Facebook’s new advertising format called Promoted Posts has just been launched. Promoted Posts allows Page administrators to turn any Timeline post into an ad that appears at the top of their Fans’ news feeds. This increases the chance that more Fans will see it, and that more of their friends will too.
So who will this benefit? Well, first off, you must have a minimum of 400 fans to take advantage of Promoted Posts. For those who are not at that Fan base yet, here are a few quick ideas on how to increase your fan base:
- Invite your friends. It seems obvious but it’s surprising how many people don’t invite friends to their business page.
- Make sure your posts have engaging, compelling content. This will be critical when you have enough fans to use the promoted post feature, so get into practice now. Include a deal or a free gift from time to time.
- Respond to comments your fans make on the page.
- Engage in their sites. One hand washes the other.
- Post material from other sites.
- Take a poll, or ask for a response to a specific post.
Once you’ve reached the minimum number of fans, you are ready to go. Promoting a post is relatively easy. Here are the steps:
- Go to the sharing tool and create a post.
- Once the post is created, click on the Promote drop down menu, and set your budget. Don’t confuse your Promoted Post budget with a Google Click Ad budget. The budget you set with Facebook is not a daily budget. It is for the life of the post. Once you determine a budget, Facebook will give you the estimated reach of your post. Hit the save button and your promoted post will be launched.
According to the Facebook Guide, once your post is added “it will be shown in the news feeds of more of the people who like your page than you would reach normally. Friends of the people who have interacted with your post will also be more likely to see the story in their news feeds for up to three days from when the post was first created.” All types of posts can be created. Typical posts include status updates, photos, offers, videos, polls and questions. You can promote any post that was created in the last 3 days. You can sort your post geographically or by language. You do this from the Public dropdown menu.
You can pause a promoted post. You need to go to your Page timeline and find the post you’re promoting. At the bottom of the post below where people can comment, click on the “Promoted for $X” button. At the bottom of this page, click the “Stop Promotion” link. Your promotion will be updated and the button will say, “Promotion Paused.”
Seeing how your post is performing is easy. Shortly after promoting a post, you’ll see its performance at the bottom of the post. Hovering over the link to the number of people reached will give you information about the people who saw this post. Information on your organic reach, viral reach and paid reach will be available. Hovering over the percentage link will give information on the percentage of people who like your Page that you reached through the promotion.
How do you pay? Your Promoted Posts will be billed to the account you designated in your Ads manager. By clicking the gear icon on the promote button you can change your payment method.
Tips for succeeding with a Promoted Post are identical to other attention grabbing ideas that have been laid out for flourishing with traditional posts:
- Add pictures and videos. Facebook users respond to media much more readily than the printed word.
- Include an offer. Make the offer unique to the post. It will add urgency to buy, and make ROI easier.
- Highlight exclusive events.
Promoted Posts can be an important value ad when it comes to your Facebook presence and online marketing efforts. As you add fans and reach, the costs will increase significantly. That is something to keep an eye on. Experimenting with different promotions will help you to decide how to use Promoted posts to our best advantage.
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