Social dark posts are also called targeted ads on social media. It’s not your ordinary boosted or organic posts and they don’t appear on your timeline.
Social dark posts show up as sponsored content in the feeds of users you’re specifically targeting. Dark posts are not “published” like the organic posts, they are known on Facebook as unpublished posts.
Facebook may have invented the concept, but dark posts are lingering on all major social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.
Why Should You Use Social Dark Posts?
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Precision in targeting
Dark posts allow you to target users by using specific keywords like their exact job title, interest and etc. It also offers you to make custom ads for each targeted audience segment.
For example, imagine you’re a skincare brand. With traditional targeting, you mainly focus on 25-year-old single ladies from Singapore or 20-year-old college students from Korea. But with dark posts, you could target both groups with customized ads at the same time.
The exact targeting will be great for social media ROI.
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Major options for A/B testing
A/B testing also known as split testing is a great way to improve ads. It allows businesses to present two different versions of ads to their clients to determine which performs better.
With dark posts, you can try testing with the image, headline, call-to-action button, or your ad copy. Then target headlines A and B to the same group with half of the users seeing headline A, and the other half would see headline B.
You will be able to determine which headline works better when you see the results in engagement and conversions.
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Helps you improve your other content
The A/B testing will optimise your future dark posts but it can also make your organic and boosted posts work even better.
Conduct A/B Testing and see which type of posts gets more engagement. You can then use the headline with a higher click-through rate for the published version of the post.
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It prevents your content to look spammy
Dark posts keep your timeline ad-free and prevent making your page looking spammy.
Upholding consistent social media content is crucial for any brand. Maintaining a clean timeline without tons of ads will help you highlight your brand presence—and publishing dark posts is a way to do that.
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They keep your followers’ feeds from looking spammy
A Forrester survey said that 26% of American youth felt there were too many ads in their Facebook feeds.
Dark posts avoid annoying your avid followers. The only people who can see your dark posts are the people you’ve carefully targeted, and ads based on their interests.
It means that there’s more space for you to improve your brand presence and spread your message via organic content and boosted posts.
Create a dark post on your Facebook
- Open your Business Manager menu
- Click “Page Posts”. In here, you can create your dark posts
- Select “Create Post”
- Select your post type. You can upload an image post, video, link, carousel, or Story
- Add your CTA. You can select a number of actions such as “Book Now”, “Subscribe”, “Get Offer”, etc.
- You can then select “Only use this post for an ad”
- Click “Create Post”. You now have your own dark post!
Note that the post will not be live anywhere until you use it to create an ad. For you to do this, you must use the tick button on the left-hand side to select your post.
Running a dark post opens a great opportunity to interact with potential buyers and help them make a decision sooner on your online store. It’s important that you reply to these comments as early as possible to capitalise on your products and services.
Looking for someone to manage your brands’ social media accounts? Contact us and we’ll help you take control of your Social Media Marketing today!
About D38 Ecommerce Agency
D38 is a South East Asia-focused e-commerce agency that provides end-to-end e-commerce solutions to grow your business in the digital space and generate ongoing monthly revenue. Our e-commerce solutions range from website development, store management, logistics, CRM, customer loyalty programs, automated email marketing, SEO, marketing tools, product press-release (PR) to reputation management – helping international companies simplify e-commerce management across ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).
Our team consists of certified Shopify eCommerce experts, designers, developers, content creators, and strategists working together to support and provide a seamless online shopping experience for our clients’ eCommerce websites.
We also have a market-specific digital channels team focusing on providing support for LINE Thailand and Japan, Naver for Korea, and ZhaoVN for global Chinese readers for social news and updates.
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D38 is a member of Digital 38 Group.
