Facebook Boosting 101

Boosting a post is easy. The trouble is boosting effectively. In an age where Facebook organic reach is declining, boosting posts can mean the difference between almost no reach and more reach than you can imagine. This ‘Pay to Play’ strategy will not only improve the chances of people who have liked your Facebook Page seeing your posts, it will allow their friends with similar interests to see your content as well. Additionally, boosting posts will lead to a natural increase of your organic reach and better opportunities for engagement.

What to Boost

The ideal Facebook posts to boost will encourage engagement and drive people to your website. These are the posts that perform well organically, which you can find out through your Facebook Insights. Choose the posts that are performing better than the other posts in your feed, or if you’re doing a campaign, boost a post related to that campaign. Investing in social is more of an art than a science. You need to flex your tactics and methodology to your business objectives.

How to Boost

Limit your paid boost to relevant geographies that will reach your target audience. You also want to consider psychographic targeting: interests, behaviors, etc. that are relevant to your post message and desired outcome. Facebook weighs each interest you enter the same, so if there’s one interest you really want to focus on, only select that interest. The scale of your audience is another important consideration. Try to avoid audiences that are too broad or specific. If your audience is too specific, you might end up underutilizing your allocated budget.

When to Boost

Leverage Facebook Insights to determine the best time and day of the week to reach people. Keep in mind that there is a lag time between when you submit your boosted post for review and its approval. Based on my experience, the lag time is typically between 15 minutes and two hours.

Always be strategic with your boosts. Allocate a pool of money for a month and spend it where it makes sense. You want to spend the most on posts that have the best organic reach. After you have boosted your post, keep an eye on overall frequency. We try to keep the frequency around two to avoid overwhelming our audience.

If you’re still having trouble knowing when to boost, consider this: A B2B business will have the best luck boosting during work hours, while a B2C business is better off boosting during the weekend or evening.

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