Facebook is making it harder to post links without paying

After testing was rolled out last year, website links from Facebook posts are going to be limited unless you pay…

If you run a business, Facebook has probably been part of your marketing mix for years. Up until now, you’ve been able to share unlimited links from organic posts. The hardest part most recently has become visibility, but at least you still had the option to post for free.

Now Meta is changing things, and they’re about to get a lot tougher. Meet Meta One.

Facebook has been testing the ground, limiting how many website links in organic posts Pages and professional accounts can publish for free. And in a move that’s likely to prove unpopular, Meta is launching new paid packages for businesses and creators, with links in organic posts and reels included among the paid features.

In simple terms, this means either you pay to include links in your organic posts by having a subscription, or you cough up for paid ads, and buy your links that way.

Either way, the days of unlimited free links to your website from your Facebook account are numbered.

This is not a blanket rule across Facebook yet, and different accounts are seeing different restrictions at the moment. But this seems very likely to be rolled out across the platform. In a way, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner.

What does this mean for you?

Businesses have spent years building audiences on platforms they do not own, and it’s been a good ride, but the pay-to-play model is here. We’ve had our gravy train.

But with many SMEs focusing their marketing on social media platforms, this predicted toll on outbound links could potentially hit hard.

Issues like this, coupled with the onslaught of AI slop and the relentless advertising in feeds are why we’ve seen such an uptick in print lately. And also why people are increasingly doomscrolling, rather than engaging in content.

Businesses are keen to take back some control over their marketing. You may have thousands of Facebook followers, but Facebook already decides how many of them see your posts. It decides which formats get priority, what you can link to, how much paid reach costs, and which features eventually sit behind a subscription.

I’m not here to tell you to abandon social media.

But it is something to be aware of. If you’ve had all your marketing eggs in the social media basket, you’re going to need to prepare to pay for your reach now.

So it’s probably a good time to revisit this, and think about other ways of doing things.

Obviously I’m bound to say print is a great solution

And it is. A well-produced customer or company magazine gives you direct access to your audience without having to persuade an algorithm to let you through first.

But more than that – you can have as many links as you like. Let me explain…

Imagine this: instead of posting on social media, filling your posts and captions with links, and hoping to the great algo gods that the right people see you, you do something more targeted. More clever.

You create a fantastic magazine or brochure all about your business and you send that to your customers. You fill that print issue with QR codes that direct them to desirable landing pages – no restrictions and no limits. You control all the content. You distribute the publication digitally to your mailing list, reaching your invested audience, who can click on the live links throughout all the pages. You take the content that is in the magazine and convert it to SEO-friendly blogs and news items on your website, maybe create videos using the content for scripts, all of this driving more traffic to your site.

Essentially you spend more time engaging the people who are actually interested in what you do, rather than the old ‘spray and pray’ approach on social media.

You can track those QR codes too, which means you can see how much traffic a particular publication, campaign, or page generates.

Alternatively, you could just pay up

Want to know how much your links will cost you when Meta One is rolled out fully?

UK accounts currently being offered Meta One are seeing prices of £41.99 a month for up to eight Facebook link posts, £129 for 20, and £419 for unlimited links.

If you’re doing down the ad route, what you’d pay for that is obviously up to you, but the link will only work whilst the ad is live. Once the budget expires, so does your link.

And no, you can’t put the link in the comments, whether it’s a paid post, or an organic one.

The more restrictions social platforms introduce, the stronger the case becomes for having ways to reach customers that you control.

Your own website is going to become hugely important, and your email database too. And for the right businesses, a genuinely useful, well-designed print publication should be part of your marketing arsenal.

Because if reaching your customers online keeps getting harder, perhaps the answer is not simply to spend more money trying to beat the algorithm. Perhaps it’s worth giving them something they actually want to read.

If you’re thinking about whether print could work alongside your existing marketing, or even feel it’s time for a complete change, talk to us.