Boosting Posts on Facebook? Here’s How to Do It Better
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👉 THE BOTTOM LINE:
Targeting the right audience isn't just about getting likes; it's about getting leads that convert to sales. When you take the time to dial in your audience targeting, each dollar you spend works harder, reaching people more likely to need and want your services. This contributes to more effective campaigns, better leads, and a clearer path to growing your revenue past $3M.
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Impulse "Boosts" on Facebook Often Aren’t Targeted, Draining Marketing Budgets $20 at a Time
Speaking with thousands of landscapers over the years, I often hear about how owners hit the ‘Boost Post’ button on Facebook hoping for more engagement or leads. If this sounds like you, you're not alone. However, these are often the same people who say they don’t see any noticeable results. Are you really reaching the right audience? Many miss out on their ads' potential by not intentionally choosing their audience, which greatly diminishes the effectiveness and ROI of their campaigns. Those $20 boosted posts add up over time—let’s make sure they are reaching the best possible prospects.
🎯Connect with your Ideal Future Customers via Custom Audiences
Facebook allows you to create 'Custom Audiences' for your ads to target people who are most likely to be interested in your services. This means instead of showing your ad to just 'anyone in the U.S older than 18,' for instance, you can target it specifically to those who have visited your website, engaged with your content, or fit into the demographic profile of your ideal customer.
Here’s How to Create (and Boost to) a Better Audience
☑️ Click the ‘Boost Post’ Button: Go to your business page, find the post you want to boost, and click the blue button.
☑️ Select Your Goal: To get the hang of it, select 'get more engagement' or 'get more website visitors.'
☑️ Deselect Advantage+ Creative: This is defaulted on, and you should turn it off.
☑️ Add Your URL: If you selected the goal of website visitors, you will need to tell Facebook where to direct people. If you've read our MarketingManual™ on landing pages, you'll remember that the more closely related the page is to the post you boosted, the better. For example, if the post is about patios, send them to a patios page on your site.
☑️ Create Your Audience: Under the ‘Audience’ section, select ‘People you choose through targeting’ and click ‘edit’ to define your target audience. Name your audience something you can easily identify for future boosts. Initially, you might start simple, but as you get more confident, you may want different audiences for design/build vs. maintenance, etc., based on service area and demographics.
☑️ Build Your Audience: Choose your service area (the narrower you go, the more impact your dollar will have), the typical age of your ideal customer, and then under ‘Characteristics’ select ‘add interests’. This is where the magic of the algorithm happens. Think about what your ideal customers have in common. For those targeting luxury consumers, this might typically include interests in health and wellness, fitness, careers, private schools, or that they drive an Audi in your area and like to entertain, etc.
☑️ Choose Your Budget: As your audience becomes more narrowly targeted with additional characteristics, your budget will stretch further. $20 on a great post can reach many of the right people.
☑️ Boost to This Audience: This audience is now saved. You can now easily choose to boost to a better audience each time you want to click that ‘boost post’ button.
☑️ Ensure Proper Expectations and Mindset: Boosting a few posts here and there is not going to revolutionize your business—even if they are the ideal people. Consumers need to see ads repeatedly to make an impact. Play the long game; as long as you are doing your best to reach the most ideal clients repeatedly with a healthy budget, you will win over those who do not. Plain and simple.
⚙️🛠️ TAKE ACTION:
Boost one post to a custom audience. Instead of just boosting posts to the default settings (or not boosting at all), create a custom audience that reflects your ideal customer. It’s a simple change that can significantly increase the effectiveness of your social media efforts.
