As the owner of a digital marketing agency, I hear a lot of business owners complain that they don’t “get an ROI from Facebook ads.” Facebook ads are too timely, too costly, too confusing and don’t lead to any results is what I hear often.
My first question is always, “Well, what kind of campaign did you try?” And 90% of the time, the response is “Boosted Posts.”
Facebook’s definition of a boosted post is the following:
Notice, how I highlighted the phrase “react, share and comment on it.” The primary objective of a boosted post is to generate more engagement on your post.
However, many business owners don’t realize this and think it is there for generating leads or new business opportunities. And the reason they think that is because Facebook doesn’t really make it clear that is the boosted post’s purpose.
How Facebook Promotes its Boosted Posts
Facebook will often entice you with a boosted post on your business page by saying something like “You will reach an additional 500-1,000” people if you boost this post. This sounds great on paper, but is that really going to achieve your desired goal?
Facebook dresses it up as a big win for an inexpensive price, but a boosted post is not all that it is jazzed up to be when used in a standalone fashion.
Sure, you will reach more people in your target audience and you will get some likes, comments, and shares, but you likely were spending money on the boost for more than just vanity metrics.
I don’t want to make it seem like boosted posts are useless because they have their value. But, they should be utilized as part of a greater Facebook advertising campaign for general brand awareness and then ultimately in a re-targeting campaign.
However, most business owners don’t know how to put together a high level Facebook advertising campaign and resort to boosted posts because it’s extremely easy.
Why You Should Avoid Boosted Posts
I always tell business owners that Boosted Posts are Facebook’s least sophisticated form of advertising. If you do a boosted post on a random post on your page, you likely are just going to reach more people, maybe get some website clicks and then generate some engagement.
If that is what you are trying to achieve, then that is a great way to do that for an inexpensive price (you can average a cost per engagement of under $0.10 if you have a good creative and correct target market.)
In my opinion, you shouldn’t spend money on boosting posts without a greater Facebook advertising strategy in place. Ultimately, a Facebook boosted post as a standalone campaign isn’t very valuable and is not going to generate the results you are seeking.
Also, a boosted post directly from your page lacks some of the better and more sophisticated parts of advertising that Facebook offers when you create a campaign from your ads manager account.
How You Should Approach Boosted Posts
If you are going to do a boosted post, make sure you that you start it from ads manager, and not from your business page.
On the ads manager platform, it is called an “Engagement” campaign and will give you all the tools and options that Facebook offers for paid campaigns.
And if you still decide to boost a post from your page, you should make sure to create custom audiences so all the people who have engaged with your post can be re-targeted in a later campaign.
Also make sure that your boosted post has a strong graphic, clear and concise copy and a compelling Call to Action.
Conclusion
A boosted post can have value in generating more eyeballs and engagement for your business, but ultimately it likely won’t get you a lead or phone call.
If you are looking to create a more sophisticated Facebook advertising campaign or want to learn more about Facebook, visit my website to sign up for a FREE Consultation.
