Social networking platforms like Facebook can make a significant difference when it comes to your business’s advertising reach. One way to expand it even more is by boosting posts, which can transform an existing post into a paid ad with serious gravitas. Boosting posts allows you to target audiences outside your own fan base and can help you elevate your online presence without breaking a sweat or the bank.
Things Have Changed
Gone are the days when almost any online effort had the potential to pay off. There are billions of savvy social media users out there, and grabbing their attention requires effort – and skill.
Social media is the darling of the people, and its immense popularity helps to ensure that it’s flooded with ads, photos, videos, articles, and come-ons. Gaining traction in this arena requires a focused strategy. While the content on social media continues to soar, interest levels have been saturated, which makes carving out your niche paramount.
You Gotta Play to Win
Marketing on social media has morphed into a pay-to-play proposition, and one of the most straightforward approaches is boosting posts. Boosting a post refers to paying the social media platform, whether Facebook, Instagram, or X – the social media platform formerly known as Twitter – to elevate an existing post into the feed of a targeted audience.
How to Boost that Post
Before you can boost a post on social media, the following must apply:
- You must have administrator or manager access to the page.
- You must have an ad account with a current payment method in place.
Once each of these is taken care of, you can get busy boosting a post from your web browser or from the platform’s mobile app.
For the purposes of this example, let’s boost an imaginary Facebook post.
Head to the Facebook Page and Get Busy
Head on over to your Facebook account and give your recent posts a look-see. Once you identify one that is relevant, timely, and ready to be boosted, click the Boost Post button in the bottom right corner. It’s important to note that – while the vast majority of posts can be boosted – some can’t, and when this is the case, the Boost Post button will be grayed out.
Be Goal Oriented
At this point, Facebook will ask you if you want to proceed with their goal suggestions, which are based on your settings. While Facebook presumably has considerable insight into your business goals, it’s a good idea to peruse each of the available options and make the right choices for the specific post you are boosting.
Some of the basic goal categories include:
- Generating more engagement
- Getting more messages
- Generating more website purchases
- Getting more visitors
- Generating more leads
- Getting more phone calls
Each of these is obviously a worthy goal, but not every goal applies to every boosted post.
Take Action
The next step in the process is editing the action button. Facebook’s default is Shop Now, but there are other options available to you, and they include:
- Sign Up
- Book Now
- Call Now
- Learn More
Choose the action button that’s right for your post and your attendant goals.
Pick Your Poison
Next, it’s time to pick your target audience for your boosted post. This can include a custom ad audience that you’ve already created if you have any. The factors you can target include all the following:
- The target age range
- The location, which can range from the country or the state all the way down to the specific city
- The target audience’s interests
- The target audience’s gender
The target audience that you pinpoint at this juncture can be saved as a custom audience to be used again and again.
While you are not required to target an audience, failing to do so gives Facebook free rein to choose the audience they believe is most interested, which won’t necessarily align with your goals.
Set a Budget
It is easy to rack up a serious bill when it comes to online advertising, which makes budgeting an important step in the process. Every post boost defaults to a duration of seven days, which is generally sufficient for the tiny attention spans the platform cultivates. If you have your own ideas about duration, however, you have the option of abbreviating the time frame.
Once you enter your total budget for the boost in question, Facebook will generate an estimate of how many people you’re likely to reach and how much action your Shop Now or Learn More button is likely to generate.
If you’ve made it this far, it’s time to hit the Boost Post Now button and let Facebook work its magic.
What’s in It for You
Boosting a post is generally considered a cost-effective way to reach a specific audience through social media. Instead of throwing things out there and hoping something sticks, a post boost allows you to finetune your target audience and strike when the iron is hot. For example, if Facebook lets you know that a post boost is in order, it’s likely in your best interest to follow their lead.
Additional benefits include:
- Brand Recognition – When you couple your name with compelling content, it’s a recipe for recognition, which is the backbone of brand building.
- Powerful Metrics – When you boost a post on social media, it generates metrics related to traffic, level of engagement, and the audience reached, which can prove invaluable as you strategize future advertising.
Ready to Boost Those Posts? Give The Web Guys a Call
The digital marketing experts at The Web Guys know exactly how important strategizing your ad spend is to your bottom line, and we’re here to help you explore what boosting your social media posts could mean for you. We serve areas across Indiana, Michigan, Arizona, and Florida including Carmel, Sarasota, Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Grand Rapids. Learn more by contacting us at (317) 805-4933 today.
