Facebook Makes Promoted Posts in Newsfeed more “Likeable”
Facebook updates its marketing offerings quite frequently now, and this month comes a new change. Facebook has created its promoted posts in newsfeed more “likeable” by making the “like” button more prominent.
Promoted posts in newsfeed were launched in the first quarter of this year, and allow brands to promote a page or post in a user’s newsfeed. Prior to their release, these types of promoted ads were only offered as display ads along the right-hand side of Facebook. To do take advantage of the offering, a brand logs in to Faccebook advertising, and selects a page or post they would like to promote. Upon choosing, the brand opts in to sponsored story posts. Note that these sponsored ads can run in newsfeed or in the right-hand side of Facebook. Facebook determines where the ads run based on the brand’s budget, ad history, and quality. To get around this, a brand can choose to promote a recent post directly from their page, as displayed below. However, learnings on this post are limited and it generally is more expensive.
Once the ad is live, the post is listed within a user’s newsfeed and is marked as “sponsored”. The result is an ad mixed within organic content. This placement often drives user enagement with the ad, as for many it appears as an organic post by a business.
When promoted posts and pages in newfeed were first introduced, the “like this page” functionality was simply a hyperlink at the bottom of the ad. This low visibility resulted in lower page likes resulting from the ad.
The old Facebook newsfeed posts.
The new ads feature a “like” button at the top of the ad, which is much more influential upon users. The hopes of Facebook (and marketers) is that this new placement will help drive a higher like rate among this ad type.
The new Facebook newsfeed ads.
For those businesses running Facebook pages, and especially those currently running advertising, I highly recommend checking out these updated ads to see how they can help increase user engagement.
-Bryan Nagy
