93% of social media marketers are using Facebook ads for their marketing goals. More than 160 million businesses use Facebook in 2024. But when we suggest Facebook ads to our potential clients, some of them ask us, ‘Do Facebook Ads help with SEO’?
That’s an interesting question. We know where they are coming from too. Most of us have heard that social media and SEO are connected. Google considers social media popularity as a ranking signal. But do Facebook ads contribute to this ranking signal?
It’s paid ads, mind you. Is it only organic social media traffic that counts towards the signal? If not, then how do Facebook ads help with SEO? That’s what we are going to talk about today. By the end of this blog post, you’ll have enough information about both Facebook ads and SEO to make an objective decision.
Social media and SEO: Do we need to talk about it?
We absolutely must. The fact is that we don’t know the importance of social media signals in Google ranking algorithms. It would be safe to assume that we aren’t going to find out either.
But, even if it does play a 1% role, then that’s something that every business must leverage. Especially, when it’s so easy to achieve that end. Besides, the perks of social media traffic are not merely limited to SEO either. Facebook ads can and should be used as part of a larger marketing strategy.
SEO improvement? Sure! There’s a way to do that too. But it’s time to look beyond mere organic rankings. Let us explain.
Do Facebook Ads help with SEO – Yes! For Branding
SEO is not merely about users being able to find your website on the Internet. It’s also about users identifying your brand. Being aware of the brand story. Think of it as an exercise that makes your brand synonymous with your service. 51% of Facebook users are likely to engage with brands that they follow on Facebook.
Facebook ads are a terrific tool to achieve that. You can run Facebook Ads with targeted keywords. The traffic will be redirected to your website. This increases brand awareness. But it’s not just that.
The traffic now knows the keywords associated with your brand. Here’s an example. ‘ABC Web Design Company in London’ runs Facebook ads. A lot of traffic lands on their website. The next time someone wants to find a web design service, they search for ‘ABC Web Design Company in London’ on Google.
That is a branded keyword search. It indicates to Google that people are searching for your brand. It adds to your brand authority. It’s only a matter of time when you start to top the SERPs for branded keywords.
Branding is an important, but underrated part of SEO. Search Engine Journal states here how it allows smaller brands to compete with the Goliaths. It’s an equaliser that levels the playing field. With 2.8 billion monthly active users, that’s a lot of eyeballs to share your brand story with.
Brand Recognition helps you compete with the giants
Let us share an interesting fact about how search works. Someone looks up for information. The search results pages offer the top 10 pages. There’s BBC, Wikipedia, Huffington Post & The Daily Mail. Then, there’s ‘mywebdesigncompany.co.uk’ that’s offering the same information.
Which one do you think attracts a click? 60% of Google searches result in a click. But brand recognition plays a key role. Chances are that most of the users will click on one of the brands they know. Even if you use a strong SEO strategy and rank for a competitive keyword, how do you deal with no recognition?
Facebook Ads help build brand recognition. Users will interact with your brand on Facebook. Suddenly they think, ‘Wait. Isn’t this the brand that shared that cool video recently on Facebook?’ Let me check this out. You have just managed to snatch a potential lead from big guns like Daily Mail. That, of course, is an example.
But we are sure you get a gist of how recognition helps. The more clicks your site gets, higher the CTR. With good quality content, the user will stay on the website. These are factors that contribute to user experience. User experience is a part of SEO.
Your Facebook Profile Can Rank too
SEO is not limited to ranking your business website on Google. In some industries, that’s an uphill task. But a smart way to cut short that time is to hijack the search pages with social media profiles for branded keywords.
Most big corporations do this too. You can run Facebook ads to promote your Facebook profile page. This adds to your brand awareness. Eventually, Google starts to rank your Facebook profile too for branded keywords.
Do this with Twitter and LinkedIn too. Suddenly, your business pages are dominating search pages for branded keywords.
Do Facebook Ads help with SEO – Yes! For Link Building
Link building is hands down the most critical component of SEO. Large brands have the luxury of acquiring thousands of links. Unfortunately, small and medium-sized brands have the odds stacked against them. That’s where Facebook Advertising can help.
Here’s a workflow that we use commonly at Rockstar Marketing. Our Facebook Ads Team use highly targeted Facebook Ads to custom audiences. Rather than trying to sell them the service, we sell our client’s content. Content is the only way to generate links for free. Remember this.
Backlink Building with Facebook Ads
Good quality content generates shares and hence, links. But even your best content post on Facebook cannot generate organic views. The Facebook algorithm favours established brands over new ones. The only way to generate organic traffic is to use paid traffic to build brand authority.
So, you run Facebook ads promoting a content piece. You can run a contest or a quiz. The idea is to increase brand engagement. As users engage more and more with the brand, it builds authority. Slowly, Facebook starts to rank your organic posts too. This is called the ‘snowball effect.’ Now, you’re redirecting organic traffic to your website.
That’s targeted organic traffic which itself can convert into leads or sales. But it doesn’t end there. The content on the website can generate shares and backlinks too. That’s an easy way to generate backlinks that most businesses don’t think of. More authority links = better SEO rankings.
At Rockstar Marketing, we use a variety of Facebook Ads. In case you’re unaware, Facebook Ads are highly goal-specific. You must know what you want to achieve with your advertising budget. Do you want branding and awareness? Or conversions and direct sales? This is where the first step of putting a campaign together comes into play.
Of course, we use brand awareness ads for organic lead generation too. But how do we leverage Facebook Ads for SEO? Here are our top recommendations.
#1 – Post Engagement Ads
This is hands down our favourite Facebook Ad type. We use it not just for SEO but also for branding and advertising. These ads can target users related to your business page. You can also target users who have engaged with the past posts you shared on your brand page.
A good example here might be everyone who has liked, commented or even scrolled through a post on your Facebook page. One compelling contest or quiz can build engagement for days. This is highly useful for turning social media traffic into hyper-targeted, SEM ready leads and sales.
#2 – Offer Ads
Offers are the perfect way to convert your brand awareness into sales. An ad can show an offer for a free trial, discount coupon, contest etc. The purpose is to get users on the website so that they can take advantage of the offer. Adding offers to posts has one of the highest conversion rates out there – apart from direct sales.
Also, links! Offers get tonnes of shares if you incentivise them. Great way to build backlinks.
#3 – Page Likes
This one’s a no-brainer. The more people like your page, the more authority your posts will have on Facebook. You can run an ad that incentivises users for liking your business page. There are many ways to make it stand out.
The advantage here is two-fold – you build brand awareness and also start building authority for link building purposes.
#4 – Lead Generation
There were numerous reasons why audiences hated the earlier lead generation ad interface. It led users off-Facebook to complete the form registration. But now, that’s changed. The new lead generation ad interface allows you to gather leads within Facebook.
The user fills the form within the ad box. They never have to leave the site and hence the conversions are much higher.
Do Facebook Ads help with SEO – Final Thoughts
The short answer is yes, Facebook ads help with SEO. The reason behind this is simple – you are generating leads and sales by converting social media traffic. But there’s an even bigger advantage. You are getting backlinks. You are increasing brand awareness. The CTR on search is increasing.
All this contributes towards user experience. SEO 2.0 is all about user experience. If you want to know how to use Facebook ads to supplement your SEO efforts, speak to us now.
0 Comments