If you run a Facebook page, monetizing it might have passed your mind once or twice. However, chances are that if you tried to start the monetization process on your own, you got overwhelmed pretty quickly. Or, perhaps you have never even considered monetizing your page or group.
Regardless of which category you fall into, we’ve got your back. In this article, we’ll explain the what and why behind Facebook monetization. But, more importantly, we’ll go over all the major guidelines you’ll need to follow and discuss some of the best ways to start making bank from your page.
We’ve got a pretty long road ahead, so let’s get started with the basics of making money on Facebook.
What is Monetization on Facebook?💰
Monetizing a Facebook page means earning supplementary income in return for building a community and offering value to each member. There are tons of ways page admins and owners get paid by Facebook, as well as many ideas you can follow to make money off the platform.
If you want to get money from Facebook, your options are somewhat limited. You have the option to monetize through ads, Subscriptions, Stars, or Bonuses. We’ll touch upon these later in the article.
However, this isn't the only way to make an income on Facebook. We’ll also cover some methods where you’ll utilize your Facebook community and treat your page as a marketing channel to make sales. This method is far more lucrative, as it opens up ways to make money that aren’t possible with Facebook's native methods. Plus, it isn't as restrictive, and you can start earning even if you only have a few followers.
This does bring us to the next question, though. Why should you monetize your page? Isn’t it just going to hurt your credibility with your members? Well, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Why Monetize a Facebook Page?
When you actively run a Facebook Page, you’re providing tons of value to all your members for no monetary value in return. And, while the happy feelings of helping someone will be enough for some, you’re sitting on a potential goldmine.
Think about it. You’ve spent so much time and effort building your page and are still spending quite a bit of both running it. You should be compensated for all of that. And you don’t have to “sell out” to do so. Making money without becoming annoying or scamming your members is possible.
If you’re ready to make that jump, it’s almost time to see what you’ll need to do to prepare your page for monetization. Before that, though, we must briefly review the Monetization Guidelines Facebook’s set.
Remember that every monetization guideline below is primarily for video content. We’ll go over other types of content later on.
Understanding Facebook’s Monetization Guidelines
Facebook’s monetization guidelines are divided into several sets. While we’ve covered most of these below, we wanted to mention the Content Monetization Guidelines here, as it’s crucial to follow them to secure monetization.
These guidelines can also be divided into several categories. Let's take a look at what can't be monetized on Facebook:
- Static content
- GIFs
- Embedded ad content
- Content that “baits” engagement in return for rewards or demands rewards for extreme behaviors/actions on the creator’s side
- Misinformation or misleading medical information
However, some categories, like explicit or sexual content, tragedies, or debated social issues, can still be monetized, albeit at a reduced rate or with specific restrictions.
Now that we have the main monetization guidelines out of the way, let’s check out some of the more general platform ones, as well as all your next steps to get your Page monetized.
But, wait…
What if You Don’t Meet the Requirements?
If you don’t meet some or all of the monetization guidelines, fear not. These are only set for making money through Facebook itself. You can still monetize your page through methods like affiliate marketing or selling your products and services by using a third-party platform, like Whop.
We’ll touch upon these a bit later, so bear with us.
Preparing Your Facebook Page for Monetization
There are quite a few steps that you’ll need to take to secure that precious monetization. Alas, whether you run a Facebook Page or not, let’s go over what you’ll need to do to get it monetization-ready. Obviously, the first step is creating a page, but you wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t have an active one up and running.
Grow Your Facebook Following🌱
We’re starting off with potentially one of the most difficult parts of this entire process: growing your following. Facebook is definitely a challenging platform for that.
There are more than 3 billion people on the platform and a ton of different pages that are already good enough for most of them. So, you’ll have to offer lots of value and post unique content, be it long-form videos or Reels.
If you already have a large presence on another platform (social media or not), you can also try to funnel members from there onto Facebook. This is especially true for Instagram, as they’re both under the Meta umbrella.
For reference, your penultimate follower goal should be 5,000 members, as that’s when you can pretty much start monetizing through Facebook directly. Your ultimate goal should obviously be in the millions!
Ensure Your Page Adheres to Community Standards📜
So, once you have some content on your Page and the followers have started flocking in, it’s time to ensure that everything adheres fully to Community Standards. Now, these are too many to go over individually, and we’d be here all day just to cover 10% of them.
The general idea of the Community Standards, though, is to cultivate a safe environment for any member joining your Page. Always post authentic content that doesn’t promote any violent actions, ensure your community is respectful to one another, and always keep your members’ privacy at the forefront of your concerns.
Even if you are using your Facebook page as a funnel (i.e not monetizing on Facebook itself) you still need to adhere to these standards, or you risk your page being shut down.
Make Sure You Comply with Facebook’s Page and Payment Terms📄
Once you’ve got an idea of the Community Standards, get ready for another few pages of guidelines - now in the form of the Page and Payment Terms.
Starting with the Page Terms, many guidelines follow a similar tone to the Community Standards. Don’t promote hate, and be respectful and transparent with your members. One thing to note is the Page Name terms, which prohibit you from using generic, deceiving, or single-word names. Basically, don’t name your Page “ThE offiCial boOk Store” (yes, improper capitalization is also prohibited), or just “Pizza”.
As for the Payment Terms, things get extra complicated. Simply put, you must treat your Page as an entire business and have all your logistics in place to monetize it. That’s fair enough, of course, considering that your Page will be in front of nearly half the world!
Check Monetization Eligibility✅
If you’re still with us, the process is almost over. Considering that many of you have active Pages that are most likely going to be eligible for monetization, all you have to do is check that out directly on Facebook.
Simply go to your Creator Studio, where you usually upload all your content and track the analytics. Then, find the box marked as “Monetization” on the Home Page, click on it, and see if you’re eligible for any of the options.
If everything’s gone according to plan, you’re now ready to make your first money with Facebook. Just select one of the options (which we’ll cover more below) and click on “Set Up”.
Getting Paid By Facebook: Native Monetization Methods
Now, we get into the nitty gritty you’ve been waiting for. Let’s go over some of the best ways to monetize your Facebook Page, starting with some of the built-in methods and moving on to some of the more exciting ones!
There’s no doubt that Facebook has some incredible exclusive monetization tools and methods. So, we have to go over every single one to see which one fits your Page best.
Keep in mind that all these share a few basic requirements. You have to be over 18 years old, and your Page must adhere to all the guidelines we mentioned above, including the Community Standards and the Monetization, Page, and Payments Terms. Also, you have to be from the US to access all of these (read the list of countries eligible for each one).
Reels and in-stream ads
First, we’ve got ads, and Facebook offers several different ways to add these to your content. There are ads for Reels, in-stream ones for on-demand videos, and ones that you can add to your live videos. All three come with their fair share of requirements, which are pretty high.
Reels are the most “lenient”, as you don’t have any minimum follower limit. You just need to create high-quality content. On the other hand, in-stream ads for videos require you to have a minimum of 5k followers, 60k total minutes viewed in the last 60 days, and 5 active videos on your Page.
And, then, we have in-stream live video ads, which take that follower minimum up to 10k members! On top of that, you’ll need at least 600k(!) total minutes viewed in the last 60 days, with 60k of these coming from live videos, and 3 out of the minimum 5 active videos must be lives.
Subscriptions
An equally stringent monetization method for your page is subscriptions. These are pretty self-explanatory; your followers can pay you a small fee for extra benefits, like exclusive content.
But, once again, the limits are very high compared to what third-party platforms are offering. You’ll need at least 10k followers or more than 250 Return Viewers and either 50k post engagements or 180k total minutes viewed.
Stars
Facebook Stars are arguably the best way to monetize your Page, as they don’t have such strict requirements and can be a pretty good way to make money in the long run. These are basically tokens of gratitude from your fans at 1 cent a pop. You can add these to your Reels, your on-demand and your live videos, too.
Besides the guidelines we mentioned above, the only other requirement is that you have at least 500 followers for a month straight. Of course, they have their own set of terms, but as long as you adhere to all the other guidelines, you’ll be just fine.
Bonuses
Now, this one’s a bit more far-fetched, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless. Facebook offers so-called 'Bonuses' to creators with large followings and great engagement metrics.
You don’t have any other requirements to get invited for these. But, getting your follower count into the hundreds of thousands or millions will be difficult. At that point, you should probably look for a different way to monetize your community.
Speaking of that, it’s understandable that you won’t be able to meet the strict requirements for many of these methods from the get-go. If ever. So, you’ll need to look into some other ways to monetize your Page, like the ones we’ve mentioned below.
5 More Ways to Make Money with a Facebook Page
If you aren’t eligible for direct Facebook monetization, be that for your follower count or engagement metrics, you can still make money with Facebook. You can use your page as a online community, where you’ll sell products and services. These are, arguably, even better monetization options with practically unlimited potential! Let’s take a look at them.
1. Affiliate Marketing👥
Affiliate marketing will always be one of our top suggestions, as it’s essentially a truly passive way to make money once you’ve built a large enough following. There’s just so much stuff that you can become affiliated with, and all your followers will need to do is buy from your links.
Of course, trust is key here. Don’t get affiliated with and spam links for products that are completely unrelated to your niche and your community. Find something your followers would buy and urge them to do so through your links or prompt them to use your promo code.
Take this community of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Fans as an example. While the owner won’t be able to get ads on the Page, they’re monetizing their community by sharing some great book choices and using Amazon affiliate links to get a small cut of the profits.
But you can do this with literally anything. If you’re providing sports picks, become affiliated with sportsbooks. If you’re selling a course, become an affiliate of the platform where you host said course. The possibilities are endless.
2. Digital Products🌐
Speaking of books, let’s get straight into our next example right below: eBooks.com. This one’s an online bookstore that only sells, you guessed it, ebooks. And, they promote any sales or new arrivals directly on their Facebook Page.
This right here, folks, is a textbook example of selling digital products. You can choose any type of digital product you can create, from software and templates to guides and, in this case, ebooks. Build a community around it, helping your followers and building trust in the process.
Then, create a storefront on a platform like Whop and start promoting your products on your Facebook, just like you would with any other marketing channel. Soon enough, you’ll have plenty of customers, all of whom were initially your Facebook followers.
3. Sell Merchandise👕
Then again, we can’t forget about the ecommerce market. A $6.3 trillion market that is. Many dropshippers are using Facebook to promote their products. Even more folks are buying, selling, or trading fan merch and making a quick buck.
But, in this case, we’ll look at selling merchandise, as in physical products. Let’s take this example of a watch roll brand named Bosphorus Leather. They’ve managed to get a follower count in the thousands, and all they’re really posting is their watch case collection, with the occasional 48-hour deal.
You can do the exact same thing. Say you have a knack for creating great DIY products, and you have a whole Facebook Page dedicated to them. Why not start selling your creations to your followers? If you use a print on demand service then you don't even have to take care of the inventory yourself - just upload your designs and let your followers buy your merchandise.
4. Sell Online Courses📚
Another excellent way to make money online is to sell online courses. The eLearning space as a whole is still a somewhat untapped market. Sure, there are courses about almost everything, but you can always sell your unique perspective and knowledge as part of the course.
Speaking of unique, this Course Creator Community is truly unique, in that it’s a community about courses, with the creator offering courses themselves. And on top of that, they are offering a free mini-course for every follower.
That’s one of the best things you can do with your community. Let’s say that you want to sell a digital marketing course. Start by gathering a following by offering digital marketing advice, then offer them a few different courses, with some being free and the more premium ones being put behind a paywall.
5. Sell Digital Services✏️
Our last tip is to take use your Facebook page as more of a personal blog around any digital services you want to offer. So, if you’re a content writer, gather up some followers by offering solid advice and going over the job's struggles.
Or, take this Page as an example The Freelancers HUB often posts some pretty good info about digital marketing, with the occasional holiday greetings. They don’t seem to push their services as much but, instead, focus on building the community first.
How Else Can You Make Money With Facebook?
At this point, you can probably understand that getting paid by Facebook directly will be difficult if you’re not in the US or don’t have a huge following. You can use all the ideas we mentioned above, but again, you’ll have to manage tons of different business processes. Is there any way to make this easier? Well, there definitely is!
You can use Whop to make money through Facebook! With Whop, you won’t have any follower or view time requirements. You can start making money even if you only have 10 followers.
The process is simple. You sign up on Whop, set up a payment method, and embed your Facebook Page in your hub. Then, the possibilities are endless. You can sell all kinds of digital products directly from your storefront on Whop, which you can link to on your Facebook page.
But why Whop, and not any other platform?
Start Making Money with Facebook and Whop Today!
Monetizing your Facebook Page can be very lucrative but is extremely challenging to do when you limit yourself to built-in monetization methods. You’ll need tons of followers, lots of engagement, and you might still be unable to make money depending on your location. That’s why you need a platform that will allow you to run your community, no matter how small or big it is, from anywhere. That platform is Whop.
Whop can be used alongside Facebook, with the former being your business hub and the latter being the home of your community. And Whop’s the best choice for that, as you’ll get access to tons of apps with your whop. You’ll be able to create courses and software, sell digital services and products, and so much more!
Plus, you won’t need to worry about payments, as we have our own payment method, Whop Payments. And, for all of this, we only take 3% per transaction. So, what do you say?
If you’re ready to connect your Facebook Page with your Whop, join us today! Sign up on Whop, upload your digital products, and start selling them through Facebook, all within minutes.
FAQs for Facebook Monetization
Can you really earn money on Facebook?
Yes, Facebook offers plenty of monetization options. Once you reach a minimum of 5,000 followers on your Facebook Page, and you have good engagement metrics, you’ll be able to earn money through ads. You can also get paid through fan subscriptions or small donations in the form of Facebook Stars.
Does Facebook pay for page or post views?
No, Facebook only pays you when users view your videos, if you are eligible to use in-stream ads. You should still create high-quality posts and use a great page template in order to gather as many followers as possible.
Does it cost anything to monetize a Facebook page?
Monetizing a Facebook page won’t directly cost you anything. However, considering that you’ll need to meet minimum follower and engagement requirements, you might need to spend some money on Facebook Ads to increase these faster.
What content can I monetize on Facebook?
Facebook primarily allows you to monetize video content, either on-demand or live. However, you can still monetize content like courses or guides if you use a third-party platform.
How do I get paid by Facebook?
To get paid by Facebook, you’ll need to first become eligible for monetization. You’ll have to amass at least 5,000 followers and 60,000 minutes of total view time in the last 60 days to become eligible for in-stream ads for on-demand videos, the main way to get paid by Facebook.
