Why you shouldn’t boost posts on Instagram & Facebook

Why you shouldn’t boost posts on Instagram & Facebook

Why You Should Not Boost Posts on Instagram or Facebook (and what to do instead)

If you’ve been managing your business’s social media presence, you’ve probably seen that tempting blue “Boost Post” button on Facebook and Instagram which promises to increase your reach with just a few clicks. Whilst boosting a post might seem like an easy win, it’s not always the most effective way to spend your marketing budget and using Meta Business Manager offers more strategic control and better results.

Here’s why:

1. Limited Targeting Options

Boosting a post gives you basic targeting options like age, location, and interests. However, these are pretty broad and might not reach the people most likely to engage with your content or purchase your product.  Meta Business Manager allows for advanced targeting, including custom audiences, lookalike audiences, and detailed behavioural data. This means you can reach the right people at the right time (your perfect target audience), increasing your chances of conversions.

 

2. Fewer Ad Format Choices

When you boost a post, you’re usually limited to a single format—like a photo or video with basic text. This limits creativity and how you tell your brand’s story.  With Meta Business Manager, you have access to a variety of ad formats, including carousel ads, slideshow ads, video ads and collection ads.  You can even upload different-sized images for specific placements, meaning your images look their best.  Advantage+ Ads allow for more engaging and interactive experiences, which can better capture your audience’s attention.

 

3. No Control Over Placement

Boosted posts automatically appear on Facebook and Instagram feeds, but you can’t control where else they might show up, like Stories or the Audience Network.  On the other hand, Meta Business Manager allows you to select exactly where your ads appear. You can choose to show your ads in Stories, in-stream videos, or even on Messenger. This flexibility lets you optimise for the best-performing placements, ensuring your ad spend goes further.

 

4. Limited Optimisation and Reporting

Boosted posts offer basic metrics like reach, impressions, and engagement. But if you want deeper insights—like conversion tracking or ROI analysis— you’re out of luck.  With Meta Business Manager, you receive advanced analytics and detailed reporting tools. You can track website actions, app installs, or even offline conversions. This helps you measure the actual impact of your ads, making it easier to adjust strategies, create retargeting ads and maximise ROI.

 

5. Higher Costs, Lower Returns

Boosting posts is convenient, but it’s not cost-effective. The simplified setup often leads to spending more money without a strategic plan or measurable results.  Meta Business Manager enables you to set more precise budgets and bidding strategies, ensuring you get the most out of every Pound. When testing various images or different text options, you can turn ads off if they’re not working, thereby ensuring the best ads are showing.  Test, refine, repeat.  By optimising ad delivery and targeting, you can lower costs while achieving better results.

 

The Better Alternative: Meta Business Manager

Whilst boosting posts might seem like a quick solution, it’s limited in functionality and control. If you want to maximise your social media advertising budget and see real business results, Meta Business Manager is the way to go. It offers advanced targeting, additional creative options, detailed reporting and better budget management.

 

Why not check out how well your Meta Business Manager is working here.

 

What Meta Business Suite questions would you like to ask?

If your Meta Business Suite account is in a mess and you’d like some help sorting it out, then why not get in touch and we can have a chat.

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What “digital” questions to ask when buying a small company?

What “digital” questions to ask when buying a small company?

When buying another company, it’s important to consider all the digital assets that the company owns. Digital assets can include things like domain names, social media accounts, digital advertising accounts, website hosting, website content, online databases, software, and digital marketing materials.

Here are some things you should know and the questions to ask.

 

Value

Some digital assets can be valuable and can greatly impact the overall value of a company. Therefore, it’s important to assess the value of digital assets to ensure that the purchase price of the company is reasonable.  There’s no point paying over the odds though for an out-of-date website or digital advertising that isn’t actually producing any ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).

Ownership

You will need to determine who owns the digital assets (whether it’s the company itself or a third party) and you will also need to obtain legal documentation, such as contracts, agreements, or licenses, to verify the ownership of these assets.  Check whose name the domain name is in, where it’s registered and how to access it.   Also find out where is the website hosted, who pays for it and what the login details are.

Maintenance and security

Digital assets require maintenance and security to ensure that they remain valuable and secure. What are the established protocols for maintaining and securing these assets, and if they are not in place, what is the cost of doing so?   Now is also the time for a password/login audit of everything.

Social Media

Establish who has access to all the social media accounts and once you have bought the company, remove unnecessary admins but before you do this, ensure that you have two current admins that you trust.

Digital Advertising

Who has access to these accounts?  If using an agency are they using their own ad accounts say for Facebook advertising or do they have admin access to yours?  Do you wish to continue with them and if so, now is the time to audit their results and have an in-depth discussion of their strategies.  Can you access Facebook’s Ad Manager?  How about Google’s Ad Account or the Company’s Google Merchant Account?  Do you have access to any supplementary feeds on your Google Merchant Account?

 

To be honest, even if you’re not buying a new company it should be regular good practice to audit your online presence and passwords, etc to check that everything is in order.

 

What "Digital Asset" questions would you like to ask?

If you’d like to dicuss anything further, then why not get in touch and we can have a chat.

How can I help?

The relationship between a successful business and their website

The relationship between a successful business and their website

A successful business will often have a well-designed website that effectively represents the company and helps it achieve its goals. The website will be regularly updated with fresh content, such as blog posts or product updates, to keep visitors engaged and returning to the site.

Ultimately, the relationship between a successful business and its website is one of mutual support and reinforcement. A “cared for” website helps the business reach and serve more customers, whilst a successful business helps to drive traffic and credibility to the website.

Here’s what to consider when reflecting on your own website and whether it needs some TLC:

 

A Clean and Professional Design

A successful website has a polished, professional look that inspires confidence in the business.

Easy Navigation

A successful website is easy to navigate, with clear headings and links to help visitors find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.

High-Quality Content

A successful website has well-written, informative content that provides value to visitors and showcases the business’s expertise.  The most important message is how to solve your client’s “pain points”.

Responsive Design

A successful website is designed to be responsive, so that it looks and functions well on a variety of devices, including desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Strong Calls to Action

A successful website always includes clear calls to action, such as “Contact Us,” “Sign Up,” or “Buy Now,” to encourage visitors to take the next step and become customers.

What website design questions would you like to ask?

If you’d like to dicuss anything further, then why not get in touch and we can have a chat.

How can I help?

What’s the Difference Between Google Ads & Facebook Ads?

What’s the Difference Between Google Ads & Facebook Ads?

Just as a business shouldn’t be on all available social media platforms, neither should a business be using all advertising platforms just because they can.  With careful consideration and thought you most certainly can use more than one platform – in fact planning, coordinating and re-targeting with Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) and Googles Ads is an excellent strategy as they are both powerful advertising platforms, but they work in different ways. Google Ads uses a pay-per-click model, meaning you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Facebook Ads, on the other hand, operates on a bidding system and charges based on impressions.

However, before you do make a decision,  think about what is best for your business, who is your audience, what is your budget and what outcomes are you looking for.

 

Audience

Google Ads are shown to users on Google search (and its partner websites), while Facebook Ads are shown to users on the Facebook & Instagram platforms and its associated apps. This means that the audience you reach with each platform is different.  Think about where your audience hangs out – Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube or LinkedIn.

 

Targeting

Both platforms offer a range of targeting options, but Facebook’s options tend to be more comprehensive, allowing you to target users based on factors such as age, location, interests, and behaviours. Google Ads targeting is largely based on keywords, which means you can target users who are searching for specific terms.  You can also exclude certain search terms so that you can be relevant to your audience. Both platforms use remarketing options.

 

Cost

The cost of advertising on Google and Facebook can vary widely, but Google Ads tend to be more expensive due to the higher value of search traffic.  Facebook will spend your daily/lifetime budget but Google will only spend it if someone clicks on a relevant keyword.  However, that keyword may be 60p per click or £3 per click depending on the industry.  So unless you have a healthy budget Google Ads may not be for you.

 

Ad formats

Both platforms offer a variety of ad formats, but Facebook’s ad formats tend to be more visually oriented, while Google’s ad formats are more text-based, apart from Google Shopping Campaigns.

 

Measurement and Reporting

Both platforms provide detailed tracking and reporting tools, but Google Ads tend to offer more comprehensive and granular data, allowing you to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns more accurately. Data is so valuable in determining the direction of your campaigns and what’s working in your business.

 

 

What ad questions would you like to ask?

If you’d like to dicuss anything further, then why not get in touch and we can have a chat.

How can I help?

What does your website really say about you?

What does your website really say about you?

Does your website say more than you actually realise about your company?

Do you always judge a company by its website?

If branding represents a company and its culture, is the neglect of the website and marketing, in general, a good representation of how the company is feeling and operating?

Is a good and constantly updated online presence an indicator of the profitability, confidence and health of a business?

 

These are all valid questions to which I’m not sure I have all the answers but I’d love to hear what you think!

In working my way through these musings and on my continued quest to find the question Google can’t answer, I’ve put together five business characteristics that I often come across.  If there’s a faint inkling that one of these scenarios below may represent your company behind the scenes, then only you will know – but consider this, are you subconsciously sending out the wrong message to your current or potential customers? If you do recognise yourself how are you going to resolve the perceived issues?

The excuse of no time or budget is just that, an excuse.  Is now the moment to have a really good look at your digital budget and re-evaluate what you consider important? What extraneous things are you spending your time and money on and what are you inadvertently saying online that could negatively impact your business?

Start Up Business

You asked a friend, or mate of a friend, to set up your website because they were cheap.  However, the attention to detail isn’t there – perhaps there are different colours in odd areas or strange-sized fonts and there’s no cohesion. The photos aren’t optimised (which makes the site slow) or they’re not uniform in look or shape (some in colour, some in black and white).

What else could you be saying with a site like this?  We’re a start-up that assigned the overseeing of the website to someone whose skills lie elsewhere.  The “designer” just added the content provided and as the person in charge of this wasn’t experienced in marketing it just ended up as a “death by PowerPoint” experience but on the website.  Even worse, everyone involved in the start-up then decided to get involved and with all their differing opinions it’s become a website designed by committee consensus which is never good.   You may not see this from within the business but it is there in the overall impression it gives to those outside the business.

The "No Budget" Business

Are funds so low in the company that you can’t afford to update your site? Is it starting to look like a dusty old shopfront and you just can’t understand why it’s not working as well for you now?  What is this really saying about the state of your business?

Management Mindset

Those in charge can’t see the value in digital and therefore don’t see it as a priority.  The website is starting to look old-fashioned which isn’t a great look. They think that once the site is up and running, then that’s a job to be ticked off the list and forgotten.  They assigned the social media marketing to the junior intern (because naturally, they’re a digital native) rather than an experienced Social Media Manager and then when they don’t get great results, they say social media isn’t working and it’s overrated (exasperating!).

We don't need help, we're just enthusiastic

This site is filled with lots of stock photos (more often than not having nothing to do with their target market),  crazy graphics just because, the navigation is all over the place, the information you’re looking for is difficult to find and there are no calls to action.  They haven’t given much thought to their target market but they’re here and they have boundless energy and enthusiasm so they’ll just give it an optimistic go!

It's all about me

Your website should show potential customers how you can help them and solve their problems but many websites just scream – look at what we do, look at what we do.  If a visitor to the site can be bothered to dig through how marvellous you are they may find the answers to their questions or they may just move on to a site that resonates more with them.

So how can you fix any of the above?  Firstly, take a deep breath and put a chunk of time aside in your diary to have a really honest look at your site from your customers’ point of view – what’s the experience like for them as they move through your site?  Can they find what they’re looking for – do you know what they’re looking for?  It’s difficult when you live within the nuts and bolts of your business but give yourself the space to change your perspective and have a good honest look at what potential customers are seeing. When was the last time you looked at your Google Analytics to see how visitors are using your site?  Should you be having a regular catch-up with your website designer and see what ideas they have?

Then evaluate how much time and money you are actually spending on your digital presence and ask yourself how much you actually value it?  Could your website be doing more to drive more business? Do you now need to start building an email list?  Do you need to really get your social media up and running and how do you go about this?  Have you asked your staff what they think about your website and social media?

There’s always lots to think about but one of the things I have learned about websites over the years is that technology and styles move on and what worked and looked great in say, 2012, doesn’t now!  Keep moving onwards …

 

What digital questions would you like to ask?

If you’d like to dicuss anything further, then why not get in touch and we can have a chat.

How can I help?