DON’T BE SEDUCED BY THE BOOST
The boost notification! As seductive as an ice-cold G&T at the end of a hot summer’s day.
You know the one, it’s that enticing notification that pops up on your business page inviting you to boost your post because it’s been performing really well.
“Guess What?” says a Facebook Bot “You can boost this post and reach a gazillion people and for only a few pennies.”
Your finger hovers and you think, sod it, I’m in! What’s the worst that can happen, right?
Read on…
The boost button, sadly, is not your friend. It can be when used within a wider marketing strategy, but for a small business looking to grow, it hasn’t got your back and should, in the main, be IGNORED.
Why?
Let’s take things back to basics. Facebook wants you to use your page to engage with your customers and produce content that adds value and interests your followers… it doesn’t want you to ‘sell, sell, sell.’ That’s because it wants you to keep your selling for ads, where it can make money.
When you boost a post that post automatically becomes a ‘sales post’ and unlike ads it stays on the newsfeed of your page. “So what?” I hear you cry…
Well… a page with a lot of boosted posts on it doesn’t perform well when it comes to the algorithm and if you’re a serial booster it can mean your page gets penalised – especially when it comes to running ‘proper’ ads. Sucks doesn’t it?
There are other problems with boosted posts too:
You are limited with your targeting. The best things about ads is the fact you can be ninja targeted which means that you can limit wasting your hard earned cash… not so with boosting
You have less control – you’re not able to decide where the ad is placed and you’re therefore largely at the mercy of Facebook who may deliver it to places which whilst hit the numbers so far as impressions go, don’t hit the mark when it comes to your business objectives
You are limited when it comes to objectives – this is where the seductive nature of the notification really comes in. You can end up neglecting your business objectives and just go for hitting numbers, which isn’t always best use of your money
There are so many reasons why boosting a post is not a great idea, these are just scratching the surface!
If you’d like to dive deeper into Facebook ads for your business then give me a shout!
