Facebook advertising is an amazing option for small businesses because it is extremely cost effective and the targeting options are amazing. The most common way that businesses are using Facebook ads is through the “Boost Post” option that appears on every Page post. While this an easy way to create an ad, and you may be seeing results from your Facebook ads, it is likely that there is still a lot of opportunity for engagement left on the table. This is probably because you are missing out on one of Facebook’s best tools for advertisers…Power Editor. Power Editor is a free Page and ad management tool from Facebook. While Facebook defines Power Editor as the following, it is a great tool for any business, large or small!

“Power Editor is a Facebook advertising tool designed for larger advertisers who need to create lots of ads at once and have precise control of their campaigns.”

You can access Power Editor either from your Ads Manager dashboard or by going to www.facebook.com/ads/manage/powereditor. To note, you can only use Power Editor in Google Chrome, it does not work in other browsers.

Unpublished Page Posts in Power Editor

While Power Editor has many useful resources (I could spend all day talking about them), one of my favorite tools is the Page Posts tool. This tool allows you to create Unpublished Posts (also known as Dark Posts) that will only be used as ads and will not be published to your page for organic distribution. This is a great tool because you can create ads that are more customized than your regular Page posts and you can create multiple versions to test. When creating a Page post inside Power Editor, you will see six different post types to choose from:

Link Post

A Link Post looks very similar to a normal page post in that it has longer text, but it can also include a call-to-action button. Within Power Editor, you have the ability to control what the link looks like and all areas of text within the post (post text, link headline, display link vs. actual URL, and description).

Carousel Post

This type of post is similar to a link post but it allows you to showcase 3-5 images or videos within a single ad unit to direct people to specific locations on your website. Each image or video is referred to as a Card, and within the tool you can customize each card to have a different headline, description, and even destination URL. Each card can also have a Call to Action (i.e. Learn More, Sign Up, Shop Now, etc.) but while the destination URL can be different for each card the Call to Action text will be the same on all of them. For example, you can not have a Learn More Call to Action on Card 1 and a Sign Up  Call to Action on Card 2.

Photo Post

Photo Posts only include an image and text, links and Calls to Action are not included.

Video Post

This type of post is similar to a Photo Post because it only allows for a video and post text. Video Posts do not include links or Calls to Action.

Status Post

A Status Post is a text only post, it does not include images, links, etc.

Offer Post

This type of post looks similar to an  normal Offer that you can create on your Facebook Page. Offers are discounts and promotions tied to your Page that can be redeemed in your store, online or both. They are very useful because when an Offer is claimed by someone, their friends may see it as a story in their news feed. In addition to the normal Offer customization options available, Power Editor also allows you to set a reminder date that will send customers a reminder before the Offer expires, set a claim limit on the number of people that can claim the offer, and create a Bar Code that can be used for in-store redemption.

So how do I create an unpublished post? There are two ways, and they are both found in the Power Editor.

The first option is within the Manage Ads Tab of the Power Editor. Once in this tab select the “+ Create Ad” button, a pop-up will then appear asking you to choose a campaign and an Ad Set before continuing. Upon selecting continue, you will then be asked to select the ad creative. Instead of selecting an existing Page post from the drop-down, select the + button or the “Create New Page Post” link. The second option, and the option I prefer, is within the Page Posts tab of the Power Editor. Within this tab all you have to do is select the “+ Create Post” button and the box from the screenshots above will appear.

If you use the second option and are an editor for multiple pages, make sure that you have the correct Page selected before you create the post. Otherwise, you will have to recreate the post under the correct Page!