Definition: A dark post is a sponsored post that is shown only to the audience an advertiser targets and never appears as a regular post on the brand’s own page or profile.
Also called: unpublished post, ad-only post, Direct Sponsored Content
Updated October 11, 2026
A normal boosted post is published on your page first and then promoted, so everyone who visits the page sees it. A dark post skips the page: it is created in the ad tool and delivered only as an ad. The name is industry slang; the platforms use their own terms.
On Facebook, Meta’s Business Help Centre describes creating an unpublished Page post in Ads Manager; if you choose to run it only as an ad, it will not appear on your Page. On LinkedIn, the equivalent is Direct Sponsored Content, which LinkedIn’s help centre says will not appear as an organic post on your LinkedIn Page.
Dark posts are still public ads. Meta’s Ad Library lets anyone see the active ads a Page is running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network, and LinkedIn says Direct Sponsored Content can be shown when members view a Page’s ad library. Write every dark post as if your whole audience might read it.
A software company wants to promote one guide to two audiences. It creates two dark posts in LinkedIn Campaign Manager: one opening with a cost question for finance leads, one with a time-saving angle for marketing managers. Neither appears on the Company Page feed, and after two weeks it keeps the version with the higher click-through rate.
Click-through rate is the percentage of people who clicked a link in a post out of everyone who saw it.
Cost per click (CPC) is the amount an advertiser pays for each click on an ad, either as the price set in a pay-per-click auction or as total spend divided by clicks.
CPM, or cost per mille, is the price an advertiser pays for 1,000 impressions of an ad, used both as a way to buy ads and as a metric for comparing campaign costs.
A Company Page is the official presence of an organisation on a social network, such as a LinkedIn Page or a Facebook Page, run by admins on the organisation’s behalf rather than by one person’s profile.
Organic reach is the number of unique people who saw a post or account through unpaid distribution (feeds, search, shares and recommendations), excluding anyone reached through ads.
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