When you promote a Facebook post, do you do so to people who have already liked your Page or to people who have yet to do so? Some mix of the two? You might be interested to know that unless your ultimate goal is just to get more Facebook fans, you’re probably better off promoting to people who have already liked your Page.

When you promote posts on Facebook, are you largely promoting to fans non-fans, or a combination? Let us know in the comments.

According to new research from Socialbakers, marketers on Facebook are getting a lot more bang for their buck when they promote posts to fans instead of non-fans.

This isn’t exactly surprising, but it’s worth looking at just how much of a difference it makes.

“At each turn, ads targeted to Fans outperformed those targeted only to non-Fans,” says Socialbakers social media analyst Phillip Ross. “They cost roughly the same per impression, but engagement metrics like cost-per-click and click-through rate make it clear just how much more valuable Fan targeting really is.”

“While targeting some ads to non-Fans will always be necessary for expanding your audience, promoting engaging content to Fans remains the most valuable action for Facebook marketers,” he adds.

Earlier this month, Facebook redefined how it calculates cost-per-click. From now on, CPC will only account for what Facebook calls “link clicks,” which are clicks related to certain ad objectives like: visiting another site, installing an app, or viewing a video on another site. This also includes call-to-action clicks and clicks to Facebook Canvas apps. It will no longer account for what Facebook refers to as “engagement clicks,” which include likes, shares, and comments.

Facebook is also ramping up its video efforts, which stand to give advertisers as well as those looking to boost organic Facebook marketing new opportunities and a better alternative to YouTube.

Facebook announced a couple of updates aimed at giving Pages more control over how their videos are organized and shared. These include improved upload tools and a new Video Library feature.

“Page owners now have access to enhanced control and customization features when uploading videos, like the ability to set an expiration date or to add a custom thumbnail for a video,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews in an email. “We’re also introducing a suite of new distribution options, like secret videos and the ability to prohibit embeds on third-party sites.”

Secret videos enable Page owners to upload videos that are only accessible via a direct URL, keeping them from being searchable or otherwise found on Facebook. This brings Facebook’s video product more in line with YouTube’s offering.

Page owners can also restrict the audience of a video by age and gender. They could already do so by location and language. They can set an expiration data for a video and retain its insights even after it has been removed. They can also publish videos directly to the Videos tab on their Page without distributing it to the News Feed or Timeline.

There are some new customization options as well, including the ability to add custom thumbnails by using your own image or a suggested thumbnail and the ability to label videos based on interest categories.

“The new Video Library enables Page owners to easily organize and update their videos. Changes can be made on a per-video basis, or in bulk,” the spokesperson says.

The Library feature lets you edit a video’s metadata (including subtitles and thumbnails) after upload, manage distribution options, search and filter videos by title, description, etc., and view and manage secret videos.

All of this will become available to all Pages over the coming weeks.

Facebook also announced a new Video Ad Creative spotlight aimed at helping you learn how to create better Facebook video ads.

The company is also offering new interesting 360 video options, which YouTube also just announced this week. It’s clear that Facebook and YouTube are in hot competition for your ad dollars as well as your organic efforts.

Facebook flat out tells people who post YouTube videos that they’ll have a better chance of increased reach in the News Feed if they use native Facebook videos.

Is Facebook becoming a better video advertising option than YouTube in your opinion? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Image via Socialbakers