• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, February 19, 2013

Facebook Offers outpace other types of Page Post ads when it comes to generating viral activity, according to new data from Facebook ad partner SocialCode. The firm noted that Offers are viral by nature because they encourage people to share these kind of posts with friends, who can claim them as well.

For the study, SocialCode analyzed 122 sponsored Page Posts (11 offers, 93 photos, 18 videos) across six clients. The campaign generated a total of 1.7 billion impressions. The study found that 18% of impressions for Offers were viral compared to less than 1% each for sponsored posts featuring photo or videos.

Nearly 4% of Offers generated stories in friends’ news feeds (through someone claiming, sharing, “liking” or commenting on an offer), compared to 0.74% of ads featuring photos, and 0.27% for video ads. Among a brand's fans served an offer, 2.22% generated a story versus 2.08% for photo-centric posts and 0.58% for video-focused ones.

Among all users receiving an Offer, 1.03% generated a story compared to 0.68% for photo posts and 0.25% for video posts. Photos outpaced Offers in the percentage of “engaged” users overall, 1.97% to 1.33%, by including actions like photo views, link clicks and follows.

 But SocialCode argued that since the actions related to Offers were mainly people sharing, claiming or redeeming offers, “these engagements are typically more valuable than the likes or comments achieved wit a photo sponsored page post.” In other words, they led more directly to actual sales.