Facebook: How Sponsored Stories Help Your Business

Last weeks article on the “voice of business” ads discussed the different types of ads to choose from when launching your advertising campaign on Facebook. Now we will discuss the options you have at your disposal when it comes to advertising with sponsored stories.

As previously mentioned, advertisers must decide between the two main options:

• Ads: these ad types typically represent the “voice of business” and are ads that can be customized to display the exact message that the advertiser wants to promote and targeted to the people the advertiser wants to reach.
• Sponsored Stories: these type of ads represent the “friend’s voice.” These are, essentially, messages that come from friends about how they engage with a business. Businesses have the option to pay to promote these stories, so there’s a better chance that people will see them.

Here are just a few of the most popular choices an advertiser has in the Sponsored Stories category:

Sponsored Stories

Page Like Sponsored Story

This type of sponsored story is best used for fan acquisition and is great for reaching the right audience by using precise targeting options on desktop and mobile.

The content is generated with information from your Facebook page, so make sure that your page name and picture represent your business clearly. Defining categories for your page will display extra information in News Feed sponsored stories on desktop.

Page Post Sponsored Stories

If you want to promote page posts, you have three different options to choose from. These sponsored stories can be created from users actions: likes, comments, or shares. The post includes original text wrapped as a sub-story about the friend’s like, comment, or share.

Page Post sponsored stories are best for driving engagement and awareness, and is a good way to promote your content on both desktop and mobile.

Question Sponsored Story

Similar to Question Ads we wrote about last week, Question Sponsored Stories are best used for driving engagement and collecting valuable data directly from users.

The difference between these two types is the social component found in the stories – sponsored stories will show user answers to a specific question and allows other users to answer it too.

Offer Claim Sponsored Story

Similar to Offer Claim Ads, this sponsored story will show actions to friends of fans and help in driving new acquisitions and conversions.

Event Sponsored Story

Similar to Event Ads, Event Sponsored Stories will promote previously created events and help to drive users to a new event.

Event Sponsored stories include the name of the friend going to the event and the friend’s profile photo. This helps to endorse events to friends of the person who is attending and result in higher attendance.

Check-In Sponsored Story

By promoting check-ins, you can raise awareness about your local store among users and drive in-store activities.

Same as with other sponsored stories, user generated content will help you reach your target audience, with special recommendation from their friends, resulting in increased response rates, leads or sales.

Game Played Sponsored Story

Game played sponsored stories will help you raise awareness about your (newly released) game among friends of players, leading to more prospective customers. The great thing about this type is that users will have an option to play the game directly from sponsored story!

Be aware that the game thumbnail is used in this story type, so make sure that your picture is relevant and compelling.

App Shared Sponsored Story

Same as Game Played Sponsored Stories, this story type will help you raise awareness about your application among friends of users, which will drive new app installs.

Make sure to write a good description of the app because it will be used when shown in News Feed desktop sponsored stories.

Open Graph Sponsored Story

If you have created Open Graph apps, you can take advantage of this type of sponsored story to promote your app, drive new installs, and increase usage.

This is a great way to reach new users, because the story will be driven by activities of their friends – for example, if one friend is listening to music, it is likely that their friend will also be listening to a song. For more details about how to setup different Open Graph stories check the Facebook document: Telling Stories with Open Graph.

Domain Sponsored Story

Same as with other sponsored story types, friends of a person who liked some content will be able to see the domain sponsored story. This way your promoted content is recommended by person they know and there is a better chance that your content will be shared.

This story type is used to drive visits to a website, which can lead to new customers, subscribers, etc.

Conclusion

So far, we have covered the two main ad types (Ads and Sponsored Stories) and the 24 creative options you have at your disposal. But, don’t let number of options discourage you – with all the ads and sponsored stories available, its just a matter of experimenting, determining your audience and optimizing!