With more than 1.62 billion daily active users and more than seven million advertisers, Facebook is the place to be for small business owners.
And, there are a few different ways to advertise your business on Facebook, but the easiest way is to “boost” a post.
You’ve probably been tempted to click on “Boost Post” while creating Facebook updates for your business. But, before you boost another post, let’s talk about the myths surrounding Facebook boosting.
1. You should boost every Facebook post to get more brand exposure.
Even if you do attempt to boost every single post, the ad will have to make it past Facebook's review process, so make sure to read Facebook’s advertising policies first.
And if all your posts somehow make it past Facebook’s ad review process, boosting that status update isn’t always a good idea. There are some things you should consider before you boost a Facebook post:
- Does the post have a purpose?
- Does the post have a clear call-to-action?
- Does the post link to a solid landing page?
- Is the post designed to generate sales?
If you’re not answering yes to at least one of these questions, you might want to reconsider boosting the post.
If you are sure that boosted post is going to give the viewer a reason to become a customer, then go ahead and boost it. But don’t just boost every post, because that means you’re paying to post updates.
Let’s say you boost a status update that was already doing well. Suddenly, you’re getting even more “likes,” but if the post isn’t created to drive traffic to your website, it’s likely that you’re paying for impressions from Facebook users you’ll never hear from again.
Facebook engagement is a great goal for any social media marketing strategy, but if you’re paying for ads, you want more than just “likes.”
2. You should boost Facebook posts with links to content (to get more clicks).
So you just created a blog post or video, and you’re really proud of it. You probably shared it on Facebook. And now that “Boost Post” button is tempting you, because you want to get more traffic to your blog. But, let’s think about it for a second.
Before you boost a content-related post, decide what it’s going to do for your business. Will traffic to that content turn followers into customers? If the content is designed as an advertisement, with a clear call-to-action at the end, boost away.
But if you're boosting Facebook posts for more likes or blog traffic, make sure you are boosting only your best, most valuable content.
And according to Social Media Examiner, if you’re looking to drive engagement, promoted posts are better than boosted posts for engaging your followers.
3. Boosting Facebook posts is the best financial decision for small businesses that want to try social media advertising.
It’s so easy to boost a post, and the options make it look pretty low-cost, right?
Well, maybe not. I asked our paid advertising team about this, and they all said the same thing: It might be less work to boost a post than to create a new ad, but it isn’t more cost-effective than any other type of Facebook advertising.
In fact, you’re paying for reach with boosted posts. That means that you pay for people to just see what you’ve posted. While it might seem like a good thing, you might end up paying for people to glance at (and then scroll past) your boosted post.
And Facebook's default options for boosted posts make it easy for you to blow your budget. With boosted posts, you will usually spend your entire daily budget even if the post doesn't have as much reach as Facebook originally predicted.
The default options are also designed to target your followers and friends of followers. But it's likely that friends of followers are not part of your target audience, so that means more pointless views.
This doesn't mean that you should never boost a Facebook post, but you should at least know that there are other advertising options.
You could also use Facebook's Ads Manager to create an ad campaign.
Ad campaigns can cost as little as one dollar per day (as long as your cost per click is 50 cents or less). And, you can use manual bidding to get the most out of your budget, pay less and get better results.
You can also set the ad to charge for clicks rather than views.
Ads Manager makes it easier to target specific Facebook users as well. You can target custom audiences, including specific demographics (so your ads reach users who fit your buyer profiles) and user behaviors.
These options are available for boosted posts as well, but they are harder to find. If you want to boost a post, you’ll need to dig deeper into the settings (and stay away from those default options!) to target custom audiences.
Final Thoughts
So while it's fine to boost posts every once in a while, it might not always be the best option for advertising your small business on Facebook.
If you'd like to learn more about paid advertising for your business, check out some of our other blogs: