In my last 2 posts, we talked about the importance of FB promoted posts and why your business page needs them. Here I will outline the parameters of creating one.
Creating a Post
The first thing you will want to do is create an organic Facebook post that announces your product
to your fans. But you must do this with advertising in mind.
So when creating that post, consider the following:
– Create your post as a link share, not a photo or text update.
– Use an image for the thumbnail that is at least 560×292 pixels.
– Pick an image that is high quality and engaging.
– Promoted posts using a photo cannot contain more than 20 percent text, or else your
application will be rejected. While this may sound like a complicated barrier, Facebook
comes equipped with a grid tool which will help you figure out whether your post fits these
requirements. If it exceeds the 20% rule you can still share it on your Facebook page, you
just can’t pay to promote it.
– Use sales copy that gets to the point quickly and have a call to action within the first 90
characters.
These steps are really important. The right dimensions will assure that the thumbnail image will
stretch across the width of the news feed on desktop and mobile.
A quick call to action is important since text is truncated after 90 characters on a mobile device.
If you are really savvy you can also combine these efforts with Google analytics and use URL
parameters to track the success of this post in driving conversions.
7 tips to gain reach instead of losing it
Focus on avoiding meme content, as well as avoiding frequent use of calls to action. Facebook is
attempting to decrease these types of tactics in the news feed. Pages that have heavily used these
tactics in the past may be more severely punished.
Facebook has said (and always maintained) that it is ideal to structure your content in the most
logical way. Stories that include links should be posted as links. Many page admins like to include
links within the descriptions of photos; however, this is against Facebook’s general wishes. We
always suggest delivering your content in the best way for your audience to actually consume it.
- Focus, focus, focus on engagement.
- Study, analyze, and understand why your fans click the like button for your content.
- Avoid overusing strong calls to action.
- Avoid using memes.
- Analyze outbound links to determine which source is the best received.
- Increase post frequency.
- Test different times of day for different types of content (e.g. news stories in the morning and product promotions in the evenings).
Some more ways to use promoted posts.
– Test promoted posts with a small budget. You can overwrite the default budget Facebook
places on the screen and simply input $5 or $10. If you get good results from a promoted post, you
can always go back and extend the promotion.
– Have a goal. Use this feature with the goal of boosting website traffic, increasing brand
visibility, or with a call to action. Keep reading…
– Periodically boost a recent blog post. If you have a new post that you suspect will be popular
with readers, promote the post and then track traffic results to see how many clicks the post
receives. Spending $5 or $10 on a promoted post that brings 50+ visitors to your website can be a
worthy investment if you’re able to convert that traffic into regular readers, buyers or subscribers to
your mailing list.
– Promote posts that have a call to action. Recently I put out a call for book reviewers and
spent $10 on a promoted post on Facebook. That post generated over 30 applications for reviewers,
exceeding my expectations. If you have an upcoming event you want to promote, a promotion that
you’re running, or other announcements that invites readers to take action, a promoted post can
potentially generate worthwhile results.
– Set a budget and track results. Marketing is all about testing and you can allocate as little as
$50 per month to testing sponsored posts, which is a pretty inexpensive investment in the world of
advertising. You should find that these posts raise your page’s overall popularity, generate new
“Likes” for the page, and drive traffic to your website.