This article is about why we don’t recommend putting money into boosted posts on Meta. We give suggestions about what to do instead. Here’s a video version.
Why Boosting Organic Posts is inferior
Let’s start by getting clear on our terms. What is an ‘organic post’?
An ‘organic post’ can be defined as content and updates (photos, videos, stories, or text) shared to a social media profile. Organic posts utilise the platform’s free tools and are ‘unpaid’.
‘Boosting’ or a ‘boosted post’ refers to paying Meta money to advertise that organic post more widely.
Frequently people confuse ‘marketing’ as boosting an organic post with paid spend to reach an audience. But boosting organic posts is not the same type of ‘marketing’ as running Meta ads. Often there is no clear objective behind a boosted organic post.
Boosting is a bit like running into a hall blindfolded, trying to find people. You can’t properly target your ideal client. There is no ability to do any side-by-side creative ad comparisons or test to see what is performing and what isn’t. You are unable to control where your ad appears or even how it looks.
The result? Little control over how your brand appears. In turn, this can create distrust with your audience if your brand is showing up inconsistently (remember: brand consistency is key!).
You can think of boosting posts as Meta Ads ‘lite’.
Why Meta Likes it. Why you Shouldn’t
Meta loves it because it’s an easy money-maker for them. While it’s a fast and easy mechanism for business owners who don’t know the difference, it’s a shortcut that won’t give you the growth you need.
Why? Because it focuses on undefined or superficial goals instead of deeper strategy and marketing integration.
Keen on driving sales? Boosting posts removes the ability for Meta Pixel to track specific website conversion or optimise sales. Meta can’t communicate with a pixel to find buyers for you. You have no control on placements or how your organic post looks across different ad placements.
You might end up getting in front of a lot of people, but they are unlikely to buy from you because the background targeting work hasn’t been done.
What We do Instead
At Kumeū Media we build your campaigns within Ads Manager. Here are the benefits:
Leverage Good Organic Posts: You can retain top-performing organic posts in Ads Manager, but place them inside a structured campaign. This let’s you keep the ‘social proof’ - the interactions, the likes, the comments, etc. - but add a ‘call to action’ button.
Better Targeting: You can select the correct objective for your campaign/s; you can select your desired audience and use Meta’s tools, like Advantage+.
Meta Pixels: You can create and deploy a Metal Pixel to properly re-target and optimise sales, rather than relying on Meta’s guesswork.
Superior Creative: You can test ads against each other regularly. What creative works the best? Check the data and what’s performing well. Tweak and optimise as needed.
Meta Ads is better Long-term
Running Meta Ads will give you far greater performance over boosted organic posts in the long-term. It gives you robust structure to test and learn what works, and grow your business.
Put bluntly, by continuing to boost ads, you’re wasting money!
If you’d like help with your Meta Ads, get in touch!
We can run them on your behalf, or train someone in your team to run them for your business.