How to Create a Suggested Post on Facebook

Ever see a post in your Facebook feed from a page you don’t follow, marked with a tiny “Suggested for you” label? That’s not random magic, it’s a powerful tool businesses use to reach new people, and you can use it too. This guide will walk you through exactly how to create your own Suggested Post on Facebook, from the first click in Ads Manager to crafting content that actually gets results.

What Exactly Is a "Suggested Post"? (And Why Should You Care?)

First, let's get the language right. A "Suggested Post" or "Suggested for you" post is simply a paid advertisement. It’s a native ad, meaning it’s designed to look and feel like a regular organic post, slipping right into a user’s News Feed. It doesn't scream "BUY NOW!" like a traditional banner ad, which is why it's so effective. Instead of interrupting the user's experience, it aims to become part of it.

Unlike an organic post, which is primarily shown to your existing followers, a suggested post lets you break out of that bubble. You get to choose exactly who sees your content based on their location, age, interests, and even their online behavior. This is its superpower.

So, why should you care?

• Reach New Audiences: This is the big one. Your organic reach can only take you so far. Suggested posts let you introduce your brand, products, or services to thousands of potential customers who have never heard of you.
• Hyper-Targeted Marketing: Run a local bakery? You can target people within a 5-mile radius who are interested in coffee and desserts. Selling a B2B service? You can target people by their job titles or industry. The precision is incredible.
• Amplify Your Best Content: Got an organic post that really resonated with your followers? Don't let it fade away. You can turn that proven winner into a suggested post and show it to a much larger, targeted audience.
• Drive Specific Actions: Whether you want more traffic to your blog, sign-ups for a webinar, or sales on your e-commerce site, you can set up a suggested post to achieve that specific goal.

Getting Started: Your Quick Tour of Facebook Ads Manager

Before you create your first suggested post, you need to know where to go. All Facebook (and Instagram) advertising happens inside a platform called Ads Manager. You'll need a Facebook Business Page to access it. If you have one, you can get to Ads Manager in a couple of ways:

1. Navigate to Meta Business Suite and find "Ads" in the left-hand menu.
2. Simply go to facebook.com/adsmanager.

Once you’re inside, you’ll see three main levels for organizing your campaigns: Campaigns, Ad Sets, and Ads. Think of it like a Russian nesting doll:

• Campaign: The outermost layer. This is where you set your overall advertising objective (e.g., getting more website clicks).
• Ad Set: The middle layer. This is where you define your audience, budget, schedule, and ad placements.
• Ad: The innermost layer. This is the actual creative your audience will see - the image, video, caption, and link.

How to Create a Suggested Post: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to build one? Let's walk through the process, one step at a time.

Step 1: Choose Your Campaign Objective

After clicking the green "+ Create" button in Ads Manager, the first thing Facebook asks you is, "What's your goal?" This is your campaign objective. Choosing the right one is arguably the most important decision you'll make, because Facebook's algorithm will optimize your ad delivery to achieve this specific outcome.

Here are some of the most common objectives for small businesses and creators:

• Awareness: Use this if your goal is just to get your name out there and be seen by as many people as possible in your target audience.
• Traffic: Choose this if you want to send people to a destination off Facebook, like a blog post, landing page, or product page.
• Engagement: This is perfect for promoting a post to get more likes, comments, and shares. It's often used when turning a high-performing organic post into an ad.
• Leads: Use this to collect information from potential customers, like email addresses for your newsletter.
• Sales: If you run an e-commerce store, this objective will find people most likely to make a purchase.

For your first suggested post, Traffic or Engagement are great starting points. Select your objective and click "Continue."

Step 2: Define Your Audience, Budget, and Schedule (The Ad Set Level)

Now you’re at the Ad Set level. This is where you tell Facebook who to show your ad to, how much you want to spend, and when you want it to run.

Audience Targeting

This is where the fun begins. In the "Audience" section, you can build your ideal customer profile.

• Location: Target by country, state, city, or even a radius around a specific address.
• Age &, Gender: Define the basic demographics of your audience.
• Detailed Targeting: This is the powerful part. You can add interests, behaviors, and demographics. For example, a vintage clothing store could target people interested in "sustainable fashion," "thrift shops," and "70s style." As you add targeting options, watch the "Audience Definition" meter on the right to see if your audience is too broad or too specific.

Pro tip: Start with a clearly defined audience. Trying to appeal to everyone usually results in appealing to no one.

Budget &, Schedule

Next, you’ll decide how much to spend.

• Budget: You can choose a Daily Budget (e.g., $10 per day) or a Lifetime Budget (e.g., $150 to be spent over two weeks). A daily budget is great for ongoing campaigns, while a lifetime budget is good for promotions with a fixed end date. You don't need a massive budget to start, even $5-10 per day is enough to gather data and learn what works.
• Schedule: Set a start and end date for your campaign. This prevents you from accidentally leaving an ad running indefinitely.

Step 3: Crafting the Ad Itself (The Ad Level)

Finally, we’re at the Ad level, where you’ll create the actual post users will see. You have two main options here.

Option 1: Promoting an Existing Post

This is the simplest and often most effective method. In the "Ad Setup" section, choose "Use Existing Post." You can then select a post from your Facebook or Instagram page.

Why is this a great strategy? Social proof. A post that already has comments and likes feels more authentic and trustworthy when it appears in someone's feed as a suggested post. Look through your past content and find something that genuinely performed well organically. If your followers loved it, there’s a good chance new people will too.

Option 2: Creating a New Ad (or "Dark Post")

If you want to create a post purely for advertising that won't live on your main page timeline, choose "Create Ad." This is often called a "dark post." It gives you the flexibility to test different versions of ads without cluttering your feed.

You’ll need to put together these core components:

• Ad Creative: Upload your image or video. Video, especially vertical video, tends to perform best in the feed. Keep it eye-catching and designed to capture attention in the first three seconds.
• Primary Text: This is your caption. Start with a hook, provide value, and end with a clear call to action.
• Headline: A short, punchy sentence that appears below your creative.
• Call to Action (CTA) Button: Choose a button that matches your goal, like "Learn More," "Shop Now," or "Sign Up."

Step 4: Review and Publish

Before you hit the final button, take a moment to review everything. Use the ad preview tool to see how your suggested post will look on different placements, like the mobile feed and desktop feed. Check for typos in your copy and make sure the link goes to the right page. Once everything looks good, click the green "Publish" button. Your ad will go into a review process (usually a few hours) before it goes live.

Best Practices for Content That Gets Results

Just knowing how to set up the ad isn’t enough. You need to create content that stops the scroll and makes people interested.

• Lead with value, not sales. Instead of just showcasing a product, teach your audience something. A nutritionist could share a "Quick Healthy Breakfast Idea" video. A software company could offer a post on "3 Productivity Hacks for Remote Teams." Give, give, give before you ask. This approach builds trust and authority.
• Use authentic visuals. Steer clear of slick, corporate stock photos. People connect with real people and authentic scenarios. Behind-the-scenes content, user-generated-style videos, and imperfect-but-real photos often outperform polished studio shots.
• Write for a human. Write your copy like you're talking to a friend! Ask questions, use emojis (when appropriate), and break up long blocks of text into short, readable lines. Keep a conversational tone that matches the rest of the Facebook Feed experience.
• Test everything. Your best ad will come from experimentation. Create two versions of your ad with a different headline or image (this is called an A/B test). Run both for a few days, see which one performs better, and let the data guide your strategy, not guesswork.

Final Thoughts

Running a Suggested Post on Facebook is one of the most direct ways to grow your brand's reach and connect with new customers where they're already spending their time. It’s a process of defining your goal, finding your people, and then delivering valuable content that adds to their feed experience instead of taking away from it. By following these steps and focusing on genuine value, you can turn casual scrollers into engaged followers and loyal customers.

Of course, a big part of a successful ad strategy is knowing which organic content to promote in the first place. You need a consistent flow of great posts to find those 'winners' worth putting ad dollars behind. At Postbase, we built our platform to solve the chaos of modern social media management, focusing on video-first content and providing a clean, visual calendar to plan your entire strategy. Once you can easily see what’s resonating with your audience in one place, picking the right post to promote becomes simple. If you're tired of wrestling with clunky tools, give Postbase a look.