What Facebook Isn’t Telling You About the Boost Post Button, and How to “Boost” Posts the RIGHT Way

Yes! I’m back again, bitching and moaning about the Boost Post button. And you know what? There’s real cause for concern here.

Here’s what happens: you’re busy. You have a million things to get done today, and you don’t want to bother with the friggin’ Power Editor right now. So you boost a post.

I’ll admit it – I do it myself from time to time!

The real problem here is the kind of person who Facebook shows your boosted posts to. It’s probably not who you’d choose to spend your money on, if you had the choice.

Watch this short, 5-minute video to discover what actually happens when you hit that button, and for simple instructions on what to do instead (without spending hours to put a simple ad together):

 

YouTube video

Or read the transcript here (because I don’t watch videos either):

If you’re still using the Boost Post button to get your work in front of more people, there’s something you need to know!

Hi, I’m Claire Pelletreau, and I am a Facebook ads expert and blogger over at clairepells.com. And I’ll admit it, I use the Boost Post button sometimes myself. It has its purposes. But when you use that Boost Post button instead of creating a regular ad, Facebook shows your ad to a certain kind of person.

Now, real quick, the Boost Post button has definitely had its improvements in the last couple of years. You’re able to choose who you want to see the ads. But what you may not know is that Facebook categorizes each and every one of us into a certain kind of user. Facebook knows if you’re somebody who clicks like on posts, but doesn’t necessarily click over to another site. They know if you’re somebody who clicks on a link, goes and buys something. They know if you click on links, go and sign up for something for free with your email address.

Each one of these behaviors is categorized, and when you click the Boost Post button, Facebook shows your ad to people who are most likely to engage with your post.

So what does engage mean? That could mean clicking the like button, leaving a comment, maybe sharing. But it doesn’t necessarily mean the people who spend their time on Facebook, scrolling, clicking and reading articles or signing up for things. A lot of the people who are just clicking like or sharing aren’t actually taking any action off of Facebook. And I know that that’s what I want: in addition to engaging with my ads, I want them to come over to my site and read what I have going on there, about Facebook ad tips, and to check out my products and services. Because that’s where they’re going to convert. They’re not going to convert right there on Facebook.

So there is another way that you can boost a post, but get it shown to the people who are most likely to take the action that you want them to. (You might want to jump to the 2:15-minute mark of the video now to get a visual of these instructions.)

All you need to do is to post something to your Facebook page, like you would normally. You know, come up with some great ad copy, and an image, probably a link over to your site.  Then you’re going to go to the Ads Manager at facebook.com/ads/manage. Click that green Create Ad in the top right corner. And it’s going to take you through what is called Guided Creation. We’re not even talking about the Power Editor here which I’d rather than you learn. But I also know that just when you want to boost a post, you’re not going to go through all the steps and tricks and hoops, in order to get something going.

So, you’re just going to click that green Create Ad button. And then, if you’ve got a link over to a sign-up page, you should choose conversions as your objective. Or if it’s just a blog post, then you should choose traffic. If it’s a video, you should choose video views. So then, as you’re going through the process, you’re still going to have to select the audience, select where you want your ads shown. I recommend you just stick with Facebook feeds, get rid of audience network, and instant articles, instant videos or something like that.

But when it comes time to creating your ad, instead of starting from scratch and putting a link and a headline and yada yada, you’re going to click the Use Existing Post option. And then you just select the post from your Facebook page that you’ve already got going.

So that’s the simplest way to boost a post, but making sure the right kind of people, the people who are most likely to take the action that you want, actually see your ad. That’s it – it’s super easy!

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