Please Do NOT Boost that Facebook Post

by | Marketing Thoughts

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Facebook Advertising: There is a better way.

***Editor’s Note: I’ve since revised my opinion on this matter so read this post then read Boost Your Facebook Posts Like This.***

Let me start by saying what I tell all my clients. It is more important to have 100 fans/subscribers/followers who love you then 5,000 who are moderately acquainted with you.

On the surface, boosting a post seems like a good thing:

  • You will reach a larger audience.
  • Facebook is helping you.
  • It only costs $5. I mean who wouldn’t pay $5 to reach 20-52,000 people?

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The problem is that if that exposure doesn’t lead people into your funnel to business then you are not only wasting the $5 but you are hurting your own organically grown Facebook engagement.

There is a better way. It’s called Custom and Lookalike Audiences. We are going to base this on your existing email list but you can actually create Custom and Lookalike Audiences from your existing fans (and their friends), customer database, LinkedIn connections, or from people who have visited your website.

Here we go. First, you need to upload your email list to Facebook. Just the email addresses. Don’t worry Facebook isn’t going to spam your list. Facebook isn’t after your list. I mean, they are Facebook. They have a bit of the market cornered already. Uploading your email list creates a Custom Audience that says “these are my people”. Facebook matches the email addresses up to their users with the same email addresses. What can you do with this information?

1) You can advertise to just those people – your email subscribers who do not like your page on Facebook. Encourage them to like your page so that they can automatically receive your special offers and exclusive content. This is a great strategy to form deeper relationships with your existing audience.

2) You can find people like those people. When you Boost a post, you can choose targeting like age and location. But let’s be honest, you are just guessing really. However, Facebook knows everything about its users. Think about that for a moment. Facebook knows EVERYTHING – your birthday, your friends, where you work, where you went to school, the keywords in your profile, whom you interact with, which pages you like, EVERYTHING. All of your fans may share interests like wine and Scandal. You have no way of knowing that, but Facebook does. When you create a custom audience, you say, “these are my people”. When you create a Lookalike Audience, you say “find more people like my people”. Facebook is not going to tell you what those factors are. I am not sure a human could tell you. It’s an algorithm, but it’s a very accurate algorithm.
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3) You can target that group of people based on all of the broad targeting factors available like gender, age, location, language, relationship status, and pages they like. Pause. Read that again. Pages they like. Boom. Do you ever wonder how you get that ad for the Dallas Cowboys t-shirt for a woman living in Virginia? Now you know. (Guess who my favorite NFL team is?)

Now, let’s take this planned advertising strategy where we are targeting people who might actually be interested in our products/services and put those leads into an online sales funnel that will deliver value over time.

This post originally appeared on the Constant Contact Community Blog.

***Editor’s Note: I’ve since revised my opinion on this matter so after reading this post, read Boost Your Facebook Posts Like This.***