Using the Facebook live video feature can be a fun and effective way to increase engagement, interact with your followers, and get your message across by starting the conversation with your online community. But what are your options for promoting your Facebook live video and extending the benefits even further by using your ad spend?
Options are limited, but there are a few ways you can make sure people tune in when you go live. From promoting separate Facebook events and posts encouraging people to tune in to using organic messaging to spread the word, you can work around the limitations of not being able to promote the Facebook live video post ahead of time or using the link in a Traffic ad. Read on to find out what options are available.
Facebook Live Video: What You CAN Do
For those of you who may not know, Facebook live videos allow you to interact in real time with your online community. This allows your friends and followers to ask questions and you can answer them right then and there in the video. It takes your online conversation to the next level! So what are your options for boosting this even more by using ad spend to promote the live video?
Promote a Scheduled Facebook Live Video Using a Facebook Event Link
One option for promoting your upcoming Facebook Live Video is to promote a Facebook event advertising the scheduled livestream. Include the link to your scheduled livestream in the text body of the event, and use the event to get people excited to join in on your upcoming livestream. Events are great because they allow people to mark whether they are “coming” or not, and can give you an idea of how many followers will be joining you on the day of your Facebook live video. Anyone who indicated their interest in the event will also receive notifications from Facebook leading up to the event, so they are likely to remember to tune in for your livestream.
Promote a Separate Post Inviting People to Watch Your Facebook Live Video
In addition to creating and promoting an event, you can also promote a completely separate post inviting people to make sure to check out your page on the day and time of the livestream. Create and promote a post with something that hooks people and contains all the information for when and on what page they can join in on your Facebook live video. You can and should also use organic messaging across your social channels to spread the word about your livestream; even without the added juice of ad spend, organic messaging can help bring traffic to your Facebook live video.
Facebook Live Video: What You CAN’T Do
While there are a couple good, viable options for promoting a Facebook live video, those options are workarounds because sadly, there is more that you can’t do than can in this instance. Facebook still doesn’t have any capabilities for promoting the live video link directly ahead of time, whether it be on a boosted page post or as the link in a Traffic ad.
You Can’t Promote a Post for a Scheduled Facebook Live Video
While you can schedule a livestream event and get the link to the post for this event, you will not be able to boost this post the way you can boost other scheduled or published posts on Facebook. As we pointed out above, you can create a separate post with the same information and promote that post, but it will not contain the actual link to the upcoming Facebook live video.
You Can’t Use the Link to the Scheduled Facebook Live Video for a Traffic Ad
You can get the link in advance for your livestream–however this link can’t be used when setting up an ad in Ads Manager as the link button. You can place the link into the text of the ad, but the call-to-action link button will have to lead to a different page, so it doesn’t make much sense to do it this way, as people viewing the ad are much more likely to click the call-to-action button than a link in the text of the ad. So trying to use a Traffic ad to promote your upcoming Facebook live video is not the best method. However, promoting an event or a separate post (as we talked about above) can be very effective in getting traffic for your Facebook live video.
While there aren’t many options for promoting a Facebook live video, there are a couple workarounds that may prove effective. While you can’t promote the actual Facebook live video post ahead of time, you can promote other posts encouraging people to visit your page the day of the Facebook live stream. And don’t discount how effective organic posts can be, so make sure to post multiple times organically leading up to the live video! Setting up a Facebook event and promoting the event can be a great way to give people a heads up about your upcoming live video stream. We are confident that, with these options, you will find an effective way to get the word out about your upcoming Facebook live video and connect with and grow your online community.
Do you have other questions about what you can and can’t do with Facebook? SocialNicole is a full-scale social media marketing agency specializing in Facebook marketing, and we would love to help you out! Contact us to get started today!
