What is an unpublished post on Facebook and why do these “dark posts” matter to online retailers?
Facebook recently announced that they would be reducing “overly promotional” page posts that appear in everyone’s Newsfeed. An unpublished post is, you guessed it, never published on a company's Facebook page but only displayed as an ad. Here are 6 reasons Ecommerce businesses should use unpublished posts for direct response advertising:
1. Ensure your ads are shown only to the people you choose
Newsfeed updates are no longer useful for Ecommerce and direct response advertising.
2. Avoid post rejection by Facebook
With the already limiting exposure that “overly promotional” page posts will receive, there is good reason to limit page posts. Not to mention Facebook rejects posts with more than 20% text. Using unpublished posts can help you avoid post rejection.
3. Display different products to micro segments
Target specific segments with specific products. This will help with conversion rates, lowering costs and with testing and discovering new customers. One of our customers, JewelScent recently discovered a whole new performing segment for them—contributing to a 56% increase in revenue. Read how they accomplished this in the case study.
4. Differentiate between your brand message and specific products
Using unpublished posts for your product ads allows you to still spread your brand message to your fans through page updates. You can also A/B test unpublished posts, where Facebook’s algorithm will choose the best performing ad to display.
5. Prospecting: targeting interests
Online retailers using the Newsfeed for prospecting are missing out on the power of unpublished posts. An unpublished post is like a status update or page post, but you control the audience who sees them. This is very useful for prospecting and acquiring new customers. You can target age groups, people with particular interests, geographies, etc.
6. Avoid annoying your fans with too many posts
A regular newsfeed post is seen by all your fans and followers. This can becoming annoying if you have many products or new products to display. An unpublished post only shows up in the Newsfeed for the specific audience(s) you want it to.
Use Unpublished (Dark) Posts
Dark posts can be created through PowerEditor, which is somewhat clunky and there are several good step by step tutorials for creating dark posts with PowerEditor. However, we’ve made this whole process really easy in StitcherAds. By only creating dark posts, you have the full power of advertising on Facebook through an easy-to-use interface.
