Real money demands real expertise, and today, you will expand yours with this Facebook case study. A passionate blogger from Cambodia creates killer content on the Facebook platform. This case study reveals tactics he developed to make $2,000 per month without ad spend. See how good strategies beat all challenges!
It’s the updated version of the case study published earlier. We added data and details to provide more information on how to promote your Facebook content with Adsterra technologies
Introduction to the Facebook success story
A great case study starts with laying out all the details. This success story will observe non-standard business models: using a third-party monetization tool (Adsterra ads) and a website to get more leads from Facebook and convert them into revenues.
Our publisher didn’t create ad campaigns, nor did he apply digital marketing tactics of buying Facebook traffic (paid ads, lookalike audiences, or any in-platform tools or apps). He only used data and gained income without investments.
Facebook case study rundown: challenges, technologies, results
- Traffic source: Facebook social network (posting, sharing, commenting)
- Traffic type: organic, no paid ads
- Audience: connecting to Facebook users from Cambodia
- Strategy for Facebook monetization: Creating original content, driving traffic from Facebook to a site with Adsterra ad codes, getting paid for ad views
- Challenges: engage users to jump from Facebook to my site; make users stay on my site and click ad links.
- Technologies: Adsterra’s Social Bar and Smart Direct Link ads placed outside the Facebook platform
- Result: monthly earnings boost from $400 (first month) to $2,900.
Meng Sokseny,
lifestyle blogger
How I started online business on Facebook
My friend once told me that sharing web content on social networks is a very profitable strategy. I couldn’t wait to become a big influencer in the future. I owned a WordPress blog where I posted news and recent sensations, mostly about health, wellness, and mysteries. Earnings mainly came from display ads my visitors clicked when they found my news on Google. My friend offered to drive traffic from social networks, as the social audience stands out with high engagement rates. Facebook was the No. 1 choice, but you can try Instagram or X (Twitter) if you wish.
In this case study, I share my Facebook strategy for making profits with Adsterra Smart Direct Link. My business model allows me to gain side income without advertising campaigns. I earned almost $400 in the first month. Three months later, I reached $2,990. 🤑
Earning proofs, first:
I managed to make $3000 after 4 months I launched Direct Link. Just dropping a screenshot from the Adsterra platform to prove this case study is all about a real way to success.
Your business won’t always deliver you $2000 every month, but I stay profitable, as you can see from this example:
I want to give you more details about HOW I managed to get the results above. I hope my story will inspire you to find your blog niche and start making $2,000 per month with Adsterra or, maybe $200,000, who knows 🙂
Ad types I use to earn from the Facebook platform
Before you start creating Facebook content or even decide on your digital marketing strategy, get the ad format’s code from the Adsterra network. My choice was Smart Direct Link because it’s just a URL with minimal requirements for your site’s software or technologies. The second ad type was Social Bar; it looks like a social network widget, which was perfect for my goals and my audience’s values.
To start getting paid for ad views, you will first need to register as a Publisher.
Next, click ADD WEBSITE and fill in the form. Choose Social Bar for an ad unit. Just like in the picture below. My recommendation is to allow all ads by activating the toggle under the BOOST YOUR CPM caption.
To get a Smart Direct Link’s URL, just do the same things. Or go to a separate page (Direct Links) from your account and add a link from here. Just like you see on this screenshot:
Content tips: Boosting user engagement on Facebook
Topics people value
By the time I started using Adsterra, I had a site with viral content. What’s that? It’s content that people are willing to share. I was posting local news, lifestyle & health, mystery, etc.
You’re also aware of this: people love sharing and discussing hot topics. All that thrills or scares. For example, posts about skin health issues drive loads of views and clicks. Celebrity news is also doing well. Users love reading the latest gossip. But software topics and some leaks from big tech companies also perform nicely.
Pro tip: don’t underestimate communities in your country! They value local events and sensations. By connecting them, you increase loyalty and grow the followers’ base faster! My audience comes from Cambodia only, mostly Android users.
How to create viral posts
Please note: no one can provide a definitive guide or strategy for making your Facebook content viral. You will see what users value only by posting a lot, that’s for sure.
I’m only sharing my findings that will help you develop your own strategies. These tips work both for web and social network blogging.
- Facebook content should question, puzzle, or provoke emotions: choose topics that resonate with your audience, and don’t tell all facts right in the beginning.
- Photos or videos must support the copy: don’t add abstract photos of happy people from another free stock platform.
- Images mustn’t be to glossy or glamorous: find photos that look like they’ve been taken on the go, average iPhone or Android shots.
- Reuse photos: I use the same photos on my site and on Facebook posts, but I can blur some content or add a sticker to make users curious to see what’s behind it.
- Learn from native ads: visit large news platforms about wellness, beauty, TV, and sports, and check the native banner section. You’ll find lots of headings you will only need to rewrite.
General tip: Understanding the social context of the audience can enhance the effectiveness of the content by leveraging data from users’ shared information and interactions within their social networks.
Turning my blog into an online business with Facebook platform
Now that you’ve learned how to get Adsterra ad codes and create viral content, it’s time to do business! You will now check the exact strategy for placing ads, interacting with users, and boosting revenues without ad campaigns launched:
1. Place ads on web pages
Add the Smart Direct Link to any piece of text or a button so it looks like a helpful link (make sure you don’t confuse your readers, though). Place Social Bar as Adsterra requests in its instructions.
Pro tip: you can ask the Adsterra support team or your manager to position Social Bar in another place on the page. I asked my Adsterra manager to make Social Bar appear in the upper right part. I made a screenshot to show you what it looks like.
2. Create a Facebook group or fan page
Now, when we have a brand, website, ad codes, and content for our articles, we need more traffic! Getting traffic is easy with social networks like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. But how? Set up several pages or groups for each of your content niches. I have three main niches to interact with users and promote my business: health problems, lifestyle & entertainment, supernatural and unknown.
It will take a while to generate lots of followers and, next, to earn from them. But there’s a way to gain speed a little.
Take my tips for creating viral content and start writing posts. Some of them will be just compelling stories and news. And you will need to fill your pages with quite a lot of such content. How about monetization? Add the most exciting news or facts as separate posts and urge users to follow from Facebook to your site.
3. Drive traffic outside Facebook
Here’s how you get traffic: people come from Facebook to your site with Adsterra ads. They’re engaged with your headings, texts, or images. As they come, they can carry on reading the full story and click any ad.
How do you get even more traffic from Facebook? You can find similar pages or groups. That’s what I did. I started reposting content from similar groups and pages, sometimes adding my own links to reposts. I invited friends to chat and asked them to make a repost and comment.
It worked well when I joined public Facebook groups with a similar niche and shared my posts there. I commented on the hottest posts, connected with people, asking to visit my page, too.
That’s how I managed to increase social traffic on Facebook. I combined two approaches:
- I first created posts on my Facebook pages and added links to my website there;
- Then, I drove Facebook traffic to my Facebook pages, where users can see links to my website.
When users click the link, they are directed to my website with viral content, videos, and ad sets (Social Bar and Direct Link ads).
That’s how I got much more traffic than I would get with SEO only and didn’t invest in marketing or advertising. The more traffic you get, the higher your future chances of increasing income.
Pro tip: if you’re a seasoned digital marketer, you can try launching Facebook ad campaigns. Targeting new customers through strategic advertising campaigns helps promote your brand value or business and reach new audiences, drive engagement and increase ROI. However, this strategy involves buying traffic (audiences) from Facebook, and you should not launch paid campaigns if you’re a beginner.
Extra gains: combining Social Bar and Direct Link
Now, the majority of my traffic comes from social networks, and social traffic is not stable. It depends on the reach, article, headline, image, and user activity. I have about 10,000-15,000 unique visitors daily, but sometimes traffic soars.
The big thing is to combine strategies and ad sets. My findings from Social Bar and Facebook strategy that can help you profit more:
Social Bar is the best ad format if you drive social traffic to interact with a web page. It looks so familiar to Android and iPhone users, unlike outdated banners, for example.
When a user visits my blog, a Social Bar ad appears and covers only a part of the screen. The user stays on my website. If a user is interested, he or she clicks to proceed with the ad.
Monitoring success
As you may know, Meta platforms collect detailed data on views, clicks, and sales, enabling you to create compelling and targeted ads right from the start of your campaigns. But this approach won’t suit a blogger or influencer with a zero ad budget.
As you can see from this case study, I didn’t use Meta platform’s tools or paid advertising. How did I get insights into Facebook traffic performance? I used Adsterra statistics. It doesn’t provide data about your Facebook followers, of course, but you can track how this traffic performs.
Here is a screenshot of daily revenues (my CPM has reached $3.5, even $4). This means that my audience is well-appreciated by advertisers who target their campaigns to get traffic like mine.
Clicks are important if you use Social Bar. They can tell you about your audience engagement and give a clue if ad codes are visible to users. Publishers don’t earn from clicks alone, but high CTRs are also a big deal. CTRs can help increase your CPMs and prompt sales and conversions.
My CTR is very good. As you could see from the screenshots above, I can have 35% or even 44% click-through rates. High CTRs mean many people clicked on an ad. Showing more ads to users who have already engaged can further increase the likelihood of conversions. When users perform actions on advertisers’ pages, you can witness some money increase!
Editor’s note
CPM — cost per mille, price per 1,000 impressions. CPM formula = 1000 * Earnings / Impressions.
CTR — click-through rate, is the ratio of clicks to impressions.
To get more insights on effective social networks’ monetization strategies, consider looking into other resources of success stories, like the Adsterra blog.
Final thoughts
It might seem very easy, but remember it is hard work, and it requires patience and dedication. You need to add non-spammy comments on lots of FB pages. Keep an eye on trends and predict which news feeds will become a hit. You can also try videos, not only images, as it’s a very trending way to earn from Facebook.
I learned a lot of useful skills in the process without launching any ads on Facebook.I’m thrilled I found Adsterra and Social Bar, as my audience loves them. What I like most about Social Bar is that it can show ads to one user several times. I’m paid for conversions alone with impressions, and it’s a more profitable approach than CPM. If your ad conversion rates are good, companies valuer your traffic higher, you are paid higher, and you can gain hundreds of dollars overnight.
Summary by Adsterra
This case study aimed to outline a business strategy for creating Facebook posts people will value a lot and click massively. The target audience was defined as individuals aged 18-45 who have a keen interest in entertainment, health issues, and supernatural topics.
To reach this demographic effectively, our publisher created several fan pages in the following niches: health and diseases, celebrities, mysteries, and supernatural happenings. By focusing on this specific audience’s niches, our publisher could maximize engagement and revenue, demonstrating the power and value of targeted digital marketing strategies even without ad campaigns.
Ad formats (ad sets) to use outside Facebook: Social Bar, Smart Direct Links, Popunders, Native Ads, and Banners.
Powerful Facebook content paired with a profound approach to digital marketing can boost the ad earnings of solopreneurs and businesses even without paid campaigns.
By analyzing case studies, publishers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses can learn how to craft Facebook strategies that fit their target audience. Optimized news feeds and innovative business models using third-party monetization tools are just a few of the elements that can be gleaned from these success stories.
Additionally, understanding how to engage users on mobile devices and tailor content to specific demographics can significantly enhance your digital marketing efforts. Learn more about a strategy for earning $1,000 on social traffic in another Facebook case study. Feel you’re skilled enough to advertise your content and include ad spend? Read this guide to connecting Facebook traffic to a landing page with ads.
