Boost it! Boost it not!
The intense desire to boost that amazing post you just created on your social media is getting to you for a reason. Meta (Facebook and Instagram) created this nifty little button that allows you to spend as much money as you want on any singular post.
And it’s really tempting. Heck, even we’ve fallen prey to that little blue button a time or two back in the day. But here’s why we don’t do that anymore, and why you shouldn’t either.
When you boost a post, you might THINK it’s working... Meta says it’s working and your Reach numbers are off the chain, which is nice... ...BUT, it comes at a cost you can’t actually see. Meta knows you’re getting a sort of high from that boost button and you see those inflated reach numbers so you keep coming back.
Truth is, you likely get few new REAL followers or engagement from that boosted post. It’s basically just a way to keep you spending money. They show you good numbers, and you keep spending that money thinking you’re getting something in return. But nothing ever comes of it.
If you stop spending the money, they stop showing your organic posts (those you don’t pay to boost) to the people you previously paid to get in front of. You’re almost penalized for it because you aren’t getting any new followers and those people aren’t seeing or interacting with your new posts and any traction that you got from that boosted post is blowing in the wind leaving you more likely to spend money to boost another post which gives you the adrenaline rush you’re looking for.
It’s a vicious cycle of creating posts, spending money to boost it to the wrong audience, no growth, and repeat ad nauseum. You have to be putting your posts in front of the right audience - the people most likely to be looking for your service/product and who are willing to spend money at your business.
So what SHOULD you be doing???
Meta, LinkedIn and Google among others offer a means of audience building and ad targeting that most businesses are not utilizing properly; Retargeting. When done properly, that content that you're sharing on social media drives visitors to your website and those visitors who take a bit of time to look around your site are "tagged" for retargeting.
These TAGGED visitors to your website are now available as an audience for you to target with ads and posts. They might see your ad on their favorite news website, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, and even games and other apps on their phones. Oftentimes, these ads can be placed for pennies a click.
Web Traffic Shares:
- Product Specifications
- Product Pricing
- Catalogs or Brochures
- Read More Links to Press Releases
- Product White Papers
Tools for Retargeting:
- Google Tag Manager
- Google Ads Account
- Google "GA4" Analytics With Goals
- Meta/Facebook Ads Manager
- LinkedIn Campaign Manager
Retargeting people who have taken a specific action in your website, (viewed pricing for example), gives you a bucket of actual, real-life people who are looking for your services and/or who are most likely to use your products.
These tagged audiences can also be used to create LOOKALIKE audiences. A lookalike audience is a new audience that shares similar characteristics and traits with your web traffic.
How to Build a Retargeting Audience:
- Share irresistible content that links to your website
- Tag people who take a specific action on your site
- Create lookalike audiences from those tagged users
- Retarget your new audiences with your boosted content
This proven process has created amazing results for our clients and we are sure it will work for you too!
If you would like help implementing a RETARGETING AUDIENCE BUILDING STRATEGY for your organization, we are here to help.