Most of the time, we preach the benefits of organic marketing efforts. However, if you do business in a relatively saturated market, the game is often pay to win. Many businesses struggle to stand out online when their industry has a lot of competition—sometimes even with the most advanced organic strategy. That’s where online advertising comes in. But how do you choose where to spend your ads budget?
Facebook Ads Manager offers various options for marketers to promote their content online, including the heavily-debated Facebook Boost Posts. We’ll help you determine whether or not to use this feature, and how to make it the most successful for your marketing goals.
What Are Facebook Boosted Posts?
Facebook Boost Posts are regular posts that a business owner or marketer can “boost” to reach a larger audience—for a fee. Facebook Business Manager will often recommend which posts of yours that are good candidates for boosting: those with good organic engagement.
Wondering the difference between a Facebook Boosted Post vs. Ad? Well to start, you can boost a post directly from your business page. You can only start an ads campaign in Facebook Ads Manager. Once you boost a post, it will show up first on your business page and the News Feeds of your target audience. Ads will show up in the News Feed as well.
However, Facebook Advertising has a lot more capabilities and can provide more results than a Boosted Post. So, it’s crucial to weigh the pros and cons before making your decision.
Pros of boosting a Facebook post
Should I boost a post on Facebook? Good question! While many marketers will quickly respond, “No!”, we have a more calculated response for you. And that response is: Maybe.
Facebook Boost Posts can grow your engagement by finding similar audiences as your existing fans and putting your content in front of them. If you do it right and you have a decent following already, you can reach more people, grow brand awareness, get some Likes for your post and your page, and possibly make some conversions.
Notice the italicized “possibly.” Facebook Boosted Posts are a bit of a gamble.
Cons of boosting a Facebook post
With this tool, you’re simply boosting an existing Facebook post. Therefore, you don’t have the same capabilities of a full ads campaign. On a Boosted Post, you cannot change the copy, nor the visuals or videos. So, once you Boost a Post, it’ll always look the same no matter who sees it. And if you know anything about advertising, it’s a lot more effective when you can track your success and retarget your ad to better suit your audience.
Conversions may happen after people see your Boosted Post, but the conversion rate may be lower than more advanced methods of online advertising. Boosted Posts give you limited targeting options. You can choose to reach all your fans, fans and friends of fans, and targeting a specific audience through certain interests that are far fewer than the choices you have for Facebook Ads.
Facebook Ads Manager allows marketers to choose from various objectives when creating an ad campaign. Some of those objectives include, but are not limited to:
- Lead generation
- Brand awareness
- Website traffic
- Reach
- Conversions
Boosting posts, however, only allows you to use the “Engagement” objective. Meaning, your only goal is to get more people to Like, Share, Comment, and Follow—not necessarily convert.
So, if all you want is more Likes, by all means, Boost that post.
How to Promote a Post on Facebook Successfully
Boosting a Facebook post is great for increasing your visibility on Facebook or to even make an announcement you’d like more users to see. So, if you decide to boost a post, make sure you’re doing it the right way to get the best results. Check out these Facebook Boost Post tips:
Select the ideal post that will benefit from a Boost. Check out your Facebook Insights. Boost the post(s) that already have good engagement. Choose posts that represent your company well. Keep in mind this may be the first interaction your new potential customers will have with your brand. Make sure that your copy is grammatically correct, that you use high-quality images and/ or video, and that there’s sufficient information for new and existing audiences.
Clearly define your goal for Boosting a post. Why do you want to Boost a post? Defining your goal can help you choose who to target. If you’re announcing a new discount or special, for instance, you may want to target your Facebook Boost Posts to existing/ past customers.
If you want to increase your followers and loyal fan base, however, you may want to target fans and friends of your fans. They may share similar interests or may have a higher chance of Liking a page their Friend already Likes. Strategizing your target audience is crucial to an effective Boost Post. We don’t want you to waste money, after all.
Strategize the best time of day to Boost your posts. Study Facebook Insights to discover when you audience engages the most with your content. Boost a post during those hours, because duh, data.
The more you know…
Facebook has an advanced ads management system that allows you to reach many different people based on their interests, family details, what they’ve liked, behaviors online, income, and more. Thus, Facebook Ads Manager can be difficult for non-professional marketers to navigate.
However, while Boosting posts is available for novice marketers, it should not be your main method for advertising online. Boosting posts has a specific purpose, so it’s not really a great stand-alone tactic. It should only be used sparingly in conjunction with other advertising methods.
A business’s marketing goals should be based around conversions and sales, but Facebook Boost Posts cannot promise that.
Consult an Online Advertising Agency That Knows Their Stuff
The advertising experts at Post Launch can help you manage your advertising budget and decide where to place ads online. Contact us to learn more about online advertising today.
