Have you ever heard of a dark post in Facebook? This is something you may have never seen and it's a fascinating thing.

Google defines a dark post as:



<blockquote>AN UNPUBLISHED POST IS A STATUS UPDATE, LINK SHARE, VIDEO OR PHOTO THAT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE SHARED AS AN ORGANIC POST. STAYING TRUE TO ITS NAME, IT’S NEVER PUBLISHED BUT IS ONLY SURFACED AS AN AD.</blockquote>



What this really means is that a Facebook Dark Post is a Facebook post giving you the ability to control the audience it reaches through ads. 

<h2>Why would you Use a Dark Post?</h2>

A Dark Post might seem strange, but there is a use to it. These posts can be used to help reach a specific goal without cluttering your newsfeed or the newsfeeds of your followers. Maybe it would be seen as irrelevant.

Maybe you are trying to sell your services and some of your followers or even all of them already use your services. It wouldn't be very helpful for the post you create to end up in their newsfeeds. However, you could post a message and use it as a dark post to spread the word to others outside of your followers.

<h2>Creating your Facebook Dark Post</h2>

Creating a dark post in Facebook is pretty easy. You can watch their video <a href="https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10151107995291687">here</a>, but it's a bit outdated. Here are a few steps to help you create your Facebook Dark Post.

Start by visiting: https://www.facebook.com/ads/manage/powereditor/

From here, you will need to click "Download to Power Editor" and choose the advertising account you want to download. You may only have one option, unless you manage multiple accounts for clients. 

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/DownloadtoPowerEditor1.png" alt="DownloadtoPowerEditor" width="580" height="50" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-8779" />

Click the check box for the account you want to use and click the "Download" button. 

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/AdvertisingAccount.png" alt="Advertising Account" width="544" height="476" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-8780" />

Now you will need to name your campaign, choose the objective and choose the buying type.

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ChooseACampaign.png" alt="Choose A Campaign" width="589" height="218" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-8781" />

Now, you want to click the "create ad set" link, which is found on the right side of the screen.

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CreateAdSet.png" alt="Create Ad Set" width="585" height="522" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-8782" />

From here, select the campaign you just created and name your ad. Now, click the "create" button and you will be able to move onto the next step.

If you click the bottom tab on the left side of the page called "ads" you will be able to choose a Facebook page and the "Use Existing Post" option for your dark post.

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/FacebookDarkPost.png" alt="Facebook Dark Post" width="536" height="482" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-8783" />

When you click the + sign next to "Select a Post" you can create a new page post to use as your Dark Post.

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/NewPagePost.png" alt="New Page Post" width="543" height="209" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-8784" />

Now you can review your post and you can use it as an ad instead of a newsfeed post. As long as you are happy with the post you have created for your ad, you can go ahead and make the ad go live. Of course, you can set daily spending limits and many other parameters to ensure the ad targets the right people and times of the day.

This is how you create a Facebook Dark Post and use it for advertising your services or products on Facebook without putting it in everybody's newsfeed.
