With over 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the undisputed king of online marketing. Around 37% of the Earth’s population uses Facebook, with thriving online communities being a key part of the site’s appeal. Plus, a staggering 1.8 billion users regularly interact with Facebook’s diverse range of groups.
Don’t be disheartened if you’re struggling to get seen on the platform, though. Sadly, more marketers are noticing declining engagement rates on organic Facebook content. The average engagement rate for posts across Facebook pages is approximately 0.06%. So, what can you do to improve your reach and engagement?
Facebook groups offer a win/win for businesses and consumers alike. Brands can set up a group around their business and industry. Consumers can use the group as a space to ask questions, connect with like-minded people, and join in discussions. The trouble is, growing your group can often take a long time.
So, what’s the best way to promote your group and get more people to join? That’s what we’ll cover in this post. The first step - having a Facebook group to promote! If you already have one, skip ahead. If not, keep reading for our full tutorial on setting up a Facebook group, promoting it, and monetizing it.
Jump ahead to:
- Why Start a Facebook Group?
- How to Create a Group on Facebook
- Can You Promote a Facebook Group?
- How to Promote a Facebook Group
- Can a Group on Facebook Really Make Money?
- More Ways to Monetize a Facebook Group
- Sell Access to Exclusive Online Communities With Whop
Why Start a Facebook Group?
Facebook groups offer unique opportunities for building an online audience, learning about your customers, and boosting your traffic. Below are some of the key benefits.
Boost organic traffic
Facebook’s algorithms prioritize groups over pages, so customers will be more likely to see the posts you share in this space.
Build a community for your brand
Facebook groups create a space centered around your brand. This ensures members are genuinely interested in what you offer. You can build long-term connections with customers, and share business promotions to a focused audience.
For example, SEO tool Ahrefs has its own private Facebook group, Ahrefs Insider. Exclusively aimed at paid Ahrefs account holders, the group currently has around 17,000 members.
Ahrefs’ content marketing team have even engaged with the group members to develop some of their posts.
Create events
With Facebook groups, you can share online events with members. Offline events and workshops can help you to connect with your audience - and earn some extra income.
Access to customer data
You can use Group Insights to learn more about your group members and the best ways to optimize your group to their needs. For example, engagement can show the times when members are more likely to be active.
Paid group memberships
Businesses with larger audiences may be eligible for Facebook Subscriptions. This is a currently invitation-only feature where content creators can offer paid subscriptions to their Facebook fans. Paid perks for fans can include access to a private Facebook group.
How to Create a Group on Facebook
Now, if you don't already have a Facebook group, follow the following steps to set one up. If you do, skip ahead to 'can you promote a Facebook group?'
Log in to Facebook, and click on the “Groups” tab on the left-side column, or at the top of the page.
From here, click on the “Create New Group” button in the left-side column.
Next, you can add the group name, change the group privacy settings, and invite Facebook friends to join the group. You can make the group either public or private. If you choose to make the group private, you can then decide whether to keep it visible or hidden.
Keeping the group private gives users an incentive to become members. Otherwise, they would already have access to the content.
Once you click “Create”, your group is live. You’ll then have several steps to finish setting up your group. These include adding a description and cover photo, inviting new members, and creating your first posts.
Invite people to join your group
To invite people to join your group, you can click the blue “Invite” button on the right side of the page.
You can invite your own Facebook friends, or send an email or link invitation.
In the “Finish setting up your group” section, you can also click “Invite people to join”. This will allow you to send invitations to your Facebook friends.
Add a cover photo
To edit your Facebook group cover photo, click the “Edit” icon on the cover image. Alternatively, click the “Add a Cover Photo” option in the “Finish setting up your group” section.
You’ll have several options to choose from, including uploading a photo from your computer or selecting an image from your Facebook photos.
To showcase that you or your business page is the group admin, you can add a group affiliation. This will display the admin’s name at the bottom of the cover photo.
Add a description
In the “Finish setting up your group” section, select “Add a Description”. Your description should be a short, clear description of what your Facebook group offers.
Create a post
Click on “Write something” or “Create a Post” to add your first post to the group. You could use your first post to introduce yourself, set out ideas for the group’s content, and remind members of the group rules.
You can also incorporate a link to your business website. However, you should be mindful to keep the focus on what members will be interested in. Avoid marketing too much at this early stage.
Now you’ve taken care of the first steps of setting up your Facebook group. There are further steps you can take to optimize your group.
Group rules
Community moderation is an important part of managing a Facebook group. Adding group rules makes it clear to followers what the expectations of the group are, so that conflicts can be prevented. Whilst you can decide on your own rules, these typically include:
- No discrimination, hate speech, or bullying
- No spam
- Treat group members with respect
- Respect the privacy of group members
Membership questions
You can set questions for people to answer before their membership is accepted. This can give you insights into group members and highlight any likely customers. You can choose from checkboxes, multiple choice, and written answer responses.
Add a location
If your group is focused on the local area, then you can add specific locations. You can choose a whole country, or narrow down into neighborhoods.
Can You Promote a Facebook Group?
Yes, there are several ways you can promote your Facebook group. While Facebook groups can’t take out specific advertisements, there are plenty of other ways to promote your group.
To do this, it helps to set up a Facebook page for your group first. That’s especially important if your group is private, e.g., for business purposes. With a Facebook page, you can post publicly to draw in new members. You can also promote with paid ads.
If you’d like to set up a Facebook ads campaign, this video from Ben Heath takes you through the entire process:
How to Promote a Facebook Group
Once you’ve finished setting up your Facebook group and page, you need to learn how to promote your Facebook group. There are several techniques you can use to draw in new members.
Promote your group on your Facebook page
Despite the drop in engagement, Facebook pages still offer a unique promotional tool. That’s down to 2.1 billion Facebook users spending time on the platform daily.
As you build a following on your public Facebook page, you can occasionally share the link to your Facebook group. Don’t be spammy with these promotions, as this could turn away followers. Aim to post about your group once a month, and leave it there.
You can also “pin” a post to the top of your Facebook page. That way, it’s the first thing people see when they access your page. Simply create a post, then click the three dots at the top right of the post and choose “Pin post” to keep it at the top of your page.
The content on your Facebook page should be of interest to your followers. Share relevant industry news, post tips and tricks, and engage through polls and more.
How to set up a Facebook page to promote your group
Have a Facebook page? Skip ahead to the next step. If not, follow these steps.
To set up a Facebook page, click on the “Pages” tab on the left side of the page. On the next page, click the blue “Create New Page” button on the top left.
Next, you’ll need to add a name, category, and bio for your page. The category options can be limited, so choose the option that’s most similar to your group.
Be sure to include a link to your Facebook group within your bio!
Once you’re happy with everything, click the “Create Page” button.
Use the same cover and profile photos for your Facebook page as for your group. This creates cohesion and ensures that customers will recognize the connection.
Promote your Facebook group with paid ads
As mentioned above, once you’ve set up your Facebook page, you can create paid ads. If you’re unsure about how to promote a group on Facebook, ads are an important tool to leverage.
To start, you’ll need to head over to the Ads Manager. You can find this on the menu at the left side of the page.
Once you access the Ads Manager interface, click the green “Create” button.
An options menu will appear. You can choose from several campaign objectives. This refers to the overall goal you want to achieve through the ad campaign. In this case, the best option would be “Engagement”.
On the next page, you can either choose to use the recommended settings or manually create a campaign. Select “Manual engagement campaign”, so you can build your campaign from scratch.
At the next stage, you can make changes to the ads at the campaign, ad set, and ad level.
Campaign Level
First, give your campaign a name. You’ll need to declare if your ads are related to specific categories, such as credit, housing, or politics. This ensures your ads are compliant and prevents your ads from being rejected.
You can turn on “Advantage campaign budget” to distribute your budget across ad sets. You can also conduct A/B testing to find the best images, text, and more for your ads.
Ad set level
Choose a name for your ad set. You’ll then need to choose the location where you want to drive engagement from your ad. In this case, you should choose your Facebook page. Ensure the performance goal is registered as “Maximize number of Page likes”.
Next, you can set either a daily or lifetime budget. You can then schedule a start date, and an optional end date, for the ad set.
You can also schedule budget increases in advance, if you wish.
Next, you can hone in on the audience you want to target. In “Audience controls”, you can set the location(s) you want to reach, the minimum age for your audience, and languages.
You can set your own audiences manually. This can be tailored with custom audiences for age, gender, and demographics/interests. You can also use “Advantage+ audience” to automatically find the right audience for your ads. This can also be tailored to your requirements.
For example, if your group focuses on investing and finances, add “Business (business & finance)” as an audience interest.
Beyond this, you can also set your ad placements. You can choose for Facebook to automate this through the “Advantage+ placements” or you can manually choose where to place your ads. You can also set rules for where not to advertise your group.
Ad level
At the ad level, you can add a name for your ad, as well as opt in or out of multi-advertiser ads. Most importantly, you’ll use this stage to choose your ad media and text.
As with all your other promotional content, make sure it provides value to the audience. This could be a tip or insight from your group, for example. Your goal is to encourage people to check out your group.
Facebook ad success typically doesn’t come overnight. You’ll need to experiment with images, copy, budget, and more. Before making any decisions, you’ll need to give time for your campaigns to gather data. Essentially, you learn as you spend. After a week of spending, review your results and you’ll begin to see what’s working (and what isn’t).
Want to learn more about how to advertise on Facebook? Check out the Social Media category on Whop to discover social media groups, courses, tools and resources.
Cross-promotion in other Facebook groups
Aside from ads, it’s important to know how to promote your Facebook group for free. Cross-promotion is an essential organic marketing strategy.
Most Facebook users are members of 15 active groups on the platform. So, there will usually be other groups offering something similar to yours. That’s not a bad thing, actually. In fact, you can leverage these other groups to promote your Facebook group.
However, you’ll need to be careful about how you cross-promote. Naturally, Facebook admins want to ensure their groups are free from spam content.
If you’re constantly posting promotional content in other groups, the content may be deleted or you may be removed. Some groups have clear rules about promotional content, so check this before posting.
Instead, as with all your Facebook content, ensure you provide real value. For example:
- Answer questions from other members
- Create posts asking your own questions or giving unique insights
- Share news from your industry
Once you’ve posted a few times and established yourself as a genuine member of the community, you can post about your own group. Again, check the group rules first. Some groups may have a specific pinned or recurring post for promotions.
Alternatively, you can reach out to the group admin to ask them to share about your group. You can then create a post promoting their group as well.
Invite group members to share your Facebook group
What better way to spread the word than through the members already enjoying your group? You can start this off with a post in your group asking members to share the group to their personal page. You could also ask them to invite people to your group.
To give extra incentive, you could offer giveaways as your group grows. Post about your giveaway and encourage members to tag the people they’ve brought to the group.
On average, Facebook users have 338 friends on the platform. That’s a real incentive to encourage your group members to share. With that being said, it’s important to consider whether their friends will be genuinely interested in what your business offers.
Share your Facebook group on social media
Most Facebook users will regularly visit other social media websites and apps. YouTube has just over 2.5 billion monthly active users. Instagram has 2 billion, whilst TikTok has over 1.5 billion. That’s a wide audience to connect with.
From X to LinkedIn, make sure you’re promoting your Facebook group on other social platforms. You can provide an incentive for people to join your group through exclusive content.
This strategy is similar to email marketing sign ups, where you encourage people to join your mailing list in exchange for a PDF or guide. Instead, with this, people would need to join your Facebook group to access the content.
Speaking of email marketing, you can also share the link to your Facebook group in emails to your mailing list.
Promote locally with a QR code
You don’t just have to promote your Facebook group online. If your group and business is centred in the local community, why not spread the word there?
QR codes can help you do just that. Head to your group page and click the “Share” button, copy and paste or download the QR code, then add it to your physical promotional materials. That includes leaflets, flyers, and posters.
Then, when local people spot them, they just have to scan the QR code with their mobile to be taken straight to your Facebook group. If your group is set to private, they can then request to join.
But are your potential customers likely to use QR codes? According to a study from MobileIron, 32% of participants had scanned a QR code in the past week. In 2023, QR code scans reached 26.95 million. That’s an increase of 433% over the previous two years.
Can a Group on Facebook Really Make Money?
Yes, you can make money from Facebook groups. However, in most cases it’s not as simple as charging for membership. Facebook groups typically make money through a mix of:
- Events and workshops
- Lead generation
- Live streaming
- Affiliate marketing
- Selling digital products or community access
Let's take a look at each of these monetization strategies in more detail.
More Ways to Monetize a Facebook Group
Event and workshops
When it comes to events and workshops, you can create events on Facebook with your group and sell tickets to an in-person or online event.
The event can be anything that you imagine, from an in-person book club meetup, to an online mastermind or webinar. To make money with this method, it is as simple as creating a Facebook event, selling tickets, and hosting the event. Consider hosting your online event with Whop - you can host a video chat and take payments from your own whop hub.
Lead generation
This is a simple way to make money with your Facebook group - simply funnel your members to a paid product or service. Use a free Facebook group to create an online community and then convert these members to paying customers, directing them to your paid digital product or paid VIP community.
Live streaming
Have a hobby to share? If you're a gamer, artist, or have any other skill that people will pay to watch, consider live streaming to your Facebook group. To make money with live streaming, add a Whop checkout link to your group to accept donations.
Affiliate marketing
This is a very popular way of making money online. With affiliate marketing, you recommend products or services to your community. Then, when they make a purchase, you get paid a percentage (or flat fee) for that purchase.
Digital products and community access
The best way to make money with a Facebook group is to sell access to a paid digital product or paid community. Digital products can be anything from a PDF (think downloadable coloring pages) to an ebook, online course, photo, art, or anything else that you can sell online. Digital products have a low barrier to entry and high potential for profit thanks to their low start-up costs, ease of creation, and digital fulfillment. Digital products can give you an excellent way to make passive income - simply create the product, upload the links to your Facebook group, and start making sales.
Online communities, while not passive, are another excellent way to make money online. If you have something of value to share, people will pay to be a part of it. You can create paid communities with Facebook Subscriptions, but there are many restriction. You must be an admin of a Facebook page that has over 10,000 followers or over 250 return viewers, in addition to having more than 50,000 post engagements or 180,000 watch minutes in the previous 60 days. For streamers, you must be a part of the Level Up program to be eligible for subscriptions.
So, whilst you can monetize Facebook groups, this takes time and a clear strategy. Fortunately, it’s not the only platform for monetizing an online community. For example, Whop is a social commerce platform where you can create and monetize an online community where you can sell paid access to the community alongside other digital offerings, like courses, ebooks, and PDFs.
Sell Access to Exclusive Online Communities With Whop
Facebook groups offer a unique opportunity to build relationships with potential customers, but they’re relatively limited in terms of monetization.
For one thing, paid Facebook groups are only accessible to the top creators. If you’re just starting out or wanting to scale, your monetization options are limited.
Whilst there are other options for monetizing Facebook groups, the platform doesn’t provide tools for this. There’s no way to create courses or schedule coaching sessions via Facebook. You can upload files for members to download, but you can’t paywall these. Files can also be difficult for members to find if they’re not specifically pinned.
Whop offers an all-inclusive alternative for monetizing online communities. With Whop, you can…
- Create online communities
- Sell access to paid communities
- Set multiple tiers to personalize to different customers
- Create and share online courses to sell within your community
- Sell digital products, including eBook and how-to guides
- Offer access to virtual workshops and coaching sessions
- And much more!
Whop provides a single, streamlined space to create and sell your online community.
Build Your Online Community Into an Empire - Create Your Free Whop Account Within Minutes and Start Selling Today.
