The logo for Jo Francis. There are two orange squares, one big and one small, that overlap in the corner. The words Jo Francis interrupt the line of the larger square.
An image of a facebook post with the option to boost post. On the left side of the image there is an orange rectangle with a grey rectangle layered over the top with orange text reading ‘Should you boost a post on Facebook?’ and on the right side of the image there is an orange circle with white text reading ‘Jo Francis’

Should you boost a post on Facebook?

/ Facebook Ad Tips / By

“Should I boost a post on my Facebook page?”

Or “why shouldn’t I boost a post?” are two questions I get asked ALL the time.

Now, it’s not for me to dictate one way or another whether people choose to boost posts, but what I try and explain is what boosting does and then let them decide whether or not they feel it will be effective and a good way to spend a fiver, or a tenner or however much they’re thinking of allocating.

What is a boosted post?

In the words of Facebook themselves:

“Boosted posts are ads that you create from posts on your Facebook Page. Boosting a post may help you get more people to react, share and comment on it. You may also reach new people who are likely to be interested in your Page or business, but don’t currently follow you.”

So the key for me here is:

“get more people to react, share and comment on it”

When you are boosting a post – there is only one objective that Facebook is offering you – and that is MORE ENGAGEMENT ON THAT POST.

I know you’re thinking okay, is that such a bad thing?

And no, it’s not… If that is truly what you want.

Why you might not just want engagement on a Facebook post

As with any marketing spend, it’s important to think about what you want the end result to be, which is why I always suggest people pause before hitting boost and think about whether more engagement on that post is really their main objective.

And very often, it isn’t.

And it’s the content of the post that gives that away.

What do I mean?

Well, let’s say for example, you’ve created a post that includes your latest blog and shared it on your Facebook page, and it’s getting a decent amount of engagement so Facebook is suggesting you boost that post…

Tempting right?

Lots more people will see your new blog…

No! That’s not what will happen.

Lots more people will see the post you’ve created ABOUT your blog, and potentially (because a boost is optimised for engagement) you’ll get some more likes and comments on the post BUT will people be heading over to your website to read that brand, spanking new blog?

They might.  They might not.

If you want more eyes on that piece of content, then create the same post as an ad, and use the TRAFFIC objective (you can decide whether you want to use link clicks or landing page views) and you will be asking Facebook to serve the ad to people that will CLICK ON THE LINK and actually go over to your blog. Rather than asking people just to engage with the post.

Oh.

I know! 

Suddenly makes sense doesn’t it.

There’s loads more information about boosting a post in my free download, which you can access below:-

Remember that we very rarely want more engagement, we mostly want people to take some kind of action, so that extra time taken to build an ad in Ads Manager will really pay off by giving you some stats on whether that action has been taken.