Why Some Facebook Ads Fail and Others Succeed

Today is all about how to boost a post on Facebook to find your viral photo. We seldom use the boost post function, but this function is good for getting lots of likes, comments, and shares on a particular post.  And it can make all the difference in the success or failure of your Facebook ad.

This by itself does not get you customers, but what it does is provide social proof. So, if you boost your Photo Album Stack, it can really help you find the photos for your viral Facebook ad to be a huge success.

The (Social) Proof: Budgeting and Getting Results

Once you’ve got the Photo Album Stack up, I suggest you carve out a budget. Say I devote $100 to the Photo Album Stack. I could do 10 stacks, 10 days in a row (one stack per day), and spend $10 on each stack.

At the end of 10 days, you should have 100’s of likes, comments, and shares, if not 1000’s when you use really great photos. Over time, when you boost a post, you will really increase the engagement with that post.

We spent around $100 to boost a post linking to a webinar. The results were excellent. It reached 9,648 people, got 174 likes, and several people made comments. On top of that, we got tons of people clicking the link and registering to watch the free webinar video training.

Here’s another example below. This yoga page has 1.2 million likes, most of which came from viral sharing from doing the Photo Album Stacks.

Another example below is a Photo Album Stack at 82k likes, 18k shares, and 2k comments. Because it is so large, I don’t need to continue boosting it. It will continue growing by itself because the more likes, comments, and shares you have, the more you will get.

How to Boost a Post

STEP ONE: The Photo Album Stack
The first thing you want to do is create your Photo Album Stack. Post nine photos on your Facebook page into one album.  I like to find the photos on Flicker.com.  If you go to Flicker.com/creativecommons and put “world travel” in the search bar, you’ll be able to find really cool photos that don’t require permissions. The only thing that you need to do is give credit to the photographer, which is really easy. (You can do so in your post.)

STEP TWO: Set Up Payment
Select the boost post button in the lower right hand corner.  If you do not see the boosted post button, that means you do not have your Facebook payment set up.  In order to set up the payment, go to the Facebook ad center and set up a credit card.

STEP THREE: Target Your Audience
Select the boost post button and you’ll see a drop down that’ll give you options. You’ll need to select your target audience here. You can either identify “People who like your page and their friends” by selecting the first radio button or you can identify “People You Choose Through Targeting” by clicking the second radio button.  (I generally do not boost a post to people who like our page and their friends as they are already potential customers—I want to find new customers!)

If you decide to do “People You Choose Through Targeting,” make sure you select the age range, countries, and interests.

STEP FOUR: Set a Budget
Next, you set your maximum daily budget. Facebook will default to their suggested reach, which I advise you do not select because they’re just trying to get you to spend more money.

I usually limit my budget to no more than five dollars per day. Again, I will not spend the amount of money that Facebook suggests (in the image above it is $3,000).

For five dollars, it will still reach thousands of people.

STEP FIVE: Boost Your Post
All you do next is click “boost post” and you’re done!

A boosted post is a simple form of advertising. But remember, the people you are targeting are not laser-targeted customers at all. Therefore, set aside only a small budget. Also keep in mind that this is a great strategy for list building and getting email addresses, but not effective for directly getting customers.