With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world. For businesses and content creators, Facebook offers an unparalleled opportunity to reach a massive audience. One of the best ways to reach people on Facebook is through video content. However, with so much content competing for attention, actually getting your videos seen can be a challenge.
That’s where “boosting” comes in. Boosting is Facebook’s paid promotion system that allows you to pay to increase the reach and views for your videos. But is boosting Facebook videos worth it? Should you be putting money behind your Facebook video content? In this article, we’ll examine the pros and cons of boosting to help you decide if it’s right for your business.
What is boosting on Facebook?
Boosting is how you can pay Facebook to show your videos to more people. It works like this:
- You post a video to your Facebook Page.
- In the video settings, you choose the “Boost Video” option.
- Facebook will show you targeting and budget options for promoting the video.
- You choose the target audience, duration, and daily budget for your boosted video campaign.
- Facebook will then push your video out to more feeds beyond just your current Page followers.
- You pay Facebook based on how many people actually view your boosted video.
The idea is simple – you’re paying Facebook to increase the distribution and views for your video content. The more you pay, the more people your videos will be shown to. Boosting lets you easily scale the reach of your Facebook videos through Facebook’s huge user base.
The benefits of boosting Facebook videos
There are a number of potential benefits that come with boosting your Facebook videos:
Reach a bigger audience
The most obvious benefit is reaching a larger audience. Without a boost, your videos may only be seen by a portion of your current Facebook followers. But a boost can expose your videos to a much wider group. You can choose to target specific demographics, interests, locations, and more to reach your ideal audience.
Get more engagement
More viewers means more engagement. Boosted videos tend to get higher view counts, more comments, and more shares. Engagement metrics are important Facebook video ranking factors. So boosting can help increase your overall engagement and improve the visibility of your video over time.
Grow your followers
Boosting helps you get your content in front of people who aren’t yet following your Page. If those viewers like your video, they may decide to follow you and become a new follower. More followers mean more people consuming your future content.
Support your goals
Video views support a wide range of business goals. You may want to boost brand awareness, promote a product, drive website traffic, or generate leads and sales. More video views from boosting can help you support all of these goals.
Affordable and flexible
Facebook video boosting can be very affordable, especially compared to other paid advertising options. You choose your exact budget and only pay when people actually view your videos. And you can start and stop campaigns anytime you want. So it’s a flexible and cost-efficient way to reach more people.
Detailed analytics
When you boost videos on Facebook, you get access to detailed analytics about the performance of your campaign. You can see views, engagement metrics, demographics reached, and more. This info helps you optimize future video and boosting strategies.
Potential downsides to boosting
While there are some clear benefits, boosting Facebook videos also comes with some potential downsides to consider:
No guarantee of ROI
There’s no guarantee that the amount you spend boosting videos will translate to a positive return on investment. The results can vary widely. You may not earn enough revenue or conversions to justify the boosting cost. So there’s a risk of losing money.
Easy to overspend
It’s easy to get carried away and overspend on boosting. Facebook makes it simple to keep increasing your budget. But more spending doesn’t always equal better results. You need to carefully monitor performance and make smart budget decisions.
More competitive landscape
The more businesses that boost their videos, the more competitive and expensive it gets to stand out. A saturated landscape means your videos may need bigger budgets to hit the same targets.
Potentially poor results
There’s no guarantee that boosting will work well for your videos. You may get lots of irrelevant views or minimal engagement. Boosting only helps if your content resonates with the target audience.
Ongoing costs
Boosting provides temporary benefits. Once a campaign ends, your metrics will go back to normal. That means you need to continually run new campaigns and budget for ongoing costs.
Less organic reach
Some experts claim that boosting videos may cause Facebook to show your future videos to fewer people organically. So you can become reliant on paid reach.
Tips for successful video boosting
Here are some tips to help make sure your boosted Facebook videos deliver great results:
Test different audiences
Run multiple campaigns targeting different audiences and locations. See which groups engage the most to optimize future targeting.
Experiment with budgets
Try higher and lower budgets to find the sweet spot where you get sufficient views without overspending.
Make entertaining content
Fun, emotional, helpful videos perform the best. People want entertainment and value from boosted content.
Use eye-catching thumbnails
Your thumbnail image has a big impact on click-through rate. Use high-quality, bright, interesting images.
Frontload value
You only pay for views of 10+ seconds. Make sure to include a strong hook right away in your videos.
Monitor analytics
Watch your metrics to uncover optimization opportunities and understand your best audience targets.
Promote consistently
Don’t just boost once. Run regular campaigns to build your audience and visibility over time.
Reuse top content
Repurpose and re-boost your best performing videos to maximize your investment.
Should you boost your Facebook videos?
Whether you should boost your Facebook videos depends on your specific situation, goals, and budget. Here are some questions to help decide if it’s right for you:
Is video a priority?
If video isn’t a core part of your strategy, other tactics may be better uses of budget.
Are you struggling for reach?
A boost makes the most sense if you need help getting your videos seen.
Do you have a big audience?
For Pages with small followings, a boost can be very useful to gain more visibility.
Can you create quality video?
Boosting only works if your video content is compelling and professional.
Do you have the budget?
You want to make sure you can comfortably afford the potential cost.
Are you tracking metrics?
Monitoring analytics is key to determining if boosting works for your video strategy.
Will you do it regularly?
Ongoing, consistent boosting tends to work better than one-off attempts.
Conclusion
Boosting Facebook videos can be a smart marketing investment, but there are also potential pitfalls. To decide if it’s right for your business, weigh the benefits vs the drawbacks. Considering your goals, audience, content, and budget can help determine if and when to boost.
Be purposeful and strategic with your efforts. Test different options and constantly monitor and optimize based on data. With the right approach, boosting can amplify your Facebook video strategy and support your business goals.