Small businesses often turn to boosting posts on Facebook because they believe that boosting is cheaper and just as effective as traditional paid advertising campaigns.

However, boosting Facebook posts is not a one size fits all solution for paid advertising needs. In this blog, we’re exploring myths surrounding boosted post best practices so that you can make informed and strategic digital marketing decisions.

Myth #1: You should boost every Facebook post to get more brand exposure.

Here are some things to consider before boosting a Facebook post:

• Does the post have a clear purpose?
• Does the post have a compelling call to action?
• Does the post link to a landing page where the user can convert?
• Is the post designed to generate conversions?

If you’re not answering yes to at least one of these questions, you might want to reconsider boosting the post.

It’s important that the post gives the viewer a reason to become a customer or engage in meaningful ways with your business. Boosting posts without these key elements can result in wasted budget and vanity KPIs that can skew and mislead your marketing data and decisions.

It’s tempting to boost a post or status update that seems to be performing well to capitalize on the momentum. The post might get more likes and impressions, but if the post isn’t driving traffic to your website or landing page where users can make a purchase and convert, you’re likely paying for vanity KPIs that don’t mean much for your business’s growth or social media engagement rate.

Increasing your Facebook engagement is a great goal for any social media marketing strategy, but if you’re paying for ads, you want more ROI than likes.

Myth #2: You should boost Facebook posts with links to content to get more clicks.

Before you boost a content-related post, decide what you want the increased exposure to do for your business. Will that traffic turn followers into customers? If you're boosting Facebook posts for more traffic to your website’s content, ensure the content is designed to increase conversions and drive sales. Again, boosting costs your valuable marketing budget and you should expect a higher ROI on every investment.

Written or video content can be an excellent advertisement for your business. In this case, explore promoted posts, which can be cheaper or even free.

Myth #3: Boosting Facebook posts is the best financial decision for small businesses that want to invest in social media advertising.

You’re paying for reach with boosted posts. While brand exposure can be strategic, reach does not necessarily mean conversions. This is why the posts and content you boost are best formatted and created like paid ads with a clear call-to-action to increase the chance of conversion.

The default boosting settings are designed to target your followers and friends of followers and not necessarily your business’s target audience. Because a boost doesn’t offer as detailed demographic parameters for targeting, this puts more pressure on the actual content of the post to drive traffic and performance.

Final Thoughts

Boosting Facebook posts can be strategic in certain circumstances, but you should know that more effective advertising options are available.

Facebook Ad campaigns can cost as little as one dollar per day and you can use manual bidding to get the most out of your budget. You can also set the ad to charge for clicks rather than views. This means you pay less and get better results.

In addition to greater budget control, a Facebook ad campaign offers more detailed targeting to further increase the chance of conversions within a valuable audience. You can target custom audiences with specific demographics so your ads reach users who fit your buyer profiles and ideal user behaviors.

Some of these options are also available for boosted posts, but they are harder to find and navigate. If you want to boost a post, you’ll need to dig deeper into the settings to target custom audiences which takes advanced advertiser know-how.

So, while boosting posts every once in a while is fine, it might not be the best first option for advertising your small business on Facebook.

If you'd like to learn more about paid advertising for your business, check out RevLocal’s services or contact us today to learn more about how we can help!