The Return of the Boost Post
Published: January 16, 2015
Author: Or Fialkov
One of the most infamous tools in Facebook advertising is the Boost Post. This tool, which allows every page manager to promote his page in a few clicks, has, so far, brought bad results and a high amount of exposure, rather than quality and proper segmentation – (this explains why it is better to use the ads manager rather than the boost post to promote your content).
However, during the last few months, Facebook significantly improved this tool and it now allows us to do many things that, before, were only accessible through the advertising system – the Ads Manager or the Power Editor. Today, every manager of a social media has to be familiar with this tool, especially for low-budget content promotion. This post surveys a few of the advantages and changes that arrived to the boost post recently.
What is a Boosted Post?
When you post something on your page, there is an option to promote it using the Boost Post button at the bottom of the page. Until a year ago, the only segmentation options were targeting by the page’s fans and their friends, or targeting by position. In November last year, Facebook added an option to add interests, and an option to see the exposure rate of the ad, out of our total targeting. This is an illustration of the system interface today:
What are our targeting options?
1. Targeting to our page fans
This is perhaps the most useful option Facebook has added – an option to target only the fans of the page, and to add location-based targeting. What is it good for? I believe the promotion for most of the posts is designated to get more exposure and better involvement, and you should only promote them to audiences who are familiar with the brand, and not to new audiences. Targeting fans shall bring excellent results and allow us to reach our best audience:
Another advantage is, if we have a page targeting various locations, you can promote a post only to the residents of certain cities:
2. Targeting by a Saved Audience
This is perhaps the most important change done in the interface. It provides us with an option to use a target group previously defined by the Power Editor or Ads manager (Save Target Group) and target only this audience:
How to do it?
In the Power Editor, choose the Ad Set that contains the segmenting we wish to target our posts to – and click the Save Audience button:
We can also edit the saved ad set:
Then, we can choose the audience we desire: Custom Audience, Lookalike Audience, remarketing audience, or any other targeting we wish to promote on a constant basis. After making this choice, we can promote our content to this audience in three mouse clicks:
In the Ads Manager, click Audiences:
Then, in the Create Audience button, choose the Saved Target Group option
In advance, you can create a few target groups in your account to meet the demands of all your targeting needs. The following illustration shows 3 target groups I saved: page fans, my newsletter subscribers, and visitors to my website:
3. General Targeting
Facebook allows us to target people according to a rather basic segmentation:
This targeting is based on location, age, and interests. In addition, we can provide this audience with a name to be used in the future. I believe this option is recommended only if we want this post to reach very specific interests (like the pages of our competitors):
4. Tracking Conversion Pixels
In the new version, Facebook enables us to track conversion pixels. If our post leads to a site with our conversion pixel, we are able to choose the pixels from the list.
5. Post Previews on Mobile and Desktop Platforms
The new tool features a preview of the post on mobile and desktop News Feed:
Disadvantages
In spite of all the changes, there are still a few disadvantages, and it is a shame that Facebook doesn’t improve them:
1. It is impossible to make a selection to present the ad only on single platform – either desktop or mobile – the ad arrives to all devices, and it is impossible for us to set this preference.
2. The metric for which Facebook optimizes is engagement. In campaigns that bring traffic to your website – promoting a link type post – I would like Facebook to choose the proper object.
Despite all mentioned above, Facebook seems to improve the tool regularly, and there is even a report of people who have seen the option to create a lookalike audience through their page.
Summary
The tool to promote your posts using your page – the Boost Post – keeps upgrading and has become an important tool for everyone who loads and promotes content, by saving time in the campaign construction and by the exact targeting that the tool offers to page owners: fans and saved target audiences. In the past, this tool was only used by people who knew nothing about Facebook advertising; today, the social media manager who doesn’t use this tool is just wasting his/her time. Using this tool, you can get good results with low costs.
Good luck!
