Why This Simple Tactic Could Be Your Key to Conquering Facebook on a Shoestring Budget
Having trouble breaking through all the noise on Facebook? We all are — but Facebook boosted posts could be the remedy.
During my interactions with entrepreneurs, I’m always surprised by how many do not know about or use Facebook boosted posts within their Facebook marketing strategy. While almost everyone who has ever logged on the internet knows about Facebook Ads, far fewer are taking full advantage of one of the biggest assets the platform has to offer by boosting posts.
Defined, a boosted post is an advertising option available on Facebook that allows you take standard, organic posts you’ve published and show them to a wider, more targeted audience.
Here’s why you should implement Facebook boosted posts into your marketing strategy, plus how to get started and have maximum impact.
Why Boosted Posts?
1. Social Proofing
The biggest advantage to Facebook boosted posts is your ability to leverage the power of social proofing. With standard Facebook ads, knowing whether or not anyone will engage with your ad is unknown when you’re first starting out. With boosted posts, entrepreneurs have the luxury of first publishing the piece of content to their page as a regular post, letting their audience engage with it, and then “pouring gas” on the post for maximum social proofing by putting money behind it. By already having likes, comments and shares on your organic post, others who see it after it’s boosted will be much more likely to engage with the content.
2. The Cost
Boosted posts are especially useful for entrepreneurs who might be starting out their social media advertising on a shoestring budget. While standard Facebook ads have a minimum daily budget of $5, you can boost posts on Facebook for as little as $1.
Now, I’ll be the first to say that if $5 is too much for you to spend then you’re probably better off getting a side hustle or day job than you are putting the money into marketing. That being said, the significance of the cost here is for business owners who are just getting their feet wet when it comes to Facebook marketing. By toying around with a couple bucks per day with boosted posts, you’ll soon realize the undeniable value and best practices for Facebook advertising and feel more comfortable budgeting money for the platform as a key piece of your marketing.
3. Inviting Engaged Users to Like Your Page
Another benefit of boosted posts is the ability for you to invite anyone who likes your post to take the interaction a step further by liking your Facebook page. This will take them further down your marketing funnel, help the perception of your page through even more social proofing (from a higher number of page likes) and ensure you’re getting genuinely interested individuals to follow your content.
The Cons
This article isn’t meant to completely discount Facebook ads or suggest boosted posts should act as a substitute. There do exist a number of limitations with boosted posts on Facebook.
- Targeting capabilities are less refined: The ability to zero in on a hyper-specific audience on boosted posts is limited when compared to standard Facebook advertising.
- Limited number of call-to-actions: Within regular Facebook advertising, you’re able to choose from a wide variety of call-to-actions (email sign-ups, app installs, etc.). This makes traditional ads on Facebook extremely well-suited for converting your leads, while boosted posts are a terrific way to make strangers into leads.
How to Get Started
1. Make an ad targeting list
When you’re first starting out with boosted posts and Facebook ads, it’s important to do your research so you know you’re targeting the optimal audience for your brand. Take some time to study which Facebook pages your core audience is interested in or would be interested in. For instance, if you’re a toy company for pets, popular pages like “Dogspotting” would be an example of pages to put on your list.
Compile a sizable list of pages and interests. Take the time to really get into the mind of your customers. What would they be consuming on Facebook during the day?
2. Pouring Gas on Top Performing Posts
A common mistake people make when boosting posts is thinking of the strategy as a way to make poor performing posts into posts that perform well. This is the exact opposite of the approach you should have towards boosted posts.
Instead, use your organic posts as a test of sorts, where you scope out whether or not your audience likes the content. If more people are engaging with your post than normal, chances are high other people outside your page will as well. This is when you should pour gas on your top performing post to enable them to reach a much larger audience.
Whether you’re a small business owner, startup founder or someone who is just getting started with Facebook marketing, boosted posts have a few distinct advantages over traditional advertising on the platform. If you play your cards right, they could be a critical component to your brand’s social media success.
This article was originally published on Inc. Magazine’s Inc.com.
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 353,974+ people.
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