Ask HN: Do sponsored posts on Facebook deliver value?

1 points by Jd 13y ago ↗ HN

I decided to test Facebook sponsorship with a post including my Christmas card. I paid $8.80, which after about two weeks corresponded to 5 likes and 5 user comments (since I just had another unsponsored post with 13 likes I didn't immediately perceive this as value, and wondered if people deliberately didn't like it because they saw it was a sponsored post).

Anyways, about a month later I get message from Facebook claiming to reveal the results. I get the following two pieces of information from them: "Your post has had 3.3x as many views because you promoted it." and a weird bar graph that shows regular views at "30%" and paid views at "70%" (30% and 70% of what I have no idea).

To conclude, is there any value here? I think the sponsored post discouraged people from liking it early, and I believe that the time in the news feed also correlates to the number of people that like it. Consequently, a post liked by many people will probably be in the news feed for more than 3.3x as long, and get even more views than a sponsored post.

The conclusion would be to only sponsor posts that few people will like. At least that's my logic. Anyone else have a similar experience?

1 comment

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pawelwentpawel 13y ago ↗

I reckon it's highly dependent on quality of content and type of audience you gathered on your page. Facebook is presenting your post to users and their friends but it doesn't mean that they have to click like.

The conclusion would be to only sponsor posts that few people will like

I would go in a completely opposite direction in here - sponsor the posts that you know will go viral. It will have a bigger impact and might bring more people to your page.