to promote a Meetup in Dublin. “The event page is hosted on Meetup.com, an external site. However, by incorporating a Facebook retargeting pixel within the short link, anyone clicking on it or manually entering it into their browser is added to our Facebook retargeting list,” she explains. “They will subsequently be shown one of our banner ads on Facebook.” Still seeking more? Explore additional Facebook advertising tips here.