Facebook Promoted Posts became available for Facebook Business page owners last this past May and many businesses aren’t quite sure if they want to use them, or the best ways to use them. It seems like a duplication of Facebook ads, but really they aren’t because promoted posts aren’t ads, they are posts for a fee that are guaranteed to show up to more people in your news feeds.
Why this could be beneficial is because your posts may not show up on all your followers’ pages, especially when they have hundreds of posts from people who rank more highly in popularity and in their starred favorite followers. So, paying to make sure your post shows up can work out well if you know what type of post to use and when to pay to have it promoted. Because it isn’t an ad, it stands more chance of catching your follower’s attention. One drawback is that promoted posts are only available if you have over 400 Likes for your page, which many startup businesses don’t.
Another limitation is that the promoted posts can only run if they are newer than three days old and then they will only be promoted for three days when the campaign starts. Of course you can stop a campaign before three days. You might want to do this for reasons such as if you are announcing a one day sale and it ends before your campaign ends.
Many businesses don’t like that it shows as being a sponsored post and takes away from the “social” aspect and might offend those who don’t want advertising to show up in their news feeds. But if you are using the promoted post to announce something that followers can get for free, they will probably forgive you because giving things away is more accepted than asking them for their money. This makes it great for lead generation or to get a burst of traffic coming into your website.
While businesses are weighing out the possibilities of using Facebook Promoted Posts in order to help them boost their business, there are other options that might give you a better benefit for your budget. If you do decide to try them out, make sure and keep an eye on your analytics and don’t be afraid to do some split testing to see what promoted posts are going to bring you the best return in the long run.
