Choosing A Facebook or Instagram Post to Boost (And How To Do It Effectively)

It’s easy for it to seem like Facebook or Instagram is recommending you boost nearly every post you create. But how do you know which post you should actually boost and how much money to put behind it?

That’s where I’m going to help today.

First, a little context

First of all, let’s not forget that Meta, the conglomerate that owns both Faceobok and Instagram among many other platforms, is a business. It makes money through advertising because they promise brands they can reach a whole lot of people.

That is a promise they are able to make because there are more than 220 million Facebook users in the United States and upwards of 169 million Instagram accounts. That is a LOT of potential reach. (Note: the word “potential” there. We will come back to this.)

Say what you want about either platform and its ever-evolving algorithm, that’s a lot of potential eyeballs on your content we wouldn’t have so nicely packaged without the Meta machine.

That being said, just because the social media giant suggests that you should boost a post does NOT mean it is the right one for you to put hard-earned dollars behind.

Clarifying the Goal

As with any element of marketing, you need to clarify your goal first. What are you hoping to achieve by boosting a post?

In my opinion there is only really one answer to this question: more exposure.

Boosting a post is fantastic for capturing the attention of new potential customers, followers and community members by getting more eyeballs on your content.

If you are looking to generate new leads (i.e. they fill out a form, you get their info) or convert Followers to engaged clients/customers, then you want to run a social media campaign, which is a lesson for another day.

Think of it like this:

Boosting = converting strangers to followers/community members

Campaigns = converting followers to clients/customers

Make sense?

How to Choose What Posts to Boost

Start by creating a truly amazing piece of content that epitomizes one of your brand values.

It should literally be the sword that you want to die on, a.k.a. evergreen content, NOT a trending style.

By utilizing a strong pillar of your business it can be reused more than once over the coming months when you have more budget without needing to re-create content.

Here’s an example from the DCM brand.

Here is another example from my personal brand.

Each one of these articulates a value that epitomizes the, “If people know absolutely nothing else about me, I want them to know THIS” perspective.

Setting the Audience & Budget for the Boosted Post

So now that you created this stellar piece of content, a Reel or Carousel, how do you boost it?

1. Go into your Meta Business Suite account and create a Custom Audience based on your ideal client avatar.

This goes a step beyond the “Recommend people like my Followers” option you will be presented with if doing this from a phone. That may seem like a nice idea, but YOU know your ideal better than Meta so stay in control.

You want to be more specific than Facebook or Instagram will do automatically so you are utilizing your budget in the most effective manner.

Once you create the audience, SAVE IT with a custom name so it’s easily found from your phone’s options when boosting in the future.

2. Decide on which of three potential goals you want to accomplish.

Do you want more Followers?

Do you want more people to visit your website?

Do you want DMs from the post?

Each one of these will offer a different call to action on the boosted post so choose accordingly.

3. Set your budget and length of time.

In my experience, it really does not take a large budget in order to see significant gains with brand awareness and engagement. In this case, those metrics of success would be views, likes and Follows.

I have watched accounts I manage get more than 250 likes/comments and 3x the organic views on a single post for less than $10 total.

I have had accounts grow by more than 150 followers by spending $20 across three days.

Whether you find these numbers impressive or not, depends on both your goal and overall expectations. Nonetheless, for the clients who follow this strategy, those levels of engagement and growth have been well worth spending $10 or $20.

After all, for a $10 campaign that’s less than $.07 per new community member, which is the first step to new customers. Not too shabby!

Do you want a lesson on setting up a Facebook (or Instagram) Ad Campaign? Shoot me a DM Instagram to let me know.