If you want to promote your business through your Facebook page, how can you get the best return for your budget?
Business owners are often confused with the various options available for promoting content via Facebook, and some aren't even aware that there are significant differences between each type of sponsored post.
There are three options for promoting content on Facebook: boosted posts, unpublished posts, and promoted posts. Let's take a look at the three options and see which perform the best.
Boosted Posts
Boosting a post is as simple as clicking the 'Boost Post' button on the lower right-hand corner of any post you create.
In the past, many advertisers avoided boosted posts because it was difficult to choose your target audience.
But updates earlier this year have changed that. Now you have the option to target just your fans, add friends of fans, or exclude those who are already fans and focus just on attracting new users.
You can also use gender, age demographics, geography, and interests to reach a specific audience.
Unpublished Posts
Newsfeeds ads can also be created in the Power Editor, but unlike boosted posts, these will not show up organically on the wall of your business's Facebook page.
Instead, they show up in the feed of targeted users as a 'Suggested Post' with the word 'Sponsored' in the description.
Promoted Posts
Promoted Posts use the Facebook Ads Manager or Power Editor to provide even more control over exactly whom you target with your post.
To set up a promoted post, go to https://www.facebook.com/ads/create/ and choose 'Boost your posts' as your campaign objective.
This leads to the 'Page Post Engagement' option.
From here you'll choose the post you want to promote and have additional options for who you want to target.
Tracking Performance
Regardless of the advertising method you choose, you can track ad results within the Ads Manager.
In a recent article, The Digiterati ran a test to see which version of a post performed best using the three options. The image and post copy were identical. As with boosted, unpublished and promoted posts use a 'Sponsored' tag. When the ad appears in the feed of users who are not already fans of your page, they will see the 'Like Page' button.
In this test, the Boosted option reached nearly twice as many people for the same budget as the promoted post or unpublished post.
The promoted post had a much higher click-through rate than the other two methods.
However, the promoted post had a much higher click-through rate than the other two methods. So while the ad approach reached a smaller audience, the cost per action was lower.
One final note
The unpublished post has one additional advantage, you can use a vanity link instead of just directing users to your website.
This makes it much easier to promote a specific event such as a webinar. So the best approach for Facebook advertising depends on your overall goal.
If you want to reach as many eyes as possible, test a boosted post and track your results. If you want to pay for targeted action, your best bet will be a promoted post.
