I remember the first time I tried social media boosting. It was back when I was testing the social media marketing waters by building a presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to help grow my blog.<\/p>\n\n
As a noob marketer \u2014 and still to this day, honestly \u2014 I\u2019d test out new concepts on my platforms first before introducing them into any client strategies.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n When I boosted my first Facebook post, I could immediately see the potential. For a start, I loved that because I\u2019d linked my Facebook and Instagram accounts, I could easily run the same ad across platforms.<\/p>\n Another bonus? I could target audiences incredibly specific to my blog content and topics. But that was just the start, really. Below, I\u2019ll share the ins and outs of boosting posts.<\/p>\n Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n Benefits of Boosting Posts<\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n With over 5 billion social media users today<\/a>, millions of brands have promoted their content on these platforms for years. However, the popularity of social media has flooded each platform with hoards of articles, photos, and videos.<\/p>\n As a result, the content supply has skyrocketed while its demand has plateaued. In my experience, this has lowered the number of opportunities brands can use to interact naturally with customers.<\/p>\n Needless to say, social media marketing for business is largely a pay-to-play strategy now. <\/strong>With the competition for online attention being fiercer than ever, boosting social posts is one of the most effective ways to use paid social media advertising. In this section, I cover three reasons why.<\/p>\n According to HubSpot\u2019s 2024 Social Trends Report<\/a>, \u201cSocial media shopping is up almost 40% year over year, and almost half of Gen Zers and Millennials report buying a product directly on social media in the past three months.\u201d<\/p>\n So, we know that folks increasingly turn to social media to purchase products or services. But how can we reach them?<\/p>\n Boosting posts might be the answer if you want to market to these demographics without wasting time or resources. I\u2019ve found that boosting a post with parameters set to reach your target market or people who fit your ideal buyer persona<\/a> saves money.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because you\u2019re not wasting budget advertising to people who won\u2019t derive value from your product or service.<\/p>\n HubSpot\u2019s Social Trends Report data finds that one in four marketers’ main goals for social media in 2024 are to \u201cincrease brand awareness and reach new audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n You can make your brand\u2019s identity<\/a> more well-known and recognizable with repetition coupled with engaging content. By boosting posts on social media platforms that your target audience frequents most, you can increase brand awareness<\/a>.<\/p>\n The results are in\u2026 \u201cUsing data to drive social media marketing strategy\u201d will become more important in 2024 and beyond. In fact, it\u2019s the number two way in which social media pros believe their strategy will change in the coming years. For context, number one is \u201cUsing AI tools in social media marketing strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n For each post you boost, you can look at the metrics each platform will provide you in terms of traffic, engagement, and demographics reached. Use that information to study which posts performed the best and build on those strengths for future marketing campaigns<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n In this section, I\u2019ll show you how to boost social posts rather than using traditional paid advertising<\/a> methods. I\u2019m sharing instructions for Instagram<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, and Twitter.<\/p>\n Before you boost your post, Instagram will ask you whether you want to attract more profile visits, website traffic, or promotion views. Whatever your goal is for the specific post you want to boost, make sure you choose the option that best aligns with it.<\/p>\n\n After choosing your goal, you can pick from three different targeting options: Automatic, Local, and Manual.<\/p>\n Automatic <\/strong>tells Instagram to target people who are just like your followers. <\/p>\n Local <\/strong>lets you target people in a specific location. <\/p>\n Manual <\/strong>lets you target specific people, places, or interests. <\/p>\n After you set your post\u2019s budget and ad duration, Instagram will estimate the expected reach and clicks it will attract.<\/p>\n\n After you set your budget and duration, Instagram will prompt you to review the parameters you\u2019ve set. Once you\u2019re finished, you can boost your business\u2019s Instagram post.<\/p>\n Next, I\u2019ll go over how to boost your post on Facebook.<\/p>\n Log in to your Facebook business page and choose the pre-existing post you wish to promote.<\/p>\n You need to determine the intention or goal of your ad, and Facebook offers several different options to choose from.<\/p>\n\n This is what you want your audience to interact with and provide them with a way to engage with your business.<\/p>\n\n Before you boost your Facebook post, you can either distribute your post to a recommended audience that Facebook will make for you or create a new audience based on a robust set of targeting options and distribute your post to them.<\/p>\n\n Your budget is how much money you\u2019ll spend to boost your post, and your duration is how long you\u2019ll boost your post. Facebook will estimate how many people your post will reach based on your budget and duration.<\/p>\n When you\u2019ve reviewed the ad’s parameters, click \u201cBoost,<\/strong>\u201d and voila! You\u2019ve successfully boosted your Facebook post.<\/p>\n However, if you followed these steps to boost your post and encountered an \u201cError<\/strong>,\u201d there are a few reasons why.<\/p>\n If you cannot boost your Facebook post, the post may go against Facebook\u2019s advertising policies page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here are two of the most common explanations:<\/p>\n Your post includes language alluding to \u201cpersonal attributes\u201d like race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion of specific groups of people. Now that you know how to effectively boost a Facebook post, when should you do it?<\/p>\n Although boosting posts is not an exact science, there are a couple of indicators to follow.<\/p>\n Oftentimes, Facebook will actually notify you to boost your post on your business page. When this happens, it\u2019s in your best interest to do so, as it will push you to reach a more broad audience than you currently have.<\/p>\n Even if you aren\u2019t directly notified, boosting a new post on Facebook will still yield increased engagement. However, I don\u2019t recommend boosting the same post for more than seven consecutive days. Doing so risks boring or exhausting your audience.<\/p>\n Now I\u2019ll share how to boost your business\u2019 Tweets (or X\u2019s?!)<\/p>\n Note:<\/strong> For X, I will walk you through boosting a post for the first time, which involves a little extra admin.<\/p>\n When I looked at X\u2019s Help Centre guidance<\/a>, it said you can \u201cClick or tap the \u2018View post activity icon\u2019\u201d and then \u201cClick or tap \u2018Promote your post.\u2019\u201d I have no idea why, but that didn\u2019t work for me. Instead, I clicked on my profile, clicked \u201cMore\u201d from the lefthand sidebar, and then clicked \u201cAds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n After following the above, I landed on the screen below. I added my country, time zone, and contact information and agreed to the X Advertising Terms. Then, I tapped \u201cCreate your first ad\u201d to continue.<\/p>\n\n Next, I added my campaign details, including the overall objective, name, and payment method.<\/p>\n\n I\u2019m sticking with \u201cSales,\u201d but for context, here are the rest of the \u201cCampaign objective\u201d options.<\/p>\n\n After clicking \u201cNext,\u201d I was greeted by the following audience targeting options. Once I added my preferences, I was given an estimate of the audience reach over 30 days.<\/p>\n\n You can only target your audience based on:<\/strong><\/p>\n Location<\/strong>: Country, state\/province\/region, or metropolitan area <\/p>\n Age<\/strong>: Ages 18 to 54+ years old <\/p>\n Gender<\/strong>: Women, Men <\/p>\n Next, I set my \u201cDaily budget,\u201d picked an \u201caction,\u201d and set a \u201cTarget Cost Per Action (CPA).\u201d X then gave me a \u201cTarget Bid Estimate,\u201d with an approximate number of the leads I\u2019d get from my ad in a week.<\/p>\n\n Here are the other \u201cactions\u201d I had to choose from under the \u201cSales\u201d ad type category.<\/p>\n\n I was then prompted to create my ad. You can create one from scratch, use an existing post\/ad from your profile, or copy an existing ad you\u2019ve already run.<\/p>\n\n For ease, I\u2019m going to use an existing Ad\/post.<\/p>\n\n I selected the first \u201cUntitled ad,\u201d and a warning about overwriting the ad popped up. I clicked \u201cYes, continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n The AI automatically configured my ad based on my previous post, which saved me time.<\/p>\n\n Finally, I clicked \u201cLaunch campaign\u201d to boost my hilarious \u2014 even if I do say so myself \u2014 X post.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n In all honesty, how much a boosted post costs depends on multiple factors like audience size, campaign duration, and the specific social media platform you\u2019re using. That said, you can boost a post on Facebook for as little as $1 per day.<\/p>\n Depending on your specific campaign, these campaigns typically cost anywhere from $1 to $100 daily.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, 54% of businesses using promoted posts on X spend around $0.26 \u2013 $1.50 per action, according to WebFX data<\/a>. (An action is the campaign objective you set as part of your promoted post, so a link click, for example, would be an action.) On X, you only pay for the campaign objectives or actions you choose when setting up your promoted post.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n I consulted three social media marketing pros to learn their top tips for boosting posts in 2024 and beyond.<\/p>\n Daniella Conley<\/a>, Marketing Lead at PersonaTalent<\/a>, reminds us that social media boosting is all about understanding your audience’s daily routines.<\/p>\n \u201cAt Persona Talent, we analyze both when our audience is online and when they’re in the right mindset to take action,\u201d says Conley. Our recruiting content is a perfect example. That content performs best during weekday lunch breaks when professionals are quietly planning their next career move.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Conley, every audience has specific \u201caction windows.\u201d Parents might engage most after the school drop-off, while B2B buyers, for example, often browse solutions first thing Monday morning.<\/p>\n She adds: \u201cMatching our boosts to these behavioral patterns, we’ve seen engagement rates increase by over 40% compared to random timing. The key is to look beyond basic \u2018peak hours\u2019 data and understand when your specific audience is most likely to respond to your call-to-action.\u201d<\/p>\n Greatdorlin Wisdom<\/a>, a Freelance Growth Marketer at greatdorlin.pulse.is<\/a> has been experimenting with boosted social media posts this year. \u201cI started to explore boosted style posts while still running standard campaigns via the meta ad manager, and the findings have been interesting,\u201d says Wisdom.<\/p>\n In Wisdom\u2019s experience, posts that have already done well tend to garner more engagement with boosts than posts with a lower engagement rate. \u201cI have found it a best practice when boosting a post to focus on posts that have previously shown potential. The lesson has been if something works, it’s likely to work even more.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith boosted posts, most of the time, you would have to be able to forecast how to use the \u2018vanity metrics\u2019 to your advantage,\u201d continues Wisdom. He explains this is because \u201cboosted posts are designed more for engagement, rather than the standard campaign set from inside the [meta] ad manager.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, Wisdom recommends tracking performance metrics like engagement, which includes getting followers and receiving comments and messages. You can also use the lead form from Meta to collect leads.<\/p>\n \u201cI have found these to be the two most effective metrics to track on boosted posts.\u201d Although, \u201cI wouldn\u2018t advise redirection to your website or landing page when boosting because you wouldn\u2019t be able to properly attribute for that,\u201d he warns.<\/p>\n If you track engagement as your chosen performance metric, Wisdom also recommends optimizing for comments.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are optimizing for comments (for engagement) from experience, it\u2018s advisable that you actually engage with people in the comments section.\u201d If you spark conversations, some of them might convert, \u201cbut it\u2019s more of a numbers game.\u201d<\/p>\n Hristina Stefanova<\/a>, Head of Marketing Operations at Goose\u2018n\u2019Moose<\/a>, shares her best practices for \u201coptimizing your ad spend.\u201d She recommends boosting only posts without hashtags.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a # is included in the copy of the post, and someone clicks on the hashtag, it’s counted as an interaction\/ad click, and you will be charged for it,\u201d explains Stefanova. \u201cSuch clicks bring no value but still burn your budget.\u201d<\/p>\n So what should you do instead? \u201cIf you have an organic post featuring hashtags, don’t simply boost it. Duplicate it, remove the hashtags, and then sponsor it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n How to Boost a Post on Social Media<\/a>
\n How much does it cost to boost a post?<\/a>
\n Tips for Boosting Posts<\/a> <\/p>\nBenefits of Boosting Posts<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. You\u2019ll reach your target demographic cost-effectively.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. You can increase brand awareness on a platform.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. You can use metrics to study your marketing strategy.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How to Boost a Post on Social Media<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Instagram<\/strong><\/h3>\n
1. Click the \u201cBoost Post\u201d button at the bottom of your post.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n
2. Select a goal.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
3. Choose an audience.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
4. Set your budget and duration.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
5. After review, boost your Instagram post.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Facebook<\/strong><\/h3>\n
1. Pick an existing post on your Facebook business page that you want to boost.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
2. Click \u201cBoost Post\u201d on the bottom right corner of your Facebook post.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n
3. Set a goal.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
4. Choose your call-to-action.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
5. Choose your detailed targeting.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
6. Set your boosted post\u2019s budget and duration.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
7. Review and boost your Facebook post.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Why can\u2019t I boost my Facebook post?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n Your post makes assumptions about the person reading with phrases such as \u201cAre you\u2026\u201d or \u201c… in your area.\u201d <\/p>\nWhen to Boost a Facebook Post<\/strong><\/h4>\n
X (Formerly Twitter)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
1. Head to your profile, click \u201cMore,\u201d and then \u201cAds.\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n
2. Input the required information and agree to the X Advertising Terms.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
3. Input your campaign details.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
4. Customize your audience and targeting.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
5. Set your budget (\u201creturn on investment\u201d).<\/strong><\/h4>\n
6. Review and create your promotion.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
7. Launch your campaign.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
How much does it cost to boost a post?<\/h2>\n
Tips for Boosting Posts<\/h2>\n
Boost posts according to your audience\u2019s daily routines.<\/h3>\n
Build upon what\u2019s already working.<\/h3>\n
Choose your performance metrics wisely.<\/h3>\n
Optimize for and engage with comments.<\/h3>\n
Only boost posts without hashtags.<\/h3>\n