Facebook Now Offers Sponsored Stories

Facebook has added a new option for marketers using its self-service ad platform, Sponsored Stories. Facebook's self-service advertising platform has traditionally allowed businesses to promote their fan pages and to create and display ads on Facebook. Sponsored Stories takes advertising on Facebook a step further. This new ad unit allows page admins to pay for additional distribution of page stories as well as user updates that mention them in Facebook’s ad space.

How To Use Facebook Sponsored Stories

Facebook page admins should see a new "promote" option below each of their fan page stories.



After clicking on the "promote" link, Facebook opens a pop-up window to explain ad targeting options.

After viewing this window, click "Create Ad." This will take you to a new screen that will allow you to review and edit your ad.

At this point, you are going to want to click the "Edit Ad" button so that you can select targeting options before placing the order for the ad.

Once you have edited the ad and set the right pricing and targeting choices for your business, your promoted story is ready to go.

Marketing Takeaway

Promoting organic content instead of ads could help your offers get more attention on Facebook's advertising platform. Test Sponsored Stories to see how the cost-per-lead compares with other paid programs. With the launch of Sponsored Stories, Facebook is directly competing with Twitter's new Promoted Tweets advertising platform. It seems like paying for extra reach of organic social media content is a trend that is catching on.

Will you test Facebook's new Sponsored Stories feature?