Do you see posts with the word ‘sponsored’ on popping up in your News Feed more and more? I do. I’m going to state the obvious here (I know, and I apologise), but this means that the creator of that content has paid to show that post to you. Maybe I’ve been noticing it more lately, but I’m beginning to wonder if Facebook’s new News Feed changes have caused this surge? Now, I’m in no way against giving a post a boost or placing an ad with Facebook. Quite the opposite. But what I will say is that although you can throw a LOT of money at Facebook, it will only generate the right impact when you’ve spent it on the right content. To help with this, here are my tips to help you decided when to pay to boost your Facebook post.

When to pay to boost your Facebook post

Some people say that you should never boost a Facebook post. There’s some good logic behind their reasons and if you don’t want to, don’t. I, however, do boost the odd post. I haven’t actually boosted any posts for a few months now on my own page. This is not because I have some objection, far from it, I just like to use my money wisely (even if it is £2!), and I haven’t felt the need to pay to boost a post for a bit. However, I want to share with you the thought process I apply when I boost a post. You don’t have to agree, you might have another method, but this is what I do. I would love to know how you decide when to pay to boost your Facebook post.

1. I boost posts that do well organically. Generally I only boost posts that have started to gather momentum on their own. I use this as a test. Again, I use the word generally when I say that if a post does well organically, it’ll do well when boosted.
2. I boost posts that have a point. I wouldn’t boost a post that didn’t have a point. But then I don’t tend to post that much that doesn’t have a point. I like each post to have some value in some way, as I for one am tired of self indulgent posts cluttering up my News Feed.
3. I boost posts I want my followers to see. I boost a post if I want my followers to see it too. I would run an ad if I was looking to target new people and if the content was more of an advert nature.
4. I boost posts that are informative (well, that’s the aim!). If I was creating something more like a straight advert, I wouldn’t post it on my feed, so I wouldn’t boost it, I would do an advert.
5. I boost posts that are time sensitive. Not all the time, but something that is time sensitive is more likely to get a boost because I want people to see it quickly and don’t have time to recycle.
6. I boost posts that I think people will engage with. Point 1 should have proved this, but if people start engaging the organic reach will increase too, making my boost do more.
7. I boost posts when I just want a lift in a post’s reach. Facebook Ads have a lot more options and functionality so if I have more of a campaign in mind, I would invest the extra time in placing an ad as I would be able to make my ad style content work harder by utilising different styles of ad, objectives, etc. etc.
8. I boost posts that meet the ad guidelines. Too much text, for example, might work in a normal post, but if I boost a post with too much text on the image (according to Facebook), my money isn’t working as hard as it could be.

…and I tend to boost posts for short periods of time… and for not much money. The kind of content I boost is usually blog content or day of the week style content.

When do you pay to post a Facebook post? Have I missed any criteria from the list above? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.