By Will Moomaw, Digital Marketing Account Manager
As Facebook has added more and more functionality to their ads interface, there is one old tool that advertisers should still be taking advantage of. Boosting organic page posts got a bad rap (and deservedly so) when they were introduced years ago, but they’ve become a genuinely effective way to not only increase social engagement and gain more followers, but also drive direct-response conversions.
Whether you’ve tried boosting posts in the past and given up, or are new to the post-boosting game, here’s a quick guide to how (and why) it works.
How to Promote Your Organic Posts
To boost a post, all you need to do is go to your Facebook business page, hit the “Boost Post” button below the post, and then select the audience you want to target, how large the budget should be, and for how long the boosted post will run (see below images). There is also the option to boost posts on Instagram. The main aesthetic difference between a boosted post and the original organic post is that your new ads will say “Sponsored” at the top of the listing.
Similarly, you can also promote an organic page post by choosing “Use Existing Post” in the ad creation process in either Ads Manager or Power Editor. This allows you to select any eligible organic post and quickly apply it to pre-existing ad sets and audiences. Users can easily boost an organic post in multiple ad sets using the “Duplicate” feature. The audience, daily budget, and start/end dates have already been set at the ad set level.
Why You Should Use Organic Posts
- It’s easy.
- Either boosting a post from the business page or duplicating a post across numerous ad sets can be done in a matter of minutes. The ad has already been written!
- Reach a larger audience.
- Boosting organic posts allows advertisers to reach a larger audience than just those who like their page, and can also push the post higher up in the News Feed for their followers.
- Increase engagement on your Facebook page.
- After boosting a post to promote an upcoming event for a client in the education vertical, we saw social engagement increase by 20% in less than two weeks as more users discovered the brand.
- Increase site traffic.
- By reaching a larger audience beyond existing page followers, boosted posts will drive incremental traffic to your site.
- Drive users to complete a certain action with various calls to action.
- Since June 1st, boosted posts have accounted for 49% of all post-click conversions at a 40% better CPA than standard Facebook ads in either image, carousel, or video form for the previously mentioned education client.
- These posts have only accounted for 33% of all traffic, but have a 94% higher CVR.
Now What?
Encourage your social team to keep putting out content. Whether it is a post promoting a new product launch, a previous customer advocating for how much they love the product, or an informational piece around the product line, promoting these posts can drive efficient revenue for your company and increase your level of social engagement. If a 3rd-party publication has written an article praising a particular product, encourage your social team to make an organic post about it so it can be boosted.
Many social channels (see Snapchat, Instagram) encourage advertisers to create ads that “don’t look like ads”. Boosting organic posts on Facebook allows you to do exactly that. The organic post is already not a typical ad, but by boosting you still get the advantages of standard Facebook advertising. Users will find these posts less annoying than a standard ad and are more likely to engage.
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