The 2 Ways To Boost A Facebook Post
Last week I attended a Facebook marketing webinar presented by Mari Smith. Mari is a super popular speaker on the social media circuit and a huge advocate of Facebook marketing for small businesses. In fact, this year Facebook hired Mari to be their representative on a multi-city roadshow called Facebook Boost Your Business.
If there’s anyone who has a pulse on what is working in Facebook marketing, it is Mari. Interestingly, during the webinar she was very candid about how confusing Facebook has become for businesses. And she didn’t shy away from the fact that it’s necessary to use Facebook ads and boosts to get results.
I took a ton of notes and I have a lot to share, but I’m going to start with boosting your posts. There are two ways to boost a Facebook post, by using the boost button or by going through the ads manager. Many marketers advise you to always use the ads manager and to never use the boost button. Here’s what Facebook says:
The 2 Ways To Boost A Facebook Post:
1. The Boost Button: Use the boost button when you’re new to Facebook advertising or when you’re on-the-fly and must use your mobile device.
How To Target With The Boost Button: Choose “People who like your Page and their friends‘ (your post will indicate that a friend likes your Page, and that’s good for social proof).
2. The Ads Manager: Use the ads manager to boost a post when you have a little more experience and/or when you’re at a computer.
How To Target Your Boosted Post in the Ads Manager: The ads manger is where you can create a highly targeted audience for your post. Carve out who you want it to be delivered to among your fans. Add their friends if it makes sense. Test going outside your fan base, too. The brilliance of Facebook advertising is that you can target by age, by interests, and even target the fans of your competitor’s business page! You can target by online behaviors, by geography, people who match the characteristics of your current fans, and much more.
In terms of frequency, Facebook recommends that you boost a post at least once a week and only boost posts that link to your own website or to a landing page that you own. I agree with this.
The best advice I can give you is to test, analyze, rinse and repeat. I’d love to hear about your experiences with boosting Facebook posts…thumbs up or thumbs down?
Hi Betsy – Thanks for this post on Facebook. I’ve just started to use FB a bit more and I have a company page (with a whopping 38 likes and not much interaction). Currently, I am sharing mostly other people’s posts on my FB page. When I go to boost a post, even one of my own, I get this strange warning:
“The content you requested cannot be displayed right now. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page.”
Any thoughts on this? Is this typical of how FB works? Anyway, I look forward to your future FB posts.
Patricia Haag
Hi Patricia,
I couple of questions:
1. are you boosting from your business page while logged in as yourself or as your business?
2. are you clicking the boost button or going through the ads manager?
3. how long has this been happening?
Betsy
Great insight Betsy. Using Ad Manager with the audience insight and pixel functions changes EVERYTHING with marketing on facebook. Thank you!
Thanks so much for reading, Roz. Yep…Facebook is a great tool when you use it right!
Betsy