Last month, Mark Cuban posted that the Maverick’s would be limiting their involvement on Facebook because of how much they were charging for post visibility.  Like many, I began to notice several weeks ago that my messages weren’t having the same reach they once did. In an attempt not to overwhelm users with marketing messages and at the same time figure out a way to get money from marketers, Facebook changed their algorithm and simultaneously introduced promoted posts.

Previously, the only form of Facebook advertising had been on the right hand side of your News Feed, which limited advertiser’s messages to desktop users. With the growing use of tablets and smart phones the concern quickly became, “will my ad be seen?”

Promoted posts give business pages with 400 “likes” or more the option to pay for their status update to be seen by more users.  These promoted posts are displayed in a users news feed, so their message is delivered despite the device that’s delivering it to them.

Josh Gwin, All Star Automotive’s Digital Marketing Manager was an early adopter of promoted posts. “I’ve used Facebook advertising for years and was excited when this feature became available. I’ve had success selling through Facebook advertising and approached promoted posts in a similar manner. One of the most successful campaigns I ran was announcing pre-approval with a link to our credit application. I promoted the post for $100 and received great results.”

These results include a message that was seen by 56,170 people. On top of that a staggering 1,160 people liked the post! Best of all, All Star received 40 credit applications over the course of 3 days. As a marketer, where else can you spend $100 and have that kind of reach?

Josh went on to say, “As Facebook continues to revise their marketing strategy, I’m going to continue revising mine.” I couldn’t agree more! So what do I think when General Motors, Mark Cuban and others abandon Facebook advertising? I think my ads targeting Facebook’s one billion users just got cheaper. Thanks!