🚀Why Buying Facebook Fans Can Be a Scam

Why Buying Facebook Fans Can Be a Scam

by Team AllYourVideogames | May 22, 2022 | Facebook |

Have you ever found yourself in this anguish? You've just created your page, but you have very few fans. Tries to do everything, but the number of followers does not grow. One of my first thoughts is: I'm going to do a campaign to buy fans on Facebook… This is where the danger lies!

Facebook is a discovery platform. People are there to see what's new. The search for a product is not the natural starting point for a user. Nobody enters the social network thinking: let me search for a stove here, let's see what stove ads Facebook will show me today.

And starting from scratch is not always easy, especially knowing these situations. But buying Facebook fans is definitely not the solution to your problems. And today, we are going to explain why.

What is buying Facebook fans? ad difference

Buying fans on Facebook is running a likes campaign. There are two (wrong) ways to buy likes: one is by Facebook itself, making an ad on Facebook Business for that purpose. Another alternative, even riskier, is to buy fans for your Facebook page on “specialist” sites.

Facebook itself is reducing the offer of this type of fan buying campaign. On Instagram, for example, which is also a social network for Facebook, this type of ad doesn't even exist.

By doing a regular campaign, with a well-established marketing objective, you show your product to new customers and that person will have the opportunity to like your page TOO!

See the example:

Ad only to generate page likes

Fan bought.
Forced by an ad that generates empty likes.

Product ad with option to generate likes on your page

You are delivering your ad and you still have a chance for a fan to like your page.
It is much more worthwhile to make a link, video, brand awareness or location ad with an option to like the page.

How the ad algorithm brings these bought fans to you

The Facebook Ads Algorithm has THOUSANDS of variables. This algorithm studies people's behavior according to a desired goal. But, the folks at Facebook themselves gave us a very interesting explanation about how it works in these fan buying situations.

For you to understand better, let's tell a little story.

Seu Zeca is an 80-year-old grandpa who loves Facebook. As he has just started using the social network, everything is new to him. And Seu Zeca is loving all this interaction!

Every day, our dear grandpa loves to watch videos of pets, is very interested in recipes, stays tuned to all the news about his favorite team among many other subjects.

Seu Zeca likes all the posts that appear on his timeline. Whether it's a grandson status update or a kitten video.

Seu Zeca is the profile we call a clicker. Everything that arises, he reacts in some way. Many users on Facebook are like that – and that's not wrong, it's the user's profile and that's all right. And, the ad algorithm will identify Seu Zeca's profile in exactly this way, as someone who likes a little bit of everything. And this is where the danger lies.

Let's assume that in your persona study, Seu Zeca's profile is not compatible with your potential client.

When running a campaign to buy Facebook fans, the ad algorithm detects who the “clickers” are and ends up making these offers to like your page for them too. So when you buy fans, you're just buying numbers, not potential customers.

But having a lot of fans is a good thing, right?

It depends! In fact, there is no such thing as 100% right or 100% wrong. You can have a lot of fans but not convert any sales. Just like you can have few followers but sell on Facebook every day.

Of course, the number of followers helps with social proof. When a person goes out to lunch and sees a restaurant with a long line and another with no line at all, how does he think? "Oh, the one with a longer line must be better… I'll go for it."

But on Facebook, even if your page has a few followers, you can still have authority in other ways. Making good content is a form of authority. Believe me: is it hard? Yes! But it is possible.

Invest in authentic fans instead of buying Facebook fans

Buying Facebook fans can be a trap, Bino! Instead of taking the easy side, spending money to acquire numbers, invest your time, effort, and work in earning real fans.

Authentic, real, independent fans come to your brand driven by real business goals. In this type of fan, we find legitimacy, evidence of affinity, audience support, insights and retargeting possibilities.

A legitimate fan is more likely to become a customer than someone who only interacted with your page “for the sake of interacting”.

A way out of the dilemma

A tip we can give you is: prioritize those who have been involved with your page for less time. A person who liked your fanpage three years ago changed their profile, changed their priorities.

In fact, this is what we are doing in the our business. We are advertising to anyone who has engaged with our Facebook page in the last 90 days.

We do this to reach an active, engaging audience that is interested in our content. In this way, we are more assertive in segmentation and avoid delivering content to people who have liked our page for a long time and no longer show as much interest in what we are delivering.

Here's how we go about defining this custom audience:

In the manager, access the Audiences option;
Go to “Create Audiences” > “Custom Audience”;
Choose “Facebook Engagement” > “Page” > Create Custom Audience. We set 90 days of engagement because, in our business, we are always showing you the latest and greatest tool updates;
Then go to “Create campaign”;
Choose “Create ad set”;
Under “Custom Audiences”, select the one you just created and assemble your sets.

Want one more example of situations where it pays to build an audience this way? Think of a page about diapers. Three years ago, a young mom liked the page to stay in the loop, as she has a newborn at home. Three years later, this child shouldn't even wear diapers anymore... The mother's goal is now another.

This is how you should also think with your customers. Think of ways to impact those who have been engaged for less time and run retargeting campaigns to get the attention of the older audience.

5 reasons not to buy Facebook fans

To close in a very didactic way and help you to record this subject well, we made a summary with the five reasons that prove that buying likes on your Facebook page is not worth it:

You only buy a number and not engagement or a potential customer;
Your persona study is affected, as these new followers are not your audience;
The ad algorithm can deliver your ads to a clicker;
You lose legitimacy with your fans. If a new follower comes to your page and notices this “strategy” of buying likes, you burn your movie;
You will not sell! It's wasted money, because this “new follower” has no interest in your product.

Don't go the easy way! Invest your efforts in capturing authentic fans. Use targeting, custom audience creation, and lookalike options to target who will really be interested in your product.

Best likes are much better than quantity. Quality above all to extract the best for your business. Always remember that an authentic fan engages MUCH more!