Is it worth paying to boost your Facebook posts?
I have been spending on average only $5-$10 a week to boost Facebook posts. We use Facebook to announce events, fundraisers, or other important announcements. We haven't been tracking if Facebook is generating us any extra traffic. Up until this point, I wasn't worried about cost because $5-$10 is so little money to spend. But it does add up. Is it worth boosting your Facebook posts? And how quickly do you see a return in investment?
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Jan 18, 2016
Hi Zander!
I get asked this question all the time. Facebook has very much moved towards being an advertising platform for business. It has become a pay-to-play environment. Along with consistent posting, spending $5-$10 to boost a post once a week or every other week is recommended. This ensures that the fans who like your page see your content.
This is especially important if you have a post regarding an event or original content. The flip side of spending this money is tracking. Create posts that have a clear cal-to-action such as RSVPing for an event or to a page to donate funds. Tell people what you would like them to do next once they've seen the post.
Track event sign-ups, web traffic and fundraising. It's easy to set-up basic web traffic in Google Analytics and be sure to use Facebook Insights as well.
Hope that helps and best of luck!
Charlotte Chipperfield
CEO, Chipperfield Media LLC.
Jan 18, 2016
Zander, I don't know if you have noticed, but Facebook Groups are now very popular because they are 1) free and 2) they engage people who are interested in your topic. So you might want to think about setting up a Facebook group because everyone loves animals. Here you can invite people to become members of your group and start discussions etc. Then when you have an event, you can post it in your group. Knowing the people in the group love animals, they will see the feed and share the information with all their friends. Discussion threads in groups show up more frequently at the top of your news feed than individual conversations. Remember to post lots of pictures as that helps improve your ranking with Facebook. Hope this helps.
Jan 18, 2016
Hi Zander,
thanks for your question. Before I proceed to answer, let's clarify this first...
There's a difference between boosting your Facebook posts directly from your page and running paid post ads.
If the former is what you have been doing, it will not bring you the returns you are looking for. Here are the reasons...
- Boosting your posts directly can be expensive (just like you said, it adds up)
- When you stop boosting, Facebook drops your feeds and you will lose organic traffic
- The targeting options are limited compared to the power editor tool
- You may end up targeting a broad audience and lose money in the process
So, what's the best Facebook Ads approach?
Always use the Power Editor tool to setup your Ads (both direct ads and page post ads). It gives you room for creativity and you can also track what's happening around your Ads within the Ads manager (from clicks, likes, comments, shares, to website conversions).
Side note: Power Editor is a very advanced tool though. Don't jump on it if you don't know what to do (you can hire someone to help if you have the budget).
You can also customize your audience and get tracking codes to embed on your website.
This is a more cost effective approach and it's what I always offer my clients whenever they need help with Facebook advertising.
It's a mistake not to track how your ads are doing. This is one of the most important aspects of advertising. You have to outline what your KPIs (key performance indicators) are.
Tracking your ads will help you determine your R.O.I. There's no fixed R.O.I. method in this case, because everything will depend on your objectives.
To make your Ads worthwhile, focus on these aspects...
- What your audience stand to gain
- The core value of the message you are sending out
- Why it's important to get involved now
- The story behind your mission
Boosting posts will not give you immediate results as others have pointed out. But when you start using the Power Editor section, you are more likely to have quicker results.
Quick case study: I ran a campaign for a client in January of 2015, and drove over 4,000 clicks to their landing page. We generated 500+ leads in the first 3 days, and the overall lead acquisition was a little over 2K (it was a month long campaign).
Now bear in mind, results like this are not typical. I've ran campaigns that flopped in a major way. It's all about testing to see what works and then focus your resources on that.
Everything depends on your Ad content structure (text, imagery, CTA), your targeting and your landing page(s).
The more engaging they are, the more results you will get. Just like others have mentioned, it's a social media platform; so make your ads social as well.
All the best.
P.S. you might want to explore the group suggestion from Elaine.
Jan 19, 2016
I heard the same thing, that once you stop boosting than your posts get dropped from the feed. I will explore Facebook ads more although this seems like much pricier option. The benefits could be worth it. Thanks.
Jan 18, 2016
Many good suggestions here from the other posts. The one thing I didn't see is this. How many fans do you currently have? That's how I would determine if it's truly worth it to boost a post. If your fan base is low, i.e. less than 2,000 you may want to use that budget for an ad.
Jan 19, 2016
Hi Alan, sorry I should have included that in my question. We have just over 1,500 Facebook likes and would like to grow that number. Do you think Facebook ads are my better option then?
Jan 20, 2016
I'd definitely use that budget to grow your fan base or create ads, here's why. When you sponsor a post with facebook your only reaching a very small percentage of them. For example, we have 15k fans, a regular post only reaches 400-500 people. A sponsored post for $20 will reach 1500-2500 people of the 15k fans. Grow your base but still keep posting. Wait until you hit about 3k to do a sponsored post. That's my recommendation.
Jan 25, 2016
I like your suggestion Alan. As Zander remain as 1 question owner, but the answers beneficiaries grows up.
Jan 19, 2016
The point is that its a game. If you DON'T pay you don't get seen. I have a page with over 5500 followers, but non-boosted posts only get about 50 views. Perhaps the answer lies in using platforms that don't purposefully throttle visibility. I am working with a company called www.carii.com on a platform which all about enabling the user, not shafting them or gamiftying the system.
Jan 17, 2016
It's indeed very worth to boost your FB post, Zander. Or you can FB left no other choice to maximize your reach. As long as you boost it to a targeted audience and well set up boost, it works. The results may be not be immediate though. It may take you 3-4 months to accumulate exposure and consistency to see the returns coming. Some "in-need" and "hot" time sensitive posts may show instant response too.
Jan 19, 2016
Hi Sunita, I assumed that Facebook post boosts would show immediate return because they only last on the newsfeed for 24 hours, 3 days, etc. depending on how long you choose to pay for it to be boosted. Maybe I'm tracking it wrong. Where does the 3-4 month return come from?
Jan 19, 2016
When you're boosting your blogposts for awareness and branding, it'd take few weeks for people to notice. For events, boosting for 24 hours work...
Jan 18, 2016
Yes, absolutely. However, you shouldn't boost your posts blindly. Make sure you're targeting the right people. Use Ads Manager instead of the "boost post" button. Measure your efforts and learn from what works. Add Google Analytics to your website so you can see what traffic is coming from Facebook.
Otoabasi has some great points there; Power Editor may be too advanced for you, but Ads Manager is a nice in-between tool. Or hire a professional.
Best of luck!
Krystal
Jan 17, 2016
Hi Zander,
It is definitely worthwhile but it will take more than a month to slowly and gradually start making returns.It will increase with the passage of time.
But you should be careful that social media is just a medium to communicate the actual attraction will remain in your cause, event and announcement.
Best Of Luck,
Zafar
647-818-8550
North York, Canada
Jan 17, 2016
If you want ALL your Facebook page followers to see a particular update, you have no choice but to pay Facebook. If you don't, less that 2% of your followers will see your updates.
As Syed says, the more important consideration is that your audience finds your content interesting/shareable.
Jan 18, 2016
hi Zander
It is simply about a range of things that you should take into consideration, you have to measure the effect of this process, you got new customers through? Do you have increased people's confidence in you or in your projects? Are you paid the money in the right place? One dollar could push in the right place and get the desired result, it has paid $ 1,000 without careful targeting and true for users and receives a bad and unexpected result, so before you make any payment be sure to choose the right place a process to it, whether on Facebook or twitter or others, and when choose the appropriate location, you can start by targeting the right audience, after all, measure the results.
Jan 18, 2016
Yes! These days it's the only way to get the word out + it helps establish your presence by drawing attn and engagement from the crowds. Be sure to utilize the targeting feature. Good luck
Jan 20, 2016
I have only done Facebook boosts a few times, but when I have, the response was very good. I also have done a couple of boosted photo based promotional posts through a community group that offers boosted ads and I have done well with them also.
Jan 20, 2016
It depends. It hasn't had much impact for our events or business. Try Twitter first, it's more effective.
Jan 20, 2016
I believe an interesting engaging social media presence is an integral part of mobile marketing strategy. That is why I value position our organisation is in as an active JV partner with FB.
By having fresh content that is trending with viral potential as well as updates about events dripfed daily they are going to find something different all the time and will often advertise on your behalf as they share your posts. Google also likes fresh content as we know so will rank higher more interest you attract. To answer your question FB posts that are interesting and engaging should result in gained exposure and promote business growth
Jan 21, 2016
Yes. If done right you can do it very inexpensively and target the demographic you are marketing to. Build a Facebook business page and promote your post there. I have found video post that are boosted and targeted at people that are interested can be very affordable. Some of mine have been $.001 per view. Facebook will tell you the percentage of people that see it, and click on it. Play around with $2 boost until you get one that is very cheap and then spend more on that one. I put information in the video and then put my marketing pitch at the end of the video with contact info. Keep it short.
Jan 24, 2016
100% yes. You just should be sure to not use the boost button. I recently did a podcast with one of the best Facebook Advertising Guru's around. You can check it out here and I hope it helps! >>> http://www.magnificent.com/magnificent-stuff/the-most-common-facebook-advertising-mistakes
Also, I suggest following Jon Loomer @JonLoomer on Twitter and read all his blogs. He truly is one of the best to learn from.
Jan 25, 2016
Well, any ad campaign requires repetition — running the same ad many times in front of the same eye balls until some percentage of them at any one time are in the market for what you’re selling. Social Media Examiner (http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-boost-posts-promoted-posts/) has some good thoughs on this.
Jan 25, 2016
Hi Zander!
Based on my experience, Facebook can give you the ROI you deserve. You just have to focus on the content of your post. No matter how big your reach is, if the content is not attracting clients, then it's useless. Focus on what your content is all about.
Hi Elaine, thanks for the suggestion. We don't have a Facebook group at the moment but I love the idea and I think it fits better with our business model to have a page that allows more collaboration and encourages engagement.