ProblemAdvertising
We boosted a post and got nothing. Why?
The Boost button is built to be easy, and by default it buys likes and reactions. If you wanted messages or sales, it was aiming at the wrong thing.
A boost usually fails for one of five reasons: it was set to get engagement when you wanted enquiries, it was shown to too wide an audience, the post had no offer or instruction, the budget was spread over too many days, or there was no way to tell what it achieved. Open the boost's results and look at the goal it was given. Then run one advert with one goal, one audience and one instruction.
What you see, and what it usually means
| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Plenty of likes, no messages | The boost was set to get engagement, so it found people who like things. |
| Likes from other countries or far-away towns | The audience was left on a wide default. |
| It ran for ten days on a tiny amount | Too little each day for the platform to learn who responds. |
| You cannot say what it achieved | Nothing was measured beyond likes. |
| It worked once and never again | The first post had an offer. The later ones did not. |
What you can do yourself
These cost nothing but time.
Open the results
In Meta Business Suite, open Ads and select the boost. Read Goal, Reach, Results and Cost per result.
Check what the goal was
If it says engagement or post reactions and you wanted customers, the boost did what it was told.
Check where it was shown
Look at the audience's location and age. For a local business it should be your town and the surrounding area, not “Namibia”.
Look at the post itself
Is there an offer, a price and one instruction? A picture of the shopfront with “visit us” gives people no reason to act today.
Work out the daily amount
Divide what you spent by the number of days. Very small daily amounts produce results too thin to read.
Change one thing and try again
Same post, with the goal set to messages and the audience set to your area. Compare cost per message, not likes.
- You have boosted three or more times and cannot say what it brought.
- You are spending every month with no record of results.
- You want to know what one enquiry costs you.
What we would do
We set the advert up in Ads Manager and not with the Boost button: one goal, a defined audience, several versions of the advert tested against each other, and tracking so that every report shows the cost of each enquiry.
Paid campaigns are planned from your budget, from N$1,499.99. You get a written plan before you pay, and the budget planner shows how any amount is divided.
Common questions
Is boosting a post a waste of money?
Not always. A boost set to the right goal, with a real offer, to a local audience, can work. It is the defaults that waste money. See boost or Ads Manager?
How much should a test cost?
Enough to run for two weeks at a readable daily amount. Our smallest campaign budget is N$1,499.99, of which 60% is advertising.
Why did people like the post and not buy?
Because liking is free and buying is not. The platform found the people most likely to do the thing you asked for, and what the boost asked for was reactions.
Tell us your budget. We will send back a plan.
Say what you are marketing, who you want to reach and what you can spend. You get a written plan with the channels, the duration and a traffic target before you pay anything.