Facebook continues to be one of the most influential digital marketing platforms, but anyone who uses the social network for business purposes knows that the opportunities for free advertising there are becoming increasingly limited.
Newsfeed is not what it used to be.
It's now a cocktail of ads, content the algorithm thinks you'll like, and here and there you might see posts from profiles or pages you actually follow and care about.
The drastically decreasing organic reach of posts and the increasing competition for users' attention bring to the fore the question "Is there still free advertising on Facebook?".
The answer is: in theory, yes, but in practice, it's hard work that requires time, effort, patience and the right strategy.
In this article, we'll take a look at how you can advertise your business for free on Facebook by using Facebook Pages, groups, and organic content to reach your audience.
Creating and managing a Facebook page is a must if we are talking about free advertising.
Pages are an essential tool for communicating with your audience - through them, you can share a variety of content to engage your audience and create a certain image for your business.
It would all be flowers and roses if it hadn 't become more and more difficult in recent years for your page posts to reach your followers.
So-called organic reach or reach declines year after year - when you post something on your page, a very small percentage of your followers see it.
Why is that?
Because one of the things Meta makes a living off of is ads, and by reducing organic reach they found a surefire way to get page admins to advertise with them.
There is something else, though.
The more engagement your post generates in the first few minutes after publishing, the more of your followers will see it. The algorithm says to itself, "Hey, this is something important, interesting, fun, so more people should see it."
What that something will be for your followers is a question that is not always easy to answer.
But creating a buyer persona will help you understand your target audience, address their problems, and offer the right content. The ideal free Facebook ad.
And again, no one is giving you guarantees on how many people will see your post. If you want to make sure you get results, open your wallet, enter your credit card number, and run a Facebook ad.
If you want to find out how it works, the following resources from the ADvantage blog will help:
Stories and videos are preferred formats by Facebook's algorithm because they hold users' attention. They are easy to consume and often lead to higher engagement.
Stories are only active for 24 hours and then disappear from your profile, while videos stay there forever.
If it seems like a waste of time to play with content that will disappear tomorrow, think again.
Many of the stories and short videos are easier and quicker to create than other content. And their reach and engagement are many times higher. So it's worth investing resources in them.
Facebook groups are a powerful tool for organic advertising as they offer higher engagement and the opportunity to create a loyal community. Unlike pages, posts in groups often reach a larger percentage of members.
Facebook Groups are a unique feature of Meta's social network that allows you to bring together people with similar interests in one place where useful and relevant discussions can be had, games can be organised, Q&A sessions can be held and more.
Sounds great, but the reality is this - to create a Facebook group with an engaged community to advertise your business, you need to put in a lot of effort and have patience.
Organic reach on Facebook has declined significantly in recent years, reaching just 2-5% of your page's followers. This means that your posts will only reach a fraction of your audience unless they generate high engagement. The reasons for this are:
However, the right strategy and quality content can help you increase your organic reach.
The interesting thing about the development of the Facebook algorithm is that its focus is now different.
While it used to give precedence to posts from friends and pages you follow, that is no longer the case. Currently, much of the content you see is from pages and groups you don't follow, but Meta's algorithm thinks you'll like because of the interests you have.
It means it doesn't matter so much how many followers your page has.
If you create interesting, useful and engaging content, the algorithm can suggest it in feeds to people who haven't heard of you before.
What better free advertising on Facebook than that?
Of course, this is not so easy to achieve.
In 2025, free advertising on Facebook is still possible, but it requires a lot of effort and proper planning. Facebook pages, groups and organic content remain the main ways to reach audiences at no cost.
But to achieve your business goals and see real results, it's best to make free Facebook advertising part of a comprehensive strategy that includes other marketing channels and activities - both paid and unpaid. This will enable you to be where your consumers are and communicate with them in the right way according to their needs and interests.