It is becoming increasingly difficult to organically reach your audiences on Facebook. Over the years, Facebook has changed its algorithm to prevent your business page from showing up in your audience's news feed. One of the best ways to guarantee impressions among your page's audience and beyond is through paid social boosts.Boosted posts are a great way to spend your ad dollars. With a relatively small budget, you can get your message in front of more people and earn new Facebook followers. Not sure how to get started? Let's walk through the basics.
Which posts should you boost?
Boost original content that is solely yours-this could be anything from photos and videos or blog posts that show off your business. These posts should have great visuals and a limited amount of text overlaid on photos.Watch your Facebook notifications carefully; they will alert you when content on your page is performing well. And, if that content is visually interesting and unique to your organization, you might want to put some money behind it. Even small boosts of $5 or $10 are enough to get your high performing posts in front of more people.
How do you boost a post?
Who should I target with a boosted post?
When boosting a post, Facebook will ask you to identify the target audience and there are several different strategies you can use. Each time you boost a post, you can test different audience criteria to determine which audiences garner the best results for you.
Age group: If you are trying to attract a certain demographic, you can target a specific age group for your boosted post. For example, if you are a B2B company trying to reach decision makers, you might want to target your audience to the approximate ages of 35-65.
Location: Another criteria for narrowing down the millions of Facebook users is location. If you are a small business located in one city or state, you will want to focus on that area alone-there is no point in advertising your store to someone overseas! If your business is located in a major market, you can further reduce the target by postal code or address.
Connected to your page: If you are uncomfortable targeting by age or location, you can start with the standard Facebook feature of "people who like your page" or "people who like your page and their friends." This ensures that your fans and their friends see your boosted post.
How do I know if my boost was successful?
Facebook has excellent analytics to review your boosted posts and see how well they performed. You will want to have a SMART goal before you even start the paid social process. Do you want 500 visits to your website from social this month? Would you rather have an average of 50 likes on your posts this week? Or maybe you want 25 new people to like your Facebook page during a three-week campaign?Measure how your results stacked up against your goal, then take what you learned and apply it to the next Facebook promotion you run. If you aren't seeing success, you can always retarget, extend the promotion or increase the dollar amount until you get the results you want.Want to know more about using social media for your business? Explore our blog posts for social media training and tips.