What posts perform best on Facebook?

Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world, with over 2.91 billion monthly active users as of the fourth quarter of 2021. With such a massive audience, Facebook presents a major opportunity for brands, businesses, and content creators to reach and engage with people.

But with so many posts competing for attention in users’ feeds every day, it can be challenging to create content that actually cuts through the noise. Understanding what types of posts tend to perform best on Facebook is key to developing an effective Facebook marketing strategy.

In this article, we’ll explore the factors that influence Facebook post performance and provide tips and best practices for optimizing your Facebook content based on the latest data and expert recommendations.

What impacts Facebook post reach and engagement?

Many different factors affect how far your posts reach and how much engagement they drive on Facebook, including:

Post content – The type of content you share (video, image, text, link) can impact reach.
Post format – Native video versus video links, for example.

Post length – Longer or shorter content.
Post timing – The day and time you publish.
Target audience – Who you want to reach with your post.

Paid promotion – Using ads to boost organic reach.
Page authority – Established pages with more followers tend to have better reach.
Post quality – High-quality, relevant, interesting content drives more engagement.

Facebook’s algorithms – Changes to how Facebook surfaces posts impacts organic reach.

Understanding how these different elements influence post performance is key to strategizing your Facebook content. In the next sections, we’ll break down how some of the most important factors impact post reach and engagement based on Facebook data and expert input.

How does post type impact Facebook performance?

One of the most basic factors influencing Facebook post performance is the type of content you share. Facebook identifies several major post types:

Status updates – Text-based posts.
Photos – Image posts.
Videos – Native videos and video links.

Links – Links to external sites.

Facebook data consistently shows native video outperforming all other post types for reach and engagement:

Post Type	Avg. Reach	Engagement Rate
Native Video	135%	4.2%
Photo	100%	3.1%
Link	90%	1.9%
Status Update	60%	0.9%

The above data shows average reach and engagement rate for different post types compared to photo posts. Native video posts see significantly higher reach and engagement rates.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you should only post native videos on Facebook. Variety is important, and different post types serve different purposes. But it’s clear that video should be a major component of your Facebook content mix if you want to maximize performance.

Best practices for video content

To leverage the power of video on Facebook, keep these best practices in mind:

Post native video instead of links when possible for better reach and engagement.

Keep videos short, ideally under 2 minutes long.
Use compelling visuals and sound that capture attention immediately.
Focus on interesting, entertaining or emotionally engaging video content.

Include captions for sound-off viewing.

How does post length impact performance?

The length of your Facebook posts also influences how well they perform.

Analysis by Socialinsider looking at over 100,000 Facebook posts found posts with 40 to 80 characters achieved the highest click-through rate on average.

For reference, this sentence contains around 80 characters:

This analysis examined click-through rate for text-based status updates of varying lengths published by brand pages on Facebook.

Other key findings on how post length impacts Facebook performance:

Engagement tends to decline on posts over 80 characters.
Click-through rate declines significantly on posts over 240 characters.
Posts under 40 characters see declining click-through rates.

Of course, post length is not as simple as character count. The amount of text you can include in a post while keeping it scannable depends on factors like paragraph structure and formatting.

But in general, easily digestible posts under 80 characters tend to see the highest engagement and click-through rates on Facebook.

Best practices for post length

To optimize your Facebook post length:

Aim for 40 to 80 characters for short status updates.
Use paragraph breaks, bullets and bolding to improve scannability of longer posts.
Experiment with post lengths under 240 characters for optimal click-through.

Consider shorter posts of 1-2 sentences for the best engagement.

How does post timing impact Facebook performance?

When you publish your Facebook posts also has a major impact on how well they perform.

Facebook usage and feed consumption patterns vary throughout the week and times of day. Paying attention to when your target audience is most active on Facebook can help you time your content for maximum visibility.

Multiple studies have analyzed the impact of post timing on Facebook performance. Some key insights include:

Early and late weekdays see higher clicks and engagement than the middle of the week.
Weekends, especially Sundays, perform worst for brand content.

Early morning and evenings tend to outperform afternoon posting.
Peak posting times are before 11am and after 7pm on weekdays.

However, optimal posting times can vary significantly based on your audience demographics and time zones. The best way to determine what post timing works for your audience is to experiment and analyze performance data in Facebook Insights.

Best practices for timing Facebook posts

Some best practices for timing your Facebook content based on aggregate data:

Aim to post on weekdays, especially early and late in the week.
Post in the mornings before 11am and evenings after 7pm.

Avoid posting around midday and on weekends, especially Sundays.
Analyze Insights to find your audience’s peak interaction times.
Consider timing based on time zones of your target audience.

How does targeting and audience impact performance?

Who you target your Facebook posts to significantly influences how well that content performs.

Posts targeted at specific, relevant audiences tend to drive higher engagement and conversions than content aimed at general audiences.

Some key factors around audience targeting include:

Interest targeting – Targeting audiences based on interests, hobbies and pages liked.
Lookalike audiences – Finding new audiences with similar characteristics to current fans.
Location targeting – Targeting people in specific cities, regions or countries.

Behavior targeting – Targeting based on purchase history and browsing behavior.
Custom audiences – Targeting existing customers and email lists.

Segmenting your audience into well-defined personas allows you to create content tailored specifically to what resonates with each subgroup. This leads to higher engagement and conversion rates.

You can also look at the demographic data (age, gender, location etc) of your most engaged follower groups to identify who to direct content toward.

Best practices for audience targeting

To improve performance with audience targeting:

Build detailed buyer personas based on your existing audience and customers.

Create segmented target groups based on interests, behaviors, and demographics.
Tailor content specifically to align with interests of each target group.
Analyze engagement demographics to identify your ideal audience.

Continually refine target groups and messaging based on performance.

How does paid promotion impact reach and engagement?

The previous sections covered best practices for optimizing organic Facebook post performance.

However, the reach of organic posts has declined dramatically over the years as Facebook pushes more content into paid placements. One study found organic post reach decreased from 16% in 2012 down to just 2% in 2021.

For businesses and creators, this makes paid Facebook advertising nearly essential to reach wider audiences. There are multiple ad options on Facebook:

Boosted posts – Amplify reach and engagement for existing content.
Page posts ads – Publish promoted posts natively from your page.

Facebook feed ads – Display ads that appear in the main news feed.
Instagram ads – Run ads on Instagram to capture that audience.
Messenger ads – Engage audiences directly via Messenger.

The major benefit of paid Facebook promotion is the ability to target posts to precise audiences, expanding reach beyond just your existing page followers.

Facebook advertising also allows testing different content, analyzing performance data, and optimizing campaigns for key objectives like conversions or reach.

Best practices for paid promotion

Some tips to leverage Facebook ads effectively include:

Set clear campaign objectives based on your goals, like traffics, conversions, or reach.
Target ads to refined custom and lookalike audiences.
Design ads for the mobile experience.

Test different content types and messages.
Optimize campaigns based on performance data.
Retarget engaged users for higher conversion rates.

How does Facebook page authority impact performance?

The authority and reach of your Facebook page also impacts how well your posts perform.

Pages with more established presences, larger follower counts, and higher engagement levels tend to see greater organic reach and distribution.

This is partly because Facebook’s algorithms favor content from pages with relevance and community engagement, amplifying their distribution.

Analyzing over 1.5 million Facebook page posts, Socialinsider found posts from high authority pages with over 10,000 followers had nearly twice the click-through rate (1.8x higher) compared to newer pages with under 1,000 followers.

Building your page authority takes time, but benefits include:

Expanded organic reach and distribution.

Improved click-through rates.
Lower cost per click or conversion from ads.
Increased brand visibility and trust.

Best practices for building page authority

Some tips for establishing authority for your Facebook page include:

Create engaging content consistently over time.
Promote your page through ads and other channels.

Encourage quality interactions and loyal community.
Foster brand recognition and trust with audiences.
Partner with influencers and other relevant pages.

Claim and verify your page with Facebook.

Putting it all together: Creating high-performing Facebook posts

Optimizing your Facebook content based on the factors above requires testing and analysis to determine what resonates best with your audience.

But adhering to research-backed best practices is a solid starting point for creating high-performing Facebook posts.

In summary, aim to create Facebook content that:

Utilizes video for maximum reach and engagement.
Is easily digestible in length, under 80 characters.

Is published during weekday mornings or evenings.
Targets specific, relevant custom and lookalike audiences.
Boosts organic reach further through paid promotion.

Leverages your page authority and brand recognition.

Fine-tuning your Facebook content strategy based on performance analysis will enable you to continually improve engagement, click-through rate and conversion results.

Conclusion

Creating content that performs well on Facebook requires understanding how factors like post type, length, timing, targeting, and promotion impact reach and engagement.

Following best practices based on the latest Facebook data can provide a solid starting point. But regularly testing content and monitoring performance analytics is crucial to determine what resonates best with your unique audience and objectives.

By continually optimizing your Facebook posts and strategy based on insights into top-performing content formats, timing, targeting and promotion, you can maximize your reach, engagement and conversion rates on the world’s largest social media platform.