Stop Wasting Your Money on Boosted Facebook Posts: Do This Instead
For the last 10+ years, Facebook has dominated the social media landscape. Nearly everyone you meet uses or has used Facebook. The platform has set the stage for social media advertising with various options that include both boosted Facebook posts and paid advertising campaigns.
Many brands of all sizes have found success and converted followers into customers using Facebook. The friendly and straightforward advertising interface makes it accessible to even the most inexperienced marketers.
A wide variety of people from around the world use Facebook as their main form of social media. The possible target audience of the platform ranges from Baby Boomers to Gen Z, making it easy to find the right people for your product or service.
Boosted Facebook posts are the easiest marketing feature of the platform. They are easily accessible to any business page and can be activated directly from the posts. Facebook pushes business pages to use boosted Facebook posts through notifications and projections of impressions and reach to entice users to buy them.
Unfortunately, boosted Facebook posts are not the most effective way to use Facebook paid advertising tactics. If you are boosting your posts on Facebook, you are more than likely throwing money down the drain.
Why Are Boosted Facebook Posts a Waste of Money?
Changes in the Facebook algorithm have made it more difficult to gain organic reach on the platform, so it makes sense to want to use Facebook’s paid advertising features to reach a larger audience. It is estimated that between 2 to 3% of your followers see your organic Facebook posts these days and that is not a lot!
The problem is boosted Facebook posts mainly provide vanity likes instead of real targeted reach. Though boosted posts can be a good way to increase some engagement, if your overall goal is to reach your target audience in the most effective, controllable way boosting posts will leave you disappointed.
Most business owners I met with who use boosted Facebook posts are simply unaware of this distinction in campaign goals. They buy the boosted Facebook posts, they see their vanity metrics increase, and then they wonder why they didn’t make any sales. Most of the time these business owners write Facebook advertising off as something that doesn’t work.
So, what should you do instead? Implement a Facebook Ad campaign.
Facebook Advertising Campiagns
You might be wondering what the difference between boosted posts and a Facebook ad campaign might be. Both cost money, both are a form of Facebook paid advertising, and both increase viewership but one provides far more features than the other.
The main difference is the targeting and reach. While boosted posts might reach your general targeting group, Facebook ad campaigns will reach a far more specific group of people maximizing the effectiveness of your ads and allowing you to reach outside of your typical organic Facebook audience.
Facebook ad campaigns allow you to use the vast amount of behavioral and demographic information that Facebook collects from its users: age, location, language, buying behavior, device, gender, likes, and more become options to use in targeting.
You can create custom audiences and develop ads that speak directly to that market. With the help of the Facebook Pixel, you can also target customers who visited your company’s website and create lookalike audiences that match this group. Retargeting Facebook campaigns are very successful if converting your followers to customers.
Choose Your Advertising Objectives with Facebook Ad Campaigns
Another benefit of Facebook ads is that you can choose objectives. Depending on your business goals you can choose between an awareness or engagement ad. These ads take advantage of Facebook features that show your ad to users who would be more inclined to take the action you are looking for.
They even include their own event tracking. The tracking feature allows you to see how much traffic is being directed to your website and converting from Facebook ads. This more specific reporting means that you can truly identify the exact ROI of your ad spend. Now can your boosted Facebook post do that?
Beyond that, Facebook ad campaigns allow you to adjust your campaigns and use dynamic creative that is eye-catching and effective. Using this feature will allow you to deliver ads that are personalized and combine multiple mediums like video, text, and photos.
Lastly, the ability to control frequency and bid type puts you in more control of your ad spend and budget. With these controls built-in you can stay on budget and in control of your Facebook advertising campaigns.
Facebook Ad Manager
So, why haven’t you seen this feature on your business page options?
Because it is accessed through another application called Facebook Ad Manager, not your Facebook business page. Despite not being the most straightforward tool to find, it is quite easy to set up and launch your campaigns through this tool.
Here’s how you do it:
- Go to Facebook Ads Manager and login.
- Click “Create” to start building your new campaign.
- Choose the objective of your campaign. This adjusts the way the ads define success with both billing and reporting.
- Target your ads by defining audience perameters. The more you know about your target audience, the easier this step will be. Ads that are more targeted often provide much more ‘bang for your buck.’
- Choose to launch the campaign with a preexisting post or upload and build your ads here.
- Launch your campaign or schedule it to launch during high-traffic hours.
- Repeat as needed.
All in all, Facebook Ad Campaigns provide a far better experience for businesses who want to expand their marketing efforts into the social media space and capitalize on the extensive behavior targeting provided by the platform. Though it’s a more time-consuming process, the return on ad spend is much higher and more profound.
Producing targeted ads and being able to get in-depth insights and reporting on the effectiveness of each campaign means that you can learn and adapt your campaigns to maximize traffic and conversions.
Boosted posts are too general and short-lived, therefore they’re a waste of money in comparison to running Facebook ad campaigns. Facebook ad campaigns typically generate better results and provide more control which, in return, allows you to feel confident that your efforts are paying off.
How Do I Get Started With Facebook Advertising?
If you are unsure where to start when it comes to advertising for your business, I can help. I offer solutions to digital marketing problems and can help you identify possible issues, strategize new tactics, and implement effective marketing plans to help you achieve your business’s goals.
Each business is different which is why I offer a full spectrum of digital marketing services. If you’d like help implementing Facebook advertising campaigns or identifying your ideal target audience, reach out to me and I’d be happy to help.
Facebook ads will take your engagement and views to the next level. Whether you’ve boosted posts in the past or are just starting on your social media marketing journey, I encourage you to start a full-fledged ad campaign and use the metrics provided to ensure that your money goes as far as possible.
Looking for more information about social media advertising, digital marketing, and online strategy? Check out my blog for these topics and more!
If you’d like to schedule a free consultation with me where we can talk about your current advertising tactics and future marketing goals, click here!
