How to Use Promoted Posts to Rock Your Facebook Page
In May 2012 Facebook announced a new advertising option for brand and business Pages, the “Promoted Post”. You may have noticed that last winter Facebook significantly reduced the percentage of fans that see your Page updates. Now, when you post a status update on your Page it will be served up only to approximately 16% of your fan base.
This is very frustrating for businesses that want to use Facebook to keep their community up to date with important and timely information. Not to mention the time and in many cases, money that it took to build that community.
So, when the announcement that Page owners can now promote individual posts, I was very enthused. I had been experimenting with a “Sponsored Story” ad unit called “Page Post Ads” but it wasn’t giving me the big punch that I needed for some of my clients messaging.
Promoted Posts work like this:
Note: At this time, Promoted Posts are only available on Pages with 400 or more fan; for this example, I used a Page that has 620 fans
When In the Facebook update window, I see a “Promote” button at the bottom of the window.
When I click on the Promote button, it expands and displays 2 options:
Option 1: To reach people who LIKE the page it will cost:
- $5.00 to reach 420-720 fans (I would use this option; this page has only 620 fans)
- $10.00 to reach 700-1,000 fans
Option 2: To reach people who LIKE the page plus their FRIENDS, it will cost:
- $5.00 to reach 420-780 fans
- $10.00 to reach 770-1,000 fans
- $15.00 to reach 1,000-2,000 fans
(Note: the cost to promote a post is based the Page’s amount of fans)
I have been testing Facebook Promoted Posts on Be Visible’s Page and also on some of our clients’ Pages. Here are some of the results:
Example 1:
Facebook Page with 620 fans
Promoted Post: To fans of the page plus their friends
Cost: $5.00
Results:
- Organic Reach: 115 people - the number of people who saw the post in their newsfeed, ticker, or on the Page’s wall (this is close to the amount of fans who would have seen the post if it had not been promoted)
- Paid Reach: 1,152 people - the number of people who saw the promoted post
Total Reach: 1,265
Example 2:
Facebook Page with 1,351 fans
Promoted Post: To fans of the page plus their friends
Cost: $5.00
Results:
- Organic Reach: 278 people - the number of people who saw the post in their newsfeed, ticker, or on the Page’s wall (this is close to the amount of fans who would have seen the post if it had not been promoted)
- Paid Reach: people – 2,053 the number of people who saw the promoted post (and achieved 3 new fans, too!)
Total Reach: 2,331
Example 3:
Page with 333,000 fans
Promoted Post: To fans of the page
Cost: $750.00
Results:
- Organic Reach: 48,592 people - the number of people who saw the post in their newsfeed, ticker, or on the Page’s wall (this is close to the amount of fans who would have seen the post if it had not been promoted)
- Paid Reach: 449,836 people - the number of people who saw the promoted post (which resulted in 6,772 Page post likes, 277 shares, and 177 new fans!)
Total Reach: 498,428
Promoted Posts are a relatively low-cost way to ensure that status updates reach the valuable fan base that page owners have worked so hard to build. And it is a way for non-fans to find out about the page from their most valued, trusted sources: their own friends!
Plus, with Promoted Posts, Facebook continues to deliver the update for up to 3-5 days, compared to the approximately 3 hours of an un-promoted post. This is significant because more of your fans will probably be visiting Facebook over the course of 5 days, compared to 3 hours.
Now, the question becomes exactly when to use promoted posts. For many of our clients, we suggest only using it for the very best or most important content. It could be a new product announcement, a contest or Facebook promotion, blog content, etc. However, in some cases, all posts should be promoted (depending upon the ad budget).
Questions about Facebook Promoted Posts? Just Ask!
(Since Promoted Posts are only available for Pages with 400 fans or more it’s a good reason to start a fan growth campaign. If you need ideas on how to grow your Facebook Page fan base, let me know.)