Boosting posts on your Facebook Page?

If so, there are things you need to pay attention to, to make sure you’re not overpaying, that your call-to-action works and that you’re reaching the right audience in the Facebook news feed.

Boosting Posts To-Do List

1. Check Your Post Carefully Before Boosting!

Before you begin the boosting process, or at least before you click the final ‘Boost post now’ button, check your post VERY carefully. Because, once you click the button you will not be able to make any changes to the written content in the post, the link or the graphic/photo you have used for the post. Your only option if you spot an error in the post that must be changed is to delete the post and start over.

So, save yourself time and aggravation by double-checking every aspect of the post before beginning the boosting process.

2. Choosing Your Goal

Don’t assume that the Goal Facebook chooses for you, which will always be ‘Automatic’, is the one for you. Play around with the options until you find the one or ones that work best for you. Initially, testing their ‘Automatic’ option may make sense if you’re brand new to boosting. But, remember their goals and your goals are different. Their goal is to make money for Facebook. Yours is to build your brand and your bottom line. Keep this in mind when deciding what ‘Goal’ to select.

3. Using Your Creative Or Letting Facebook Choose One

I don’t use this option, but it may be worth looking into for your business. Here’s an informative article by Jon Loomer on this option that is worth reading, if this is an option you are considering using: www.jonloomer.com/advantage-plus-creative-facebook-ads.

4. Choose the Button (or not) That Will Appear On Your Boosted Post

Choosing your button is important as it is essentially the ‘Call to Action’ for your post.

Once you choose a button and have confirmed the boost of your post, the button you have chosen will appear on the original post on your Page and elsewhere.. It can’t be removed or changed after your post has been boosted.

The button option Facebook shows as the default is the ‘Call Now’ button. This is a great option … as long as you are readily available for a call or have a great voicemail message that encourages people to leave a message and tells them how soon to expect a call back.

The other button options available are:

• No button
• Book now
• Learn more
• Shop now
• Sign up
• Send WhatsApp message

Each of the buttons will link through to either your website or the link you are sharing. Most of these options allow you to edit the website page the button will lead to.

5. Does Your Boosted Post Fall Under The ‘Special Ad Category’

Facebook says, “Some audience selection options are unavailable or limited for ads offering credit, employment, housing or social issues, elections and politics.”

Only select this choice if you absolutely must as it limits your choices as to who you can choose your ad to be shown to, including male or female, ages, etc.

If Facebook tells you your ad (boosted post) is declined because it falls in the ‘Special Ad Category’, don’t assume they are correct. Often, they are not. Unfortunately, in these situations you may need to request a review of their decision, and even a second review if the decision comes back declined again. Before going through the process, double check your post to make sure it doesn’t belong in the ‘Special Ad Category’. This link will take you to some additional information on this topic from Facebook.

6. Choose Your Audience

Assuming your ad does not fall under the ‘Special Ad Category’, and the vast majority of small business ads should not fall under it, here is where you will tell Facebook the audience you would like to target. This article from Hootsuite provides 9 targeting tips that will help you in this area.

7. Duration (& Budget)

One of the most important areas for you to check when boosting posts is the BUDGET. And, check to make the duration or length of time you are wanting the boosted post/ad to run is correct

When it comes to the budget, Facebook will AUTO-POPULATE the budget field with the amount they think you should spend. And, the budget may be significantly more than you are wanting to spend. If you don’t check the amount and edit it to what you want to spend, rather than what Facebook is suggesting, you can end up blowing your budget quite significantly.

Check this field EVERY time you boost a post!

8. Placements

Here again, Facebook will almost always auto-populate the choices on where your boosted post/ad will show. For sure they will have ticked Facebook and Instagram, and often Messenger as well.

If these are always the places you want your ads to show your good to go. But, in some cases you may only want them to show on Facebook. Or, on Facebook and Instagram, or on all.

Simply, be sure to check the drop menu in this area to ensure your boosted posts/ads are showing only where you want them to show.

I often tell clients that I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. It is not my favourite platform for a number of reasons.

For one, their tendency to pick and choose overall what people should see and what they shouldn’t see. What they deem misinformation and what is actually misinformation are two different things. Facebook has become a political animal that is swaying the views of people, not because of those who produce content on Facebook but because of Facebook deciding what people should believe or not.

OK. That’s my brief rant on the negatives of Facebook… or the ‘hate’ part of my love-hate relationship with Facebook.

That said, Facebook offers huge opportunities to small business owners/entrepreneurs, especially those who have small advertising budgets.

This is where platforms like Facebook and Instagram are worth the love. That is, as long as you’re willing to spend money on these platforms, to share your brand’s message to potential customers. That said, spending money on what you want to say is not enough. You have to make sure you are spending money on content people actually want to see/read. This is critical.