It’s 2013. You sit down and craft a new post for your client’s Facebook Page. As you’re rewatching NSYNC at the VMAs, you take a sip of your nonfat caramel macchiato and check your Facebook analytics. Half your followers have seen it and it has 100,000 impressions already. Life is good.
Sorry, friend: in 2024, social media managers would be lucky to get an average 0.07% engagement rate on Facebook posts. Womp womp.
But all is not lost, intrepid marketer. The Facebook boost post is your first class ticket back to the glory — and organic reach — of the good old days.
With noteworthy tips from marketing experts, we’re breaking it all down below.
Key Takeaways
- A boosted post is a type of targeted ad created from an existing, organic Facebook post. It offers a quick and easy way to reach a new audience without complicated ad campaign setup.
- Boosting a post involves selecting an existing post, defining a goal (e.g. increasing engagement or driving website traffic), editing the action button and URL, selecting the target audience, and setting a budget. This can be done directly from Facebook or via tools like Hootsuite, which can automate the process.
- Key strategies for maximizing the effectiveness of boosted Facebook posts include defining clear goals and KPIs, boosting content that is already performing well, learning from competitors, and continuously refining your strategy based on performance metrics.
What is a Facebook boost post?
A Facebook boost post is a targeted ad you create from an existing, organic post on your Facebook Business Page.
Unlike traditional Facebook ads that are in-depth campaigns created from scratch (more on that later), boosted posts offer a quick and easy way of surfacing the content you already have to a new audience by putting some advertising budget behind it.
Boosting posts on Facebook can help you:
- Attract new followers (Page likes)
- Increase clicks and likes (hello, improved engagement rates!)
- Promote your brand to audiences who don’t know you (yet)
- Understand what content works best for your goals and audience
- Begin exploring social media advertising
Don’t have a boost-worthy post just yet? Use OwlyWriter AI to create organic content your audience will love.
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How to boost a post on Facebook
Ready to find out how you too can get your Facebook content the attention it deserves? Watch our video on how to boost a Facebook post:
Boosting a Facebook post in the Facebook dashboard
Boosting a post is quick to do from Facebook, but there are a few prerequisites:
Once you have these two things sorted, follow the steps below to boost your first post.
Step 1: Go to your Facebook Page
You can boost a Facebook post from a web browser or Facebook’s mobile app.
Step 2: Find a Facebook post to boost
Scroll through your recent posts to find the one you want to boost, then click the Boost Post button at the bottom.
Button grayed out? You can’t boost some Facebook posts, but 99% of the time, you’ll be able to.
Step 3: Choose a goal
Facebook will automatically fill in goal suggestions, audience targeting criteria, a link, duration, budget, and more. You could press Publish right away and run your ad with full trust in Facebook’s recommendations.
But for the best results, go through each section of the page to ensure everything makes sense for your needs. Start by clicking Change in the Goal section to see all available options and choose the best fit.
For example, if you’re including a link in your boosted post, your goal should likely be to “Get more website visitors.”
Step 4: Edit the action button and URL
Next, choose what you want the action button to say. Facebook defaults to Shop Now, but there are a handful of options to choose from. Ensure the URL is accurate, too.
Step 5: Target your audience
Select who you want to target with your Facebook boost post, or choose one of your existing custom ad audiences (if you have any). You can also save your criteria as a new custom audience for next time.
You can target:
- Gender (Only men, women, or both for now. Hopefully Facebook will represent all gender identities in the future.)
- Age range
- Location (Choose from the country level all the way down to individual cities.)
- Interests
Targeting is optional. If you don’t specify any of these options, Facebook will attempt to target your boost post to who they think is most interested. Want a crash course? Learn Facebook ad targeting 101.
Step 6: Set a budget
The default duration of a boosted post campaign is seven days, which is fine in most cases. Set your total budget for the post and you’ll see an estimate of how many people you’ll reach and how many clicks your link will get.
Click Publish and that’s it.
Boosting a Facebook post using Hootsuite
You can follow the steps above — or, save a ton of time with automatic Facebook post boosting in Hootsuite.
With Hootsuite, you can:
- Manually boost a Facebook post, or…
- Set up automatic boosting for posts for non-stop engagement
That is, of course, on top of all the other social media management tools that Hootsuite offers in one easy-to-use dashboard.
Grab your free 30-day trial to see how easy Hootsuite makes scheduling posts, engaging with your audience in DMs and comments, handling ads, tracking your results, and even snooping on competitors. Unlike the Facebook dashboard, Hootsuite is a central location for all major social media networks: Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube.
FYI: To boost Facebook posts with Hootsuite, you’ll first need to add your Facebook Ads Manager account to Hootsuite.
Bonus: Use our free Facebook Ads budget calculator to figure out exactly how much you need to spend to get the results you want. Let us do the math for you!
How to manually boost a Facebook post in Hootsuite
Only interested in boosting a single post? We’ve got you.
You’ll see the Boost button on Facebook posts across several locations in Hootsuite, including:
- Composer
- Planner
- In a Facebook Stream
Simply click Boost Post on the one you want, and choose your:
- Objective (engagement or awareness)
- Audience (build your own or use saved Facebook audiences)
- Budget and duration (more $ + run time = better results)
You can even preview your boosted post on Mobile, Desktop, and (if you choose to crosspost) Instagram.
Then, click Boost on Facebook to let the magic happen. Easy-peasy.
How to automatically boost Facebook posts in Hootsuite
Once you learn the ropes, you can put your boosting strategy on autopilot.
With Hootsuite, you can define a set of rules that will automatically boost specific Facebook posts — for example, organic posts that did particularly well with likes or generated a larger than usual number of comments. That way, you can consistently make your success even more successful by giving it a… well, boost.
Set your campaign objective
Step 1: Go to Ads, then Facebook Boost. Click on Get started with Boost.
Step 2: If you have multiple Facebook Pages connected to Hootsuite, choose the correct one. Then, give your automatic boost campaign a name.
Step 3: Choose an objective (the business goal you want to achieve) for your boost campaign from the following options:
- Traffic
- Engagement (on your ad or on your website)
- Awareness
- Leads
- Sales
Step 4: Choose the result you want to optimize for.
NOTE: Available options depend on your campaign objective and the type of engagement you selected.
Step 5: Identify if your ad is in a Meta-designated special category to comply with Meta’s anti-discrimination policies.
Then, click Next: Audience and budget.
Choose your audience and budget
Step 6: Create a custom audience by selecting Edit and specifying which attributes to target, like location, gender, age — and more detailed targeting like demographics, interests, and behaviors.
You can also click Use saved audience or Use custom or lookalike audiences if you’ve already created them on Facebook.
Step 7: Select Yes, my ads target audiences in the EU, if your ad targets audiences worldwide or in EU countries or associated territories.
Step 8: Meta will automatically choose ad placements for you based on your objectives. If you’d like to choose your own placements, check I want to manually choose the placements. Learn more about Meta’s placements.
Step 9: Set your budget and the length of your promotion. You can set a daily or total budget for your ad campaign.
Then, select Next: Set your auto-boosting criteria.
Set your auto-boost criteria
Step 10: Let Hootsuite decide which Facebook posts to boost based on your average engagement rate, or set your own criteria.
You can trigger a Facebook boost post based on number of:
- Likes
- Shares
- Comments
- Reach
- Video views
You can also combine criteria. For example, only trigger automatic boosting when a post has at least 100 likes and 15 comments.
Step 11: Enter keywords that must appear (or cannot appear) in the posts you want to boost. You can also use your Hootsuite organization’s tags to visually classify posts and conversations by category.
Click Publish campaign and voila — you’re set. Sit back, relax, and watch your engagement flourish.
Need to make a tweak? No sweat, you can manage and edit your scheduled and past boosted Facebook posts at any time.
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How much does it cost to boost posts on Facebook?
You can boost a Facebook post for as little as $1 USD per day. But as Earth Rated’s Social Media & Influencer Marketing Director, Niki Hyde, puts it: the more you spend, the wider your reach.
“I typically use boosts for smaller campaigns (under $1000) and run them for at least a week to give Facebook enough time to optimize performance,” Niki shares.
When adjusting the settings for your boosted post, type in a specific amount or move the slider to set your maximum total budget — this is what Facebook will spend over the duration of your boosted post. Changing your budget changes your potential reach, which Facebook will estimate for you.
For example, if your budget is $50 and the campaign duration is seven days, Facebook will spend an average of $7.15 per day. The actual daily spend will vary a bit, but you won’t pay more than the total budget specified for the campaign.
Facebook ads vs. boosted post
A Facebook boost post is a very simple form of Facebook advertising. They’re quick and easy to set up and a good way to get started with social media ads.
Here’s a rundown of the key differences between Facebook boost posts and traditional Facebook ad campaigns:
If you’re wondering how to fit Facebook boost posts or traditional ads into your overall social media strategy, check our (very) complete guide to Facebook marketing — freshly updated for 2024.
6 expert tips for boosting Facebook posts
Get ready to take notes. Here are six Facebook boost tips and tricks, straight from two social media marketing experts we interviewed.
#1: Define your goals & KPIs
Before you hit that glorious blue button, Niki says it’s worthwhile to define your goals and metrics.
“If you’re looking to drive engagement, track video views and engagements. If you want to drive leads or calls, hone in on cost per mille (CPM) and reach,” Niki says.
This will help you get the most out of your boost and create a launching pad for future campaigns. Win-win.
#2: Identify your target audience
Knowing your audience is a key component of any successful ads campaign — and Facebook boost posts are no exception.
Niki’s top tip: Align your targeting criteria with your audience as best you can.
“With organic reach dwindling every year, investing in boosts ensures that your top performing content is reaching your target audience,” Niki says.
The secret sauce? Samantha Skeen, Social Media Manager of Toronto Raptors & Raptors 905, says not to sweat the details.
“Pay attention to how your target audience engages with your content and little things like what devices they use,” Samantha adds.
#3: Boost the right content
While Niki and Samantha identify video as best for engagement campaigns and images for driving leads, Niki says the best content to boost is “posts that exceed the benchmarks you’ve set for your content’s performance.”
Why? “Promoting content that’s already building momentum on social media will help keep your costs down and let your boost run more efficiently.” Simple as that.
TIP: You can view your top performing posts at any time in Hootsuite Analytics.
#4: Timing is everything
While your level of spend should be relative to your overall budget, Samantha advises to run your Facebook boost post for three to seven days.
Niki is aligned. “This will give Facebook enough time to optimize the performance of your campaigns,” she says.
Translation: Let the clock run and watch the engagement roll in.
#5: Keep an eye on your competitors
To get a sense of what’s resonating (and what’s not), Samantha encourages social media managers to keep a pulse on the competition.
“Take note of the types of posts they promote, their engagement levels, posting frequency, and audience interactions,” Samantha says.
She reminds us: “The goal is to gain insights for improving your own content and campaigns, not to copy competitors directly.”
Plus, you can make this process a breeze by using Hootsuite’s Listening tool — no Inspector Gadget-eque skills required.
#6 Track results & refine your strategy
It’s always a good idea to track, monitor, and measure the results of your campaign.
Niki’s advice? “Start small, test a lot, and build a strategy for always-on investment” (cough, automatic boosting).
“It’s the best way to ensure the great content you’re working to create can be traced back to a clear business impact,” she says.
Bonus: You can review your Facebook boost performance with Hootsuite Analytics at any time.
Simply go to Ads, then select Facebook Boost and your ad account to see all Facebook Boost campaigns associated with it.
For each boosted post, you can review specific metrics like reach, amount spent, and engagement — making it easy to analyze your results and refine your strategy.
And there you have it — everything you need to know about boosting posts on Facebook. With expert tips and a leading tool in your back pocket, you’re bound to give your Facebook page the boost it needs.
Use Hootsuite Social Advertising to easily schedule posts and ads, build custom audiences, and get a complete view of your performance and ROI — across paid and organic social.
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