If you’re trying to get your business noticed on Facebook, you’re no longer going to get very far with organic (unpaid) reach on your posts. Facebook’s algorithm essentially penalizes and diminishes any post that is promotional in nature, UNLESS you’re willing to pay for one of their advertising options. LAME, right?!
BUT the great news is these are still fairly reasonable on price. One of the more cost-effective options is to boost a post. This option is an especially good one if you’ve already had a post that performed well organically. Below I’ve listed five tips you can use to help you get the MOST out of your boosted post.
1. Make sure you’re clear on your goals
The first thing you have to do before boosting a post is set your desired outcome. There are many possible reasons to boost a post, such as:
- Promoting new content or blog posts
- Promoting an event, sale, discount, etc.
- Increasing brand awareness
- Increasing engagement (Shares, Comments, Likes)
- Boosting website traffic
It’s easy to spend money fast boosting a post, so get crystal clear on your goal before you start boosting so you don’t end up wasting dollars.
2. Understand when NOT to boost
Facebook gives you several different options for advertising. While it is super easy to boost a post and move on, you should first familiarize yourself with everything Facebook has to offer. Boosting a post may not be the best option for your goals.
For example, if you are simply trying to get more page likes, Facebook has a “Promote your Page” ad. This type of ad will get you much more traction toward acquiring likes than a boosted post would. There are also ad types that are geared toward getting website clicks or app downloads. It’s critical that you are clear on your goals before deciding to boost your post.
3. With your goals in mind, target the proper audience
Simply boosting a post and effectively boosting a post are two different things. To be more successful with your boosted post, you MUST take care in choosing the audience you want to reach. Based on your goal (desired outcome for the ad), you can target anyone you want on Facebook. You’ll notice Facebook offers several options:
- Warm Audience – If you’re looking for an audience that is already familiar with you, then you can choose to boost to people who have already liked your page, those who have previously interacted with your posts (liked, commented, etc), or people who have clicked through to your website. It is critical that you have the Facebook pixel properly installed on your website if you want to be able to retarget people who have previously visited your site.
- Lookalike Audience – You can choose an audience you’ve had particular success with in the past, and have Facebook create a lookalike audience populated with people of similar demographics and interests.
- New Audience – This is a great choice if your objective is to reach new potential clients/customers who don’t yet know anything about you.
- In all the above cases, you can refine your audience choices by age, gender, location, and interests.
4. Find the best time
Just like for your regular posts, it makes sense to post when your audience is most active. This is easy to determine for people who already like and/or interact with your page. If you’re going to boost your post to a warm audience, check the Insights on your page to see what day and time your normal audience is most active, and boost accordingly.
If you’re looking to reach new audiences, you can boost at Facebook’s normal “busy” times, which generally will be Wednesday or Thursday around 4:00 p.m.
5. Choose the right post
The image will be the first piece your audience will see. It needs to be both eye catching and engaging, something that will grab the attention of people who are scrolling. Make sure your post has a high-quality image or video.
Use your page Insights to determine which of your posts has performed well and has high rates of engagement (likes, comments, etc). Your most popular posts will be the best candidates for boosting.
Now, GO BOOST, BABY!
With Facebook’s organic reach dwindling, boosting a post is a simple, fantastic way to improve visibility and reach to targeted audiences. However, if you really want to be effective with it and get great results, you need to give it a bit of thought ahead of time. Identify your goals and audience, and make sure the post caters directly to them, and this will help you avoid irrelevant clicks and get the most out of your boosted post.
Now, if you’re asking yourself “BUT HOW!?”
How can I show up as MYSELF, and confidently attack my business plan!? You need to get yourself my 7 Key Ingredients checklist by clicking the image above, or following this link!