Are Facebook’s Promoted Posts a Good Idea?

Facebook has rolled out their promoted posts feature, which allows a page owner to pay to increase the visibility of a single post. With the flurry of negative publicity Facebook has received in the wake of its shaky IPO, is this new addition a good or a bad idea?

What’s obvious is that Facebook needs to show its investors that they can make money. Where they must walk a tightrope is by somehow convincing page admins that non-paid posts are still the same, but paid posts are somehow better. As an admin of 20 Facebook pages, I’m still on the fence with the idea of paid posts. I will definitely try them out to see if they provide any value. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if Facebook is, or has been, somehow holding back on the visibility of my posts, in order to give me a better perceived value for my paid posts. In other words, have they re-designed the frequency of page posts to allow for these paid ones to have increased visibility? I’ve already heard some page admins grumbling that their posts seem to be receiving less engagement than before. After all, if all else is equal, my page’s posts should be as visible as anything else posted in someone’s timeline naturally, right? And paid posts aren’t going to show up in places regular posts wouldn’t. As Facebook tells us:

Your promoted posts will be seen by a larger percentage of the people who like your Page than would normally see it. It will also be seen by a larger percentage of the friends of people who interact with your post.

On a page with just under 1000 likes, I only have one pricing option.

In other words – it will receive more visibility, but only to those people who are already connected. I can see instances where this might be worthwhile, such as highlighting a promotion that you want your current customers to see.

The idea of paid posts leads me to wonder if sorting by relevance or most recent will affect visibility. If I pay $5 to promote a post for 3 days, and many users prefer to sort the timeline by date, where will this old post appear? Posts can run for up to three days and can be targeted. Posts must also be approved before the promotion begins.

Pricing
It appears that your estimated reach for a paid post is $5 per 1000 + 100. As seen in the graphic at the bottom, a page I admin with over 7000 likes has options from 1100 to 6100 people reached, in $5 increments. It also appears that you can promote posts up to a couple of days old. If a post is too old, you’ll receive the message “This post is too old to be promoted.”

On this page with over 7000 likes, I have more options.

Worthwhile?
I know for a fact that there have been instances where my clients would have wanted to use this. I will also mention it as an option in the future. It remains to be seen just how much more effective a paid post will be over a “regular” one.

Why don’t I see an option for promoted posts?
I immediately noticed that some of my pages have don’t the option to promote posts at all. Facebook’s help center tells us that the promoted posts are only available to those pages with 400 or more likes. If you don’t have a least 400, they simply encourage you to invite your friends or buy Facebook ads.

Let us know if you’ve tried the promoted posts, and if you felt they were worthwhile.

Further Reading
Facebook’s Promoted Posts Rolling Out, Here’s What It Looks Like