Here’s why you should STOP boosting posts on Facebook

With organic reach on Facebook steadily declining, many small business owners are tempted to try the Boost Post option.

But is boosting a post truly worth your hard-earned marketing dollars?

Before we dive into the pros and cons of boosting Facebook posts, let’s tackle one of the most frequently-asked-questions I get:

“What is organic reach?”

Organic reach is the number of Facebook users who have seen your post through unpaid distribution.

So, when you post on your Facebook Business Page the usual way, your organic reach measures the number of people who see it for free.

Today, for most Business Pages, organic Reach has fallen to 1.6-2%.

So, let’s translate this: when you look at the number of users who Like your page, multiply that number by 2%, and that’s likely the number of people who see your posts regularly.

And when you see that disappointing percentage in the Reach column for your post, it’s easy to feel tempted to Boost it so more people see it.

But there are some inherent disadvantages to the Boost feature:

1. When you boost a post, the post will obviously show on your business page, and over time you’ll over-saturate your existing fan base with copycat messaging.
2. It’s best to have promotional messaging set-up as ads so you don’t hurt your organic reach. In January 2015, Facebook created a new rule about overly promotional posts. Ads are, of course, promotional in nature. If Facebook sees that you’re consistently putting promotional contents on your business timeline, your overall organic reach for all posts will suffer significantly over time.
3. Facebook always releases its newest targeting options in Ads Manager first, so you won’t be able to take advantage of them when you boost a post.
4. When you boost a post, you can’t optimize for certain actions (conversions, for example). So you aren’t allowing Facebook to put your messages in front of the users who are most likely to sign-up for, or buy, what you’re offering.
5. You can’t control your bid, so you can’t tell Facebook how much you’re willing to spend for each action.

So, what can you do to get more eyeballs on your products or services?

Action Steps

1. Check out our post on improving your organic reach.
2. Build your email list. This is your most important asset and doing this is the only surefire way to get your message in front of consumers who have expressed active interest in your business.
3. Consider placing ads to drive immediate action and increase sales. (If you need tips for setting up Facebook (and Instagram!) ads, check out our Marketing Unleashed for Facebook and Instagram course.)

As a small business owner, you need to be careful about how you spend your marketing dollars. Make sure you’re spending them in ways that actually drive paying customers to your website, brick-and-mortar location, or phone lines.