Dark posts are targeted ads on social media. They are different from publishing and boosting organic posts because they don’t appear on the page of the account that runs them. They also don’t show up in the newsfeed of your followers. Dark posts show up as Facebook ads in the feeds of users you are specifically targeting
As with all Facebook ads, dark posts can show up in multiple ad placements including Instagram and display network.
Dark posts are known as unpublished posts by Facebook and are available on Twitter, LinkedIn (known as direct sponsored content), and other social media platforms.
Because these are ads, you can split test or a/b test different variants to figure out which creative, copy, and CTA delivers the best results for your objective from brand awareness to conversion. This is always going to outperform a single version of boosted organic content.
You will likely find that dark posts performance varies in different ad sets. Split testing lets you run ad variants head to head to see which versions perform best. When evaluating the winners, it is often best to continue to test the top performers against different audiences to figure out which ads work best for different audiences.
You should A/B test form factor to test if carousels, slide shows, video ads, or simple photo posts perform best.
Dark posts unlock the full capabilities of Facebook Targeting options. You can use them for prospecting as well as retargeting efforts, which should be part of every marketing strategy.
This social media marketing strategy is very powerful when it comes to influencer marketing and whitelisting. Incorporating influencer dark posts into your strategy means you can use facebook ads manager to power your influencer ads. You will need to gain advertising access via influencer whitelisting, and once granted permission can create ads through your influencer handles and run side by side with brand ads. This means your target audiences will be exposed to your brand through your ads and social proof of your influencer ads - which will also drive users to your landing page to convert.
The power of Facebook Dark posts with influencers is that you can effectively create & manage your influencer content to deliver results.
We’ve all seen THOSE business pages. One promotion after another that all look the EXACT same. Don’t be that brand. If you constantly try to sell, your page followers will at best tune you out and at worst unfollow you. Over time, your content will get less and less organic reach as it gets less and less engagement.
This is also true for your influencer partners. Instead of asking them to spam their followers, you can precisely target new audiences with targeted ads. Unpublished page posts do exactly this.
The freedom to create and manage dark posts will deliver better results than simply boosting content. Your budget is optimized across an ad campaign instead of being allocated by best guess against individual page posts. Not only will dark posts outperform boosting, you will also likely see improved results across all facebook and instagram ads.
If you are creating an influencer dark post, you can select the influencers Facebook Page and Instagram account in the designated drop-down as well.
Wa-la! You've successfully created your Facebook / Instagram dark post. Now let the A/B testing begin! If you're not seeing the results you were looking for from your dark post, try & test different content, CTAs, headlines, etc. until you're able to find a combination that sticks with your target audience and you can leverage.