Case Study: How I Increased the Traffic from Facebook Groups by 3,000%

by Bruce Zhang
2014-10-12

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We've spent months developing a truly amazing online tool that helps people to drive traffic from online communities. We started with forums, then Linkedin groups. Facebook groups are the latest addition to the platform it supports.

1. It generates ideas for your posts,
2. It generates text images,
3. It tracks the clicks for every posts,
4. It optimally schedule posts in batch, and
5. More

What makes Facebook groups different from forums, and Linkedin groups is the large number of unmoderated groups where every member is free to promote their business, and ignore other's business. The way to drive traffic from moderated Facebook groups is not different from the way to drive traffic from forums and Linkedin groups. So we focus on driving traffic from unmoderated groups.

1. The First Set of Posts

We came up with 5 different posts, and did exactly what everyone else did: talking about how great the tool is and what the great results it can generate, and let Facebook automatically grab an image for our link.

"SoEngaging - the most intelligent tool ever created for social media management."
"How to drive thousands of free visits from Facebook groups."
"Increase the CTR in Facebook group posts by 500%."
......

5 different posts were posted (rotated) to 5 groups for a total of 25 posts. Those groups have combined members of over 100k. The 25 posts were estimated to reach 500 - 1,000 members. The results were worse than expected: 25 posts generated 2 click with no engagement.

The problem: without vivid images, most posts weren't even noticed in its 5 - 10 minute lifespan before buried by other posts.

2. The Second Set of Posts: Adding Text Images

We added text images to the same 5 unique posts, and they were posted to the same 5 groups a few days later for a total of 25 posts published over a course of two days. 25 posts generated 8 clicks and one like. The results are better, but still far away from our goal: to generate 50 -100 clicks with about 50 posts every day.

The problem: it takes a brain to produce the great results, but it doesn't need a brain to promise the great results.

People just won't trust the results you promised in your posts because every other post promises the great results too. But we know people do read the posts in unmoderated groups. We just need to get their attentions and convince them with the right messages to click the links, to register, or to make a purchase. In our case, we just want the visitors to register a free account at soengaging.com.

3. The Third Set of Posts: Adding Insights

We've gained so many insights in the process of testing, and the insights in the posts could demonstrate we really know our stuff instead of simply promising the great results. We created 5 new and unique posts with both text images and insights in the body of the message. The posts were published in 10 groups with combined members of over 250k.

The results are amazing:

1. We got more than one click per post on average. Some post generated more than 10 clicks.
2. We got 1 like for about every 5 posts.
3. A few members commented on the posts as well.
4. Most importantly, 2 visitors registered at soengaging.com.

We have increased the number of clicks by 1,500% by using eye-catching text images and the right messages.

4. The Best Performed Posts to the Best Performed Groups

We also found out that some groups performed much better than other groups. The bottom 20% groups generated virtually no clicks at all. We're able to increase CTR by another 200% by just posting to the best performed groups. That's 3,000% increase by following the best practice.

Some people use bot to post 1,000 posts in 500 groups a day, but you could generate more and better traffic with just 30 - 50 posts a day if you follow the best practice. You don't have to worry about be banned if you just post 30 - 50 posts a day.