Small business owners tend to be drawn to the option of throwing a bit of money behind boosting Facebook posts, but there are several reasons why this approach is wasting your Facebook Ad budget.
Within the Facebook Ads Manager software system where Digital Advertising technicians build high quality, effective Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns, there are ELEVEN different objectives you can select for your campaign. The Boost Post objective (AKA Reach) is aligned to delivering eyeballs – essentially, selecting this option means you just want as many people as possible to see your post, regardless of how likely they are to take any action after seeing it. This method of advertising was created in the first place by Facebook/Instagram to capture the dollars of Page Owners lacking sophisticated knowledge of how their platform ‘works’, which is why the option is pushed on you so frequently by Facebook itself.
But simply showing your post to as many people as possible – even within the parameters you set to refine your target audience – is the equivalent to using a blunt axe in a world of razor-sharp stiletto knives.
Why You Need to Break the Boosting Habit!
- In many cases, the post you’re boosting has been created on the fly, without a strategy or a clear objective. It’s perfect for organic social, but it’s not an ad.
- Often, it lacks a clear call to action (CTA) for viewers. Even if a link back to your site is included, rarely is it a custom page which matches your ad’s messaging and captures your audience. Your audience SEES the ad, but isn’t sure what you want them to do, so they promptly scroll past.
- It usually also reflects a campaign which can’t be properly analysed later, as the objective (the post being seen) is not a trackable website action. A FB Pixel installed on your website can track ‘adds to cart, ‘uses search function’ for example.
- It can be a sign of of a scattergun, DIY, ‘suck it and see’ approach to Digital Marketing. This is sadly very common for small business owners (no criticism intended) – this stuff is confusing and ever-changing! But with roughly 50c of every $1 spent worldwide on advertising going to online these days, it is concerning how little strategy, consumer insight, research or due diligence is applied to this spend.
Let’s be clear. Boosting Facebook posts CAN work to drive simple brand awareness, but there are more sophisticated ways to achieve this goal. We encourage our clients to slow down, and take a mindful approach to their Facebook and Instagram advertising, starting with…
- Deep dive into the motivations of your target audience, and why you solve a problem they have in life.
- Analyse past organic posts to see what they liked the best.
- Decide what action you want them to take, which will really move the dial for your business. The aim is not just make you feel briefly better about having reached thousands of people.
- Install a tracking pixel on your website to measure results.
- If you’re unfamiliar with the Facebook Business Manager and Ads Manager dashboards, engage a professional to stet your ads up right.
- Be single-minded about what you want to achieve. Multiple goals? Run multiple DIFFERENT campaigns, one to grow followers, one to sell products etc.
- Be patient with testing various strategies until you find the one which works best for your brand and customers.
All of these measures will minimise the amount of budget you waste on your Social Media campaigns, and increase your understanding of what motivates your audience to choose you!
By Lauren Hamilton, Owner and Founder, Digital Narrative
Photos by Unsplash and Justine Perl.