If you take away one thing from this session today let it be this – the only reason you should ‘boost’ a post on Facebook is to increase the reach of a post. So, in other words, for that post to be seen by more people. However, the golden rule is that you should only boost a post that has proven popular in the past. If a post has already reached thousands of people, had lots of comments/shares etc then that shows it is a great piece of content and could be boosted. In other words, you ‘boost’ it’s popularity. That is it. Don’t think about boosting posts that you haven’t got data for or posts which aren’t working. It is not the best way to spend your money with Facebook.

This should be done through Facebook advertising.

Now, before you even think about spending any money with Facebook there are some things you need to have in place.

1 – Facebook Business Manager and a Facebook Ads account. This is different to the ‘ads manager’ you see on your page. I’ve put links to them below so you can make sure you get set up.

2 – Next you want to make sure the Facebook pixel code is on your website.  Once you’ve got business manager set up, there is a step-by-step guide in there to show you how to create the pixel.  If you’re like me once I’ve got the code give it to your website designer who will install the code for you. I’m going to tell you what is so special about the pixel later.

Once you have these you are ready to plan your Facebook adverts.

There are many benefits of advertising on Facebook. Let me explain…

1 – Audience targeting

The beauty of creating an advert from scratch in Facebook is that you can tailor it to your target audience. You can search by age, location, interests and activities. Facebook will also give you suggestions based on what you include.

You can also save different audiences within your account, so if one works really well you know to use that same audience in the future.

You can also create look-a-like audiences. So, you may want to target people who are similar to those who’ve already liked your Facebook page, or similar to people who have visited your website (and how do Facebook know who has visited your website? Through that magic little bit of code – the Facebook pixel – which tracks who visits your website and is also a Facebook user).

2 – Variety Re-marketing

Another great thing about Facebook adverts that you can’t do with boosting, is try out different types of adverts. You can set them up to drive traffic to your website, to generate leads, to convert sales. There is also a ‘re-marketing’ advert. Now here is where that little pixel code comes in again. Once you’ve run your main advert to drive traffic to your website, for example to make a conversion (i.e. sell a product, sill in a form etc), it will know who visited the site (so who was interested) and it will ‘re-market’ advert to them through a re-targeting advert.

So, you can see there is so much more scope with Facebook adverts.

3 – Fully measurable

The other great thing about Facebook adverts, is that they are fully measurable. This means you get to see live data – you can literally follow what the advert is doing and see how it is performing. You can tweak it if it is not performing, you can add additional budget to it and you can edit the content and images too.

You don’t get the full spectrum of insights if you boosted a post and you just have to sort of sit and pray that it works.

4 – Suits any budget

I have had clients who have spent as little as £3 a day on Facebook advertising and seen results.  Other clients might spend £100 a day. Big organisations may spend £100K a day. But this is the beauty of Facebook advertising, it can work really well for any size marketing budget.

The key thing to remember is to know your target audience and to get the content right.

5 – Build brand awareness

Facebook adverts are also a great way to build brand awareness of your business to people who may not like your page or see your posts. Reaching a wider target audience and getting your business in front of your ideal target customers.

So, there are lots of reasons why Facebook adverts can work well in your marketing strategy. I’d say before you start you need to have a strategy in place, know who your target audience is and what you want to tell them. Think about what would be a good return and what you hope to achieve so you can analyse the success of your adverts.

To find out more about how I can help pack a punch with your social media – why not download my top tips here