Many fence companies wanting to grow their audience and expand their business consider buying likes on Facebook. However, this practice can backfire and produce opposite results than the ones you want. This guide explores who actually is behind purchased Facebook likes, why it can harm your business, and what you should do instead.
The Fence Marketing Pros team has over 15 years of experience and the skills to provide Facebook marketing for fence companies just like yours. Professional marketers understand you want to reach local audiences who are searching for your valuable searches but buying fake likes to bolster engagement can send the wrong message. Learn how to strengthen and reach a real audience by contacting our specialized team at Fence Marketing Pros.
Where Are Your Purchased Facebook Likes Coming From?
When businesses start buying likes on Facebook, they’re happy to see their likes go up but don’t often consider where their newly-purchased “engagement” is coming from. Thousands of fake social media accounts exist for the sole purpose of serving as followers or producing purchased likes. Unfortunately, the people behind these purchases are working in unethical conditions similar to sweatshops.
Facebook attempts to remove bots, spam, and fake engagement every year, but it sometimes cannot keep up with the numbers. When real users view your page filled with fake likes, they will likely move on from your page and consider competitors with honest and authentic engagement. While click farms are popular sources for fake likes, other potential ways include compromised and fake accounts.
What Are Click Farms?
Click farms are buildings with thousands of underpaid, overworked workers utilizing hundreds of computers, phones, and technology centers to create these fake likes, comments, and accounts. Countries far from the United States engage in these harmful practices, some of which include China, India, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
Investigations of these click farms show workers making $1 or less for hours of work and labor in dark, dingy conditions. People feel outraged about purchasing household goods, toys, and clothing from businesses that utilize these practices. Obtaining Facebook likes in this way is no different.
How Buying Likes on Facebook Can Damage Your Business
Buying likes can waste money; you could be using your advertising budget in other and better ways to reach potential customers. The money you are using for this tactic will not result in increased business or more people booking your services. You’re doing your business more harm than good by purchasing Facebook likes and lying about engagement, so consider the following disadvantages:
- Having likes doesn’t necessarily mean the accounts behind them are engaging with your page. The same is true if you have friends and family liking your page but never interacting with your posts. Low audience engagement leads to disapproval from your Edgerank (Facebook’s way of tracking and analyzing your engagement), and none of your content is visible to those you want to reach.
- You’ll lose your business credibility, and it will reflect poorly on the quality of your services. A page with many likes and no interactions likes on posts, and comments aren’t fooling any potential clients. You’re unintentionally sending them to competing fence companies.
- People behind your bought likes won’t become customers of your fence company, as they may not be real or your intended audience.
- Facebook could notice the suspicious behavior and remove your likes or delete your business page altogether. You have to start over completely from square one, and no one wants that. Facebook is using advanced technology to track bot behavior.
- You could end up damaging your analytics and organic engagement. These helpful tools for knowing what works and doesn’t for your page won’t work as intended. You might have likes for a short time, but after that, you’re left confused about what to do next.
Hackers might also be behind the sellers promising fast likes and satisfactory results, which could steal your information and access your page. Furthermore, planning a long-term marketing strategy for your business is extremely difficult when you’ve purchased Facebook likes, as the genuine data you need to reference isn’t there.
The bottom line is using shady tactics to appear like a recognizable business will waste valuable time, money, and potential long-term clients.
Why Do Businesses and Brands Purchase Facebook Likes?
Upon learning where fake likes come from, you might wonder why brands and businesses would purchase them in the first place. Fake Facebook likes offer a form of “social proof” that may reflect a successful business. However, it does not fool Facebook users when a newly established page already has an impossible amount of likes, diminishing their credibility in the early stages of business.
People associate social media likes with popularity and notice that businesses and pages with more likes show up on their feed more often. Fence companies that have lots of likes on their Facebook page may seem impressive to prospective customers. However, their view of these businesses may quickly turn sour when they notice the bot-like behavior of the likes or the fake profiles behind them.
Instead of Purchasing Facebook Likes, Run Strategic Ad Campaigns
You’ve learned that buying likes on Facebook isn’t good for business, so what can you do to improve your business page? Fence companies should start working with their current audience, if they have one, and create content that appeals to and attracts people like them. Local residents are more likely to engage with your fence business page if they feel like they’re engaging with real people and forming authentic, meaningful relationships.
Some good steps you can take to increase business page traffic include:
- Using an easy to find a business name that is relevant to your services
- Running and following through with a Facebook contest to increase followers
- Being consistent with your posts and active, replying to comments often
- Utilizing Facebook and Google ads and email marketing strategies
- Working with a marketing company that specifically works with fence businesses
When building your brand and putting your business out there, you need to determine who your target audience is because it matters. As a fence business, you’re likely trying to reach residential and commercial property owners who could benefit from your fence services. Your target audience becomes even more specific based on your location and how wide of a range your service areas reach.
Get Support From Fence Marketing Professionals
Marketing agencies can provide great professional support to increase your fence business page’s audience. However, working with a marketing company that knows specific details about the fence industry helps tremendously. At Fence Marketing Pros, we only work with fence businesses and contractors and use credible marketing tactics to find audiences that want dependable, local, and top-quality fence services.
Contact Fence Marketing Pros for Expert Marketing Assistance
While buying likes on Facebook won’t help your fence business page’s reach, working with the knowledgeable professionals at Fence Marketing Pros will. Marketing experts use a combination of Google Ads, SEO techniques, Google My Business, and trusted marketing tactics to help bring fence companies to the top of their local search results. The Fence Marketing Pros team can help increase your service sales and set your fence business up for success.
Learn more about Facebook ad targeting strategies that don’t involve buying likes on Facebook and see what Fence Marketing Pros can do for you. If your previous marketing efforts haven’t worked, consult the expert team today to schedule an appointment and start your campaign.