Ads & Traffic
Dark Post
A paid ad that doesn't appear on the advertiser's organic feed — only shown to targeted users in the paid auction. Standard for most ecommerce ads.
A dark post is a paid ad that doesn't appear on the advertiser's organic Facebook or Instagram feed — it only exists in the paid auction, shown to the users the campaign targets. Most ecommerce ads are dark posts by default, because cluttering the brand page with ad variants would hurt organic reach and social signal.
Dark posts allow:
- Testing dozens of hook variations per week without polluting the organic feed.
- Running different creative to different audiences simultaneously.
- Whitelisted creator content — running ads through a creator's handle without the ad appearing on the creator's organic feed.