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While you’re spending time growing your network on Facebook, there’s another avenue you can use to reach a larger audience: boosting your posts. Quite simply, this is a form of advertising that costs money, but it’s a quick (and more passive) way to reach more people in a short time.
Isn’t it enough to post daily on Facebook?
This answer depends on your ultimate goal for your business. Posting and interacting daily will definitely increase your list of followers, but try adding an enhanced post and examine the results. You may see better results.
A friend recently boosted a post for a total of $30 and generated $202 in sales. It was a “set it and forget it” process, and she set a monetary limit so she wouldn’t break the bank. But she was very pleased with that result; so much so that she re-promotes the same post.
Why should you boost a post?
You’ve no doubt noticed a lot of changes in Facebook’s algorithms lately, and you’ve probably heard people complain about those changes. As a result, the organic reach of the business page (as opposed to paid ads) has drastically decreased. And you can’t rely on Facebook’s algorithms to get your posts seen, even if people have liked your page. So instead of taking a passive “I hope you see my posts” attitude, you can be proactive and increase a post to circumvent its questionable organic reach.
Boosted posts also allow you to more precisely target your viewers, so you’re in full control of demographics (again, a highly proactive approach). You can set a specific geographic area as your target and/or a specific age range. But the best part is that you can target people’s interests and that’s where you can reach your specific audience. If you’ve thought carefully about the demographics of your target market, this step should be easy to complete.
Speaking of control: you are in control of how much you spend on this boosted post, as well as the duration of the campaign. Theoretically, you could run a campaign for $1 per day (the daily minimum allowed). But the more you spend each day, the larger audience you will reach.
How to create a boosted post
Most importantly, you can only promote a post from a business page, so if you don’t already have one set up, do so first. Then follow these steps:
Step 1 – Choose which post to promote
This can be an existing post or you can write a new post. If you’ve been active on your Page, you’ll even see recommendations on which posts to boost. The choice is yours, just think about the purpose of your boosted post, then choose the most appropriate post for your goal.
Step 2: Choose your target audience
If you want to increase your name recognition, select your own demographics, geographic area (if applicable), age range, and interests. You can even create multiple audiences with different demographics by clicking the “Create new audience” link.
Step 3: Choose your budget and campaign duration
How much can you afford to spend each day? How many days do you want the boost to work? You’ll see Facebook’s “estimated reach” increase as your budget amount increases. But remember, this is still an estimate, so make your decision based on what you can actually afford, rather than how many people might pay attention to your boosted post.
Step 4 – Set up your payment, hit the Boost button, then analyze the results
Seeing the results of your boost is exciting, because Facebook offers detailed logs for each boosted post. You’ll see your actual reach and how many clicks your post received. From there, you can determine if you received any sales directly from this post or if you got an increase in friend requests during this time period. Also check the comments – the more the better.
Fortunately, Facebook has made promoting a post simple, so as you’ll see, it’s easy to understand. And after setting up all the details, you can go about your day while your boosted post works its magic to get your message out to a larger audience.
