Definitions of paid/promoted content
When discussing paid social media content, the following three terms are essential:
Boosted posts (promoted content)
A boosted or promoted post is an existing organic post from your Page's timeline that you pay to make it more visible. Boosting is intended to increase the reach of a high-performing organic post without launching a full marketing campaign.
Paid social ads
Paid social ads are any form of advertising or marketing content that is created specifically as an ad and is paid to be shown to a targeted audience. These typically involve a Call-to-Action (CTA) and are part of a larger campaign.
Dark posts (Unpublished Page posts)
Dark posts are targeted ads that do not appear on your Page public timeline or in your followers’ feeds. They appear only as Sponsored Content in the feeds of users you specifically target.
Facebook: Now referred to as Unpublished Page posts.
X (Twitter): Referred to as promoted-only posts.
LinkedIn: Known as Direct Sponsored Content.
Indexing status and limitations by network
The table below provides a quick reference for how comments on paid content are indexed within Engage.
Network | Paid/Boosted content indexed? | Promotion status indicated in Engage? | Key limitations and notes |
Yes. All comments are indexed. | No, unless labeled. | Dark posts are indicated with a tag. Image and link Dark posts are only indexed if they have at least one comment. | |
Yes, if ad account is connected. | Yes, ad posts are tagged as Dark posts. | Dynamic ad posts and their comments are not supported. Ad and organic versions of a post are two separate items. | |
X (Twitter) | Yes. All posts and comments are indexed. | No. | Promoted content appears the same as organic content. Labels or automations must be applied to distinguish them. |
Yes. All comments are indexed. | Yes, ads are indicated as Dark posts. | Boosted organic posts do not show any promotion indicator. | |
TikTok | Yes, for Sparked (promoted organic) posts only. | No. | Comments on posts created as ads are not indexed. Cannot distinguish promoted posts from organic posts. |
Network-specific details
You can use Publish and Measure to boost Facebook content in Social Media Management, or you can manage your ads natively via Facebook Ads Manager.
Comment Indexing: Engage indexes all comments on boosted and paid content, even if your ad account is not connected to Brandwatch.
Promotion Indication: We do not automatically indicate that a post or its comments are promoted.
If you create the ad via Advertise or Publish, you can label the post upon creation to filter it in a feed.
If you create your ad outside of Brandwatch, you can label the post upon its ingestion in Publish and Engage.
Dark posts: Ads created as Unpublished Page posts are indicated with a Dark post tag in Engage. In your Feed settings, select Dark post under the Visible on the network as field to isolate these posts.
Note: There is currently a limitation where image and link Dark posts are only indexed when there is at least one comment present on the post.
We index comments on Instagram paid posts only when the ad account is connected to Social Media Management. For more detailed information, see our help center article on Viewing promoted Instagram posts in Engage.
Ad vs Organic: When an organic Instagram post is promoted, you will find two separate versions of the post in Engage:
The organic version that contains all comments visible on the post as you see it on your Instagram Page. Comments on the ad version of the post will not be visible under this post.
The ad version that contains only comments specific to the ad. Comments on the original, grid version will not be visible under this post.
Dark posts: The ad version of the post and its comments are indicated with a Dark post tag in Engage. In your Feed settings, select Dark post under the Visible on the network as field to isolate these posts.
Note: Due to API limitations, Instagram dynamic ad posts and their associated comments are not supported in Engage.
X (Twitter)
While it is not possible to create ads and promote content directly in Social Media Management, you may create ads directly on X (Twitter).
Indexing: Posts (organic, boosted, and paid) and their comments are indexed in Engage.
Promotion Indication: We cannot indicate that X (Twitter) content is promoted in Engage; it will display the same way as organic content.
Distinguishing Content: The only way to distinguish X (Twitter) promoted content in Engage is to manually apply a label or use label automations, which can then be used to create a filtered feed by that label.
You can boost posts in Publish to create a LinkedIn ad, or you can create and promote content directly on LinkedIn.
Boosted Organic Posts: If an organic post is boosted, there will be no indication that the post and its comments are promoted in Engage.
Ads (Direct Sponsored Content): Ads created as direct sponsored content are indicated as Dark posts in Engage. In your Feed settings, select Dark post under the Visible on the network as field to isolate these posts.
TikTok
It is currently not possible to create TikTok ads in Publish or Advertise; they must be created directly on TikTok.
Indexing: In Engage, we index the post and its comments if the content was initially organic and subsequently promoted as Spark Ads.
Promotion Indication: We cannot distinguish between an organic and a promoted (Spark Ad) TikTok post in Engage. Use manual labeling or label automations to filter this content.
Limitation: We currently do not index comments from posts that were created initially as an ad in TikTok. Spark Ads (meaning boosted organic posts) are not subject to this limitation.