A few years ago, I wrote one of my most popular articles: Please Do NOT Boost That Facebook Post. I’ve since had a change of heart because Facebook has changed the options available for boosting posts. I still believe most businesses are not boosting Facebook posts properly and I hope to shed some light on a simple, but effective strategy to get value out of your boosts.
My main argument against boosting was the targeting available at the time and that boosting a post unsuccessfully would lead to wasted money and be a detriment to your organic Facebook engagement. So if you are still boosting posts and choosing random targeting like age, location, and interests, I would recommend that you stop immediately and read this post before boosting again.
As a business owner, you have such an incredible opportunity with Facebook to find your audience and to reach new prospects but sadly most business owners do not utilize these features and just blindly throw $20-50 behind a post and then get frustrated by the results.
What you should boost?
I believe in boosting your best content on Facebook. But it must be content that leads your customer into your sales funnel. The number one error I see in Facebook advertising is when businesses have no concept or plan for the customer journey. The post does not have to lead directly to a sale, but it does have to move your prospect closer to purchasing from you – it can be a photo, video, or link to content on your website.
But you should not be sending paid traffic to anything that is not tested. That being said, when you do have some great content that performs well on Facebook and that is a key step in your customer journey, this is the post to boost (as described below).
When should you boost?
First, you must give the post a day or two to get some organic engagement before boosting. We want some positive comments, likes, and shares. No one will read the post if there is no engagement. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.
How often you should follow this model really depends on how often you post to Facebook. My recommendation is to boost only 10-15% of your posts if that. Many social media “gurus†will tell you that you need to advertise to get reach on Facebook. I completely disagree. If you are boosting posts, be sure to post really great engaging content for your regular page posts as well.
How should you boost?
This is the key. Why would you post to a random group of people? You know who your audience is, right? The description of Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences in my original post holds true. The exciting change is once you create an Audience in Facebook Ads Manager, you can now boost to that audience. This is so much more powerful than boosting to random people who happen to live near your business. Wouldn’t you agree? You have a list of your customers, prospects, or subscribers and now you can reach them and people like them. For more details read Please Do NOT Boost That Facebook Post.
I hope you will create some Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences of your own now and use these in your strategic post boosts.