Boosting Facebook Posts: Should A Local Business Do It?

Facebook has made advertising "easy" for every business with a page. In an effort to entice businesses to reach more people with their content or offers, Facebook has created a "boost post" option that is conveniently and wisely placed under each organic post.

The boosted post option makes reaching a larger audience painless and simple. To a degree, pushing the boost post button and watching the results pour in over a 24 hour period can be quite addictive. However, like many addictions, there is a HUGE downside to this rather lazy and effortless strategy. When businesses take the boost post option, they are relinquishing control of their target audience. While the option is rather tempting, boosting posts on Facebook can be harmful to your business page, if the right steps are not taken. 

Source: Facebook - Promoted Posts 

When you hit the “boost post” button, you are at the complete mercy of the Facebook ad algorithm. Once pressed, the objective of Facebook is to reach as many people in as little amount of time as possible--usually a 24 hour period.

Due to the time constraints factored into the ad algorithm of the boost post option, Facebook will often deliver followers from countries like Dubai and Bangladesh within 24 hours of pressing the boost post button. Dubai is beautiful, but chances are if you are a local business, attracting followers to your Facebook business page from Dubai is about as useless as attempting to use Dirham (currency of Dubai) at a Baton Rouge Furniture store.

So, if gaining relevant users are important to your business, you should resist the “boost post” option. Facebook provides many ad tools that build geographical fences around your business page, so the ads are served to the desired target audience without any waste involved. These tools and strategies can be applied within the boost post option, so you are placing audience parameters within the boosted post. The ad tool options provided by Facebook are user-friendly, and they do not require a large amount of time to implement. In our next blog, we will take a deeper dive into those "best steps" to take when using the Facebook ad tool.

Check out our short video below which covers the topic of boosting post on Facebook. The video is very brief and informative.