Why Boosting Posts On Facebook And Instagram Is A Waste of Budget (2024)

Why Boosting Posts On Facebook And Instagram Is A Waste of Budget

There is no denying that social media is effective and works great for engagement and awareness. If you manage to have one of your posts go viral, or if an influencer takes a liking to your product and gives you a raving review on their account, you can expect to see a sudden spike in interest. You may be thinking, “I can speed this process up by boosting my posts on Facebook and Instagram”.

Well, DON’T DO IT!

You’ve spent hours developing new content strategies, monitoring your competitors, and engaging with your followers, so make sure that your hard work is getting the recognition it deserves, and don’t waste it on those tempting “boost post” button on Facebook or “promote” button on Instagram.

Social media boosting works when your objective is to reach a broad range of users and don’t care as much about specific buyer personas. What you actually need is a hyper-targeted paid social campaign. You will reach your specific target audience or buyer persona without wasting budget on an audience who are most likely not going to increase your sales or engage with your content. Do you really want to boost your post for printer ink, house paint, job openings, or car dealership for the 14 year old in high school living with their parents? We didn't think so! Yes, it seems to be an inexpensive way of expanding your clientele, but it isn’t necessarily always useful and effective from a marketing standpoint.

Have you ever heard our peers talking about how their attempts at boosting posts on social media didn’t work as well as they wanted it to? They’re probably downplaying how truly ineffective it was and didn’t want to let on that they made a mistake in doing so.

Stay ahead of the game and discover why boosting ads on Facebook and Instagram is simply throwing your money down the drain.

Boosting posts helps generate a higher reach and impressions - but this doesn’t necessarily equate to sales. That presumably magic button only helps to extend your reach to a wider group of people and doesn’t guarantee a click-through, purchase, or engagement since it’s not your target audience.

You’ve probably seen so many ads on Facebook and Instagram boosting products or services, but how many times have you actually clicked on any of those ads? Users who are not your customers are thinking the same thing about your boosted ad. Don’t fall prey to this and watch out for the limitations boosted posts come with.

Here are a few of the limitations of boosting content.

• Advanced targeting options are not available. You can usually only select essential factors such as gender, age, location, interests, and demographics.
• Ad placements are poor as they don’t allow you to target different mobile devices or operating systems.
• No possibility of editing your boosted post, thus maintaining ad cost at the same rate during the entire campaign.
• Any changes needed during the campaign period cannot be done without deleting the ad and rebuilding it, which would incur more cost.

If you do decide on boosting your posts, be sure to monitor it and be flexible in your approach. Engagements are essential, and should your boosted post not get any, you can simply pause the spend. DO NOT put additional money into it trying to see if you’d get more clicks or likes – transfer your efforts, time, and budget into something that would be more productive.

What should you do instead of boosting posts? Glad you asked!

Have you tried Paid Social Campaigns? If you have an ad agency at your fingertips, reach out to them before spending additional budget on random posts. They will help you navigate the intricacies of Social Paid Advertising, saving you wasted budget and time by hyper-targeting your specific audience. Start with a buyer persona, content strategy, and detailed competitive research before randomly throwing coins at audiences. As Krista LaRiviere would say, “stop the random acts of marketing”! Engage the experts and protect your investment.

Have you tried Paid Search Ads? Investing in Paid Search Advertising is a powerful marketing tool that shows digital ads on search engine results pages based on a person's search keywords and other factors. There are so many benefits to it that we’re surprised you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet!

And, if you’re a Non-Profit, we recommend reaching out today to your agency and talking to them about Google’s Non-Profit Grant. If your agency doesn’t know about it, reach out to Mauka Digital’s marketing team for some advice.

What’s so good about Paid Social and Paid Search?

👍 More visibility as you can get your brand to the top of search results immediately, instead of waiting for it to crawl up there organically.

👍 Higher traffic, especially for newer companies.

👍 Interested potential customers as they are already searching for solutions that you offer, and not simply surfing the web randomly.

👍 Measurable results which allow you to determine what’s working and how to best optimize your dollars. You can even check specific analytics such as their geographical location, pages they visited on your website, and how much time they spent on each page.

👍 Ease of optimizations as you can choose and change your keywords, ad copy, and landing page anytime you want, according to what’s working or not.

👍 Cost-effective, as there is no minimum spend requirement, and you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. This means that you are not wasting money on people who are simply browsing and not interested in making a purchase.

The money you invest in these foundational strategies will not only save your budget in the long run but also significantly increase your Return On Investment when you begin your hyper-targeted paid ad campaign.

Here are a few pro-tips to showcase your brand properly without wasting budget:

• Redeemable “Offers” if you’re looking to drive in-store traffic
• Lead forms or conversion pixel-tracked link posts if you seek to acquire new leads
• Running ads directly to Messenger where you can engage directly with your prospective customer.
• Ad campaigns to market an event that will boost the reach and engagement for that specific event.

All said and done, online advertising is exciting, necessary, and it opens up your business to a much wider audience. You also get to interact directly with target audiences and create a more intimate relationship with people who are more likely to become a customer. However, be smart about advertising online because if done wrong, it’s like trying to catch a fly with a net strapped to a bicycle. That's a fun mental picture, huh?

Regain control of your budget spending by allocating that additional time and research for more suitable post promotions. It may involve more work, but you will see a better return on investment, which is what you’re after in the long run, right?

If your brand is looking to explore Paid Advertisem*nt either on social media or a search engine, Mauka Digital’s expert teams will walk you through the things to avoid and the strategies to consider when reaching out to your audience online. Reach out for a free consultation and learn why their customers love them!