Kudos to you! You’ve worked hard to grow an Instagram following, and it has paid off. Unfortunately, you’ve noticed a huge chunk of your followers aren’t engaging with your post. The average Instagram post is shared with only 20% of a business following.
The good news is that boosting your posts will help bridge the gap in your reach and improve your Instagram page management. If you follow the boosting steps described, the post will reach many people and rake in more money for your business.
Here are seven steps to follow when boosting a post.
Table of Contents
What is a boosted post?
Simply put, a boosted post is an ad designed to reach more of your following. The post resembles a normal post but with subtle differences, like a call to action and a ‘sponsored’ tag…
You don’t have to boost every piece of content you upload to your feed. But when you are running an Instagram product launch, the boosted post will increase your reach.
Most people confuse a boosted ad with a sponsored ad but they are different. Brands usually boost existing posts from their feed, but a sponsored post isn’t always discoverable on an account’s feed.
Boosting is restricted, particularly for the image to videos and carousel posts. However, when running a sponsored ad, you can also include video ads. Aside from that, creating a sponsored post is more difficult because it has more options for better targeting.
Overall, boosting posts does wonders in increasing post engagement and reach. On the other hand, sponsored ads are good for attracting new followers with both images and videos.
Benefits of boosted posts
Some pros of boost ad campaigns include:
- Increasing awareness of your brand – with a wider reach, more people interact with the post. In the end, awareness is built which is essential in Instagram marketing.
- Improves engagement – if the post has a decent engagement, boosting it will earn you even more engagement..
- Drive Traffic to your site– the call to action button is an important element of these posts as it helps drive traffic to your site.
- Improved analytics – boosted posts provide more data than regular posts. You can see the reach, clicks, and engagement on Insights by going to Profile> Ad Tools > Past Ads. With more data, your Instagram page management will be more informed and directed.
Steps to boost Instagram posts
To boost your post, follow the steps detailed below.
Choose a post to boost
The first step is deciding the post you want to boost. It is best if the post you choose already has great engagement, or is driving decent sales. Boosting such posts will only amplify the results you are getting since Instagram’s Algorithm already knows what’s working. Aside from boosting, a content optimization specialist will help you get better engagement.
To boost the post, go to your Profile>Promote>Boost.
Set boosting goals
The next step is deciding what you want the post to do. The objective you set determines the results you’ll get. The goal options include:
- More profile visits – this is ideal for brands building brand awareness and improving engagement.
- More site visits – this goal drives traffic to your site for brand awareness and sales.
- More messages – this goal is perfect for building relationships with current and new followers. The CTA encourages your audience to interact through direct messages.
Pick your target customer
The next step is choosing your target customer. But before this, Instagram’s algorithm will determine if you are eligible for special ads. Special ads are boosted posts that fall under sensitive categories, including:
- Credit – these promote or link to credit opportunities, including auto loans, credit card offers, business or personal loans, long-term financing, and mortgage loans.
- Employment – ads linking to employment opportunities, including internships, professional certification programs, or full-time jobs.
- Housing – ads that link to housing opportunities, including rental or sale of apartments or homes
- Social issues, politics, or elections – ads created for political figures or individuals vying for public office.
For regular posts, you can either have manual or automatic targeting. With automatic targeting, Instagram’s algorithm will handle everything for you. It’ll decide the potential customers to target based on existing user behavior and Profiles.
But if you prefer having more control over your target, pick ‘Create your own.’ This will allow you to specify the target audience you feel best represents your customer based on different criteria, including:
- Gender
- Age
- Location
- Interests
The size of the audience will change depending on the adjustments you make to these categories. Although a wider audience seems like the better choice, it’s often not. This is because Instagram’s algorithm will show the ad to an audience that doesn’t fit your customer’s Profile resulting in wasted money. Being specific with your target provides better results.
Create a budget
The budget represents how much you want to spend. Specify your ad spend per day and the number of days you’ll be running the Instagram ad. As you alter the budget, the estimated reach changes too.
Review the ad
Next, review every criterion you’ve made. Be keen on the criteria and reach. Although post goals matter, generally, you want to widen your reach to individuals fitting your customer’s profile.
Before launching, you should review the post. This will give you an idea of what the audience will see.
Enter payment details
Finally, provide your payment details. If you have a Facebook Ads account, you can link it to your Instagram account. Alternatively, you can fund the campaign using your credit/debit card.
Await approval
If you feel everything’s okay, boost the post and let Instagram work its magic. Instagram might take a day to review your post. Therefore, if it’s a time-sensitive campaign, it’s good Instagram page management practice to submit the ad for review in good time. And if the ad gets approved before you are ready, you can pause it.
Conclusion
Instagram is a good social platform to build your brand and reach potential customers and generate sales. Boosting some posts will help your organic content perform even better to provide more value from your marketing strategy.
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