How to Create a Successful Facebook Sponsored Post

Creating a sponsored post on Facebook is easy enough, but making sure it reaches the right audience and is worth the money spent takes a little bit more effort. There are a lot of options that Facebook offers when you choose to create a sponsored post and a lot of the decisions for segmenting your audience, and what options you decide to include or not include can make all of the difference. Check out some of the tips below to make sure you don’t miss something that could have made your Facebook sponsored post more successful.

Facebook Sponsored Pages: The Run-Down 

Facebook “sponsored pages” also known as Facebook advertisements, are the primary way that Facebook gets its revenue. These ads allow companies to put post-like sponsored pages embedded in the scroll of their target audience. These sponsored pages give the Facebook user the opportunity to “like” their main page right away, in addition to providing a link to their website or featured article. This is great because once people subscribe to your main Facebook page; they will be seeing your articles and updates consistently in their feed. 

Also, the sponsored posts work as native advertisements, meaning the flow with the format and style of the website, in this case Facebook. These ads aren’t intrusive, which gives them a higher likelihood that people will engage.  

Segment Your Audience by Hobbies and Interests

Just as with any advertisement, the main reason for creating a sponsored Facebook post is to help you reach your target audience and then getting that targeted audience to like your post enough to then follow your call to action (click a website link, like a page, enter a contest, etc.). This means you have to be strategic. Luckily, you can narrow down your audience by the usual demographics: age, sex, location, etc. Look at your Facebook Insights to determine who is currently interacting with your page. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stick with what the insights say if you’re hoping to change direction and reach a different audience, but it can help give you perspective and make initial decisions.

One thing that makes Facebook sponsored posts unique is the fact that they also allow you to add specific categories, such as hobbies or interests. While Google may be able to infer this information from different searches and channels, many Facebook users tell Facebook directly what they enjoy, giving the network insight that others don’t have.

By using the precise interests and broad categories segmentation, Facebook can calculate how large your audience actually is. This will give you a better idea of how many people you’re reaching. It’s up to you to then decide how important that interest or hobby is with that number in mind. For some, the interest or hobby holds more weight than the amount of people the ad will reach, for others reach is more important. It completely depends on your business, so know your audience! 

A Word of Caution 

From here, the number of people that see your ad really depends on your budget. This is the negative aspect of Facebook sponsored posts, because obviously the larger your budget, the more people that will actually see your post. However, Facebook ads are pretty budget friendly to start out—the challenge is that there is no guarantee that people will click on your ad. This makes targeting the right audience even more critical. 

How to Create a Sponsored Post 

Once again, one of the perks to sponsored posts (as opposed to the ads that appear in the column) is that they are highly visible to your audience. Take this opportunity to make the best sponsored ad that you can, and bear in mind who your target audience is. To get started follow the steps below: 

#1 Create a business Facebook page. 

This seems pretty self explanatory, but if you do not yet have a business page, you will need to get one in order to make a sponsored post. 

#2 Prepare your ad text and images. 

Before you launch into designing the post you are going to want to think about what they can contain. In other words, consider the elements of sponsored Facebook posts. I highly recommend starting here as opposed to going straight into creating your ad because this will help you visualize and really think about what you want to say as well as the features Facebook gives you to say it. 

#4 Choose the right images.

As an additional note, you are going to want to pick images that are 600 x 315 pixels for the best visibility. Further, the Facebook requirement is that you can only have 20% text. This helps to make the sponsored posts visually appealing and fit seamlessly into the rest of the user’s newsfeed. Plus, it will be far more likely to grab their attention. 

#3 Put your ad out for the world to see. 

Your next step is to actually publish your ad. This part is pretty straightforward, just remember that if you want to be successful you should follow the advice above. In other words, it’s not really about how you publish; it’s about what you publish. Below are the steps you want to take to actually have your ad go live:  

1. To create your ad, go to the Power Editor. Log into your ad manager and navigate the left menu, click on “Campaigns and Ads” 
2. Click on Manage Pages once you are navigated to Power Editor. 
3. Click on Create Post.
4. Insert the URL of your page.
5. Fill in the rest of the information with the text and image elements you tested and decided to use.
6. Select This Post Will Be Used as an Ad.
7. Click Create Post to confirm.

At this point you have launched your campaign, so you can keep up with Insights to see how your sponsored post is doing—how many clicks it drove to your website, how many people “liked” your page after seeing the post, etc. Salesforce also allows you to take the Facebook leads you earn through sponsored posts and send them straight to your CRM.

The Takeaway 

Although you can search for the best site to buy Facebook likes and followers, sponsored posts does help to increase the engagement. Sponsored posts definitely attract attention from users when you segment your audience and really know your target demographic.

These links do in fact work when you have nailed the right segmentation down, which is critical to get users to click on your link or like your page to see what more you have to offer them. 

Amanda DiSilvestro is the Editor in chief for Plan, Write, GO. She has been writing about all-things digital marketing, both as a ghost writer, guest writer, and blog manager, for over 10 years. Check out her blogging services to learn more!