When Should You Be Advertising or Boosting Posts on Social Media

By Ben Allen, Guest Contributor 

When it comes to being a business on social media, organic reach is at an all time low. Especially on Facebook, businesses are really struggling to get their posts out to their followers. Steadily, many businesses find that each post they publish only reaches a handful of people, with social media platforms actively keeping them out of people’s feeds.

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Marketers need to understand post boosting and ads.

The only way around the death of organic reach is to pay the platform to put your posts in front of your followers. That means boosted posts or paying for ads. You need to give the platform money to get in front of people, and you’ll want to make sure you get the most benefits you can from each post. Here’s what you need to know about paid posting and when to do it.

Differences Between Boosted Posts and Ads
Each social media platform has its own methods of doing paid posting, but for the most part there are two styles of posts. There is paying to boost a post to reach more followers or a wider audience, and buying ad space on the platform for a specific demographic to see. Each has their own pros and cons to consider before paying for.

For example, boosted posts and ads work differently on Facebook. A boosted post is simply taking something already created and on your profile and paying for extra reach. Depending on the platform, you might be able to target a specific demographic or geographic area for the post. An ad is something specifically created to increase sales and doesn’t have to follow the post format. An ad could be more interactable, come in a new media format, or change depend on specific users history or data.

Boosted posts and paid ads have specific strengths and weaknesses. Boosted posts are less likely to be ignored by users and receive clicks and share, especially if the content is good. Ads are usually focused on gaining conversions or sales. Ads though are more likely to be ignored by the public, especially if people are not currently interested in what the ad is selling.

Boosting Posts To Grow Your Marketing Funnel
Boosting posts is great for getting your business and content in front of new people and growing awareness for what you do. By boosting the right posts, you could grow the top of your marketing funnel and get more attention from your target market.

It’s important to pick the right type of social media posts to boost, especially if your goal is to grow the top of your marketing funnel. The content in the post needs to be engaging and match your target market’s needs for top funnel information. That can include links to posts on your blog designed for top funnel needs, videos designed to attract new leads, or putting pressure on their “pain points.”

Not every post needs to be boosted. In fact, boosted posts need to be planned out to not just appeal to your following, but a member of your target market who knows nothing about you. Boosted posts are often a first contact with new people, so they need to perfectly reflect your branding and what you sell. Then, whatever content you boost, whether it’s a blog article or a video, needs to have a call to action that keeps them in your funnel.

Boosting Posts to Interact with Followers
If you want to make sure your followers see a specific post, you need to consider boosting it. If you are running a promotion, big sale, or simply need to get the word out for an event, boosting it can make sure it pops up in newsfeeds. With organic posting, there is always the chance a fraction of your followers will see it, but boosting it is much more secure.

Social media isn’t a one-way conversation. If you want to hear back from followers, a good post that demands attention and response while being boosted, is a great way to ensure followers talk back. That could mean getting likes, comments or shares from them. If you rely a lot on repeat customers or keeping current customers attention, this is an important part of the customer’s journey after their first purchase.  

Paying for Ads to Improve Conversions
Advertising on social media should be much more focused on the bottom of your marketing funnel and getting people to convert. These ads need to highlight products, their features, your company, and why you’re better than your competitors. Depending on the platform, you can customize and target specific groups with ads. If you are looking to boost your sales and catch potential customers at the bottom of the funnel, social media ads are useful.

An ad could also come in the same variety of formats that many boosted posts can. You can do an autoplay video, an interactable game, or more. Just make sure whatever you go with looks good and works. Be sure any videos are cropped properly so they look good, your ad copy is well written, and links to product pages work.

For social media ads to be truly successful, you need to have a good understanding of your target market. With ads, you can pick out demographics to show the ad to, but if you are going after the wrong market, you are just wasting money. Be sure to do plenty of market research before putting out Facebook ads, and strive to constantly tweak your ad and who you target with it.
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As organic reach for businesses continues to drop on social media, marketers will need to understand and practice post boosting and ads more. That means being much more deliberate with the type of posts you make, where you boost, and what kinds of ads you put out.

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