The Internet Marketing Driver

  • GSQi Home
  • About Glenn Gabe
  • SEO Services
    • Algorithm Update Recovery
    • Technical SEO Audits
    • Website Redesigns and Site Migrations
    • SEO Training
  • Blog
    • Web Stories
  • Contact GSQi

How To Hack Boosted Posts Via Facebook Ads Manager To Target Multiple Custom Audiences At One Time

June 2, 2016 By Glenn Gabe 7 Comments

Share
Tweet
Share
Email

Boosting a post via Facebook Ads Manager

Boosting Facebook posts to custom audiences is a great way to reach a targeted audience (and at a relatively low cost). Many people running Facebook pages don’t realize this, but you don’t have to boost a post simply to your fanbase. Instead, you can boost a post to any custom audience you have set up in Facebook. That includes people on your email list, people that have visited your website, and any lookalike audiences you have created. That’s where the true power lies.

By boosting to a custom audience, you are getting in front of people that already know of your brand, have engaged with your company in the past, etc. Your boosted posts can show up in the News Feed (both desktop and mobile), and you’ll find boosting an incredibly cost-effective way to advertise. In my experience, boosting to a custom audience has yielded strong engagement with low cost. And that’s a great combination for any advertiser.

The Problem – How Traditional Boosted Posts Work
So you can tell I’m a big fan of boosting posts, but I haven’t explained the part of boosting that annoys the heck out of me. When you boost a post the traditional way (right from your Facebook page), you don’t have many targeting options available. You can select a single custom audience, but you cannot combine that custom audience with other targeting options. That means that you might not be able to gain the momentum you might be looking for from the boost. For example, wouldn’t it be great to boost a post to multiple lookalike audiences all at one time?

The only way to target another custom audience for a traditional boost is to change the targeting down the line (you can switch from one custom audience to another, but you can’t combine them.) Here’s an example of “resetting” the targeting for a boost down the line:

Changing an audience for a Facebook boost.

From an overall targeting standpoint with traditional boosted posts, you can’t geotarget by country or city, you can’t layer on other targeting like demographics or interests, and you can’t select multiple custom audiences at one time. And if you’re targeting lookalikes (which are currently built by country), you cannot target multiple lookalike audiences to reach several countries at one time. So boosting is great, but there are limitations… until you learn what I’m about to show you. :)

Can You Boost A Single Post To Multiple Target Audiences At One Time?
Yes, you can. And I find many people don’t even know it’s possible. But you can’t accomplish this by using the traditional method for boosting Facebook posts. But, by using Ads Manager or Power Editor, you can boost a post by creating a specific campaign for the boost. And when you do, you have all the power of Facebook ads combined with the power of custom audiences. You’ll be able to set up multiple ad sets with their own targeting, you’ll have many more targeting options available, and you’ll be able to target multiple audiences (in multiple countries) from the boost all at one time.

What About Likes, Shares, and Comments? Where Will They Show Up?
It’s important to know that all likes, shared, and comments from your boosted posts will show up in the original Facebook post (when boosted via Ads Manager). I know some people think that since you are creating ads via Facebook Ads Manager that any likes, shares, and comments will not show up in the original post. That’s not true… they definitely will. For example, see the screenshot below.

Engagement will show up in a boosted Facebook post.

How To Set Up a Boosted Post Campaign Via Ads Manager
Let’s say you just posted a new update on your Facebook page and you want to boost that post. But, you want to boost the post to multiple custom audiences, including lookalikes from across multiple countries, all at one time. Good luck trying to do that with a typical boost.

Instead of using a traditional boost, we’re going to set up a campaign in Ads Manager for boosting the post. And when we do, we’ll be able to set up multiple ad sets, combine audiences, and reach multiple lookalike audiences across countries, all in one shot. Here we go.

1. Set Up Your “Boosted Posts” campaign.
Go to Ads Manager and create a new campaign. Choose the consideration marketing objective and “Engagement” which uses the page post engagement objective. Give your campaign a name at the bottom of the screen and click continue.

Boost a Facebook post via Ads Manager.

2. Define Your Audience
OK, this is one of the core reasons to use Ads Manager to boost an update. This is where you can select your custom audiences, combine those audiences, target lookalikes across multiple countries, etc. You also have tight control over geotargeting. For example, you can even target specific cities within a country if you want. You can also layer on additional targeting, like age, gender, language, and interests. Seriously, you have killer options here compared to simply boosting a post.

Selecting an audience for a boosted campaign in Ads Manager.

3. Choose Placements
Next you can choose where your boosted posts show up in Facebook. I typically select both desktop and mobile News Feed, but you also have options for Instagram and Desktop Right Column.

Selecting placements for a boosted post in Ads Manager.

4. Budget and Schedule
You’ll notice you have much more control over your budget and scheduling when boosting a post via Ads Manager. You can set your budget, the type of optimization for ad delivery, you can use ad scheduling if you use the lifetime budget option, you can set delivery type, and more. I told you that you’ll have more control… Once you’re done, click continue.

Selecting a budget for a boosted campaign in Ads Manager.

5. Select Creative
Now you can select the Facebook post that you want to boost. You can also create a post to boost if you want to start fresh. For this example, select the Facebook page you want to use, and then select a post to boost. Once selected, you’ll see the post show up in the ad preview area. That’s where you can preview the boost across the placements you selected in step three (Desktop News Feed, Mobile News Feed, etc.)

Choosing a Facebook post for a boosted campaign in Ads Manager.

6. Review Your Order
I typically click “Review Order” at the bottom of the window to make sure everything looks ok before launching the campaign. If everything looks good with your settings, then click “Place Order”. Once you do, the boost will go into review, and it should go live shortly.

Bonus: Create Additional “Boosted” Ad Sets
Since the boost was created in Ads Manager as a typical Facebook campaign, you’ll notice there is an ad set created for you. Targeting and budget are completed at the ad set level, so you can actually duplicate that ad set to target multiple audiences and countries by ad set if you want. You can also set different budgets per ad set. Again, you have much greater control by using Ads Manager.

For example, maybe you want to have ad sets by country so you can analyze each one at a granular level. You can also have greater control over budget by using multiple ad sets. And once again, it’s important to know that you cannot accomplish this with a typical boosted post. Here’s an example of multiple ad sets for a boosted post targeting separate custom audiences with distinct budgets.

Using multiple ad sets for targeting and budget for a boosted post campaign.

A Note About Power Editor and Boosted Post Campaigns:
For those of you that love Power Editor (PE), you can absolutely set up boosted post campaigns in PE (using the page post engagement objective). The process is slightly different, and a little more involved, but you can definitely achieve exactly what I explained in this post when using Power Editor. I won’t provide the step-by-step instructions in this post, but just know that you can create boosted post campaigns via both Ads Manager and Power Editor. Here’s a screenshot from Power Editor where you can see the option for “Post Engagement”.

Boosting posts in Facebook via Power Editor.

Summary – Hack Those Boosted Posts!
After reading this post, I hope you see the power of boosting Facebook posts via Ads Manager or Power Editor. By doing so, you have much more control over custom audience targeting, geographic targeting, demographic targeting, budget, and more. Boosting posts via Ads Manager definitely enables you to overcome some of the shortcomings of a traditional boost. I recommend trying it out soon and testing out various options. I think you’re going to dig it. Boost away.

GG

 

Share
Tweet
Share
Email

Filed Under: facebook, social-advertising, tools

Connect with Glenn Gabe today!

Latest Blog Posts

  • How to compare hourly sessions in Google Analytics 4 to track the impact from major Google algorithm updates (like broad core updates)
  • It’s all in the (site) name: 9 tips for troubleshooting why your site name isn’t showing up properly in the Google search results
  • Google Explore – The sneaky mobile content feed that’s displacing rankings in mobile search and could be eating clicks and impressions
  • Bing Chat in the Edge Sidebar – An AI companion that can summarize articles, provide additional information, and even generate new content as you browse the web
  • The Google “Code Red” That Triggered Thousands of “Code Reds” at Publishers: Bard, Bing Chat, And The Potential Impact of AI in the Search Results
  • Continuous Scroll And The GSC Void: Did The Launch Of Continuous Scroll In Google’s Desktop Search Results Impact Impressions And Clicks? [Study]
  • How to analyze the impact of continuous scroll in Google’s desktop search results using Analytics Edge and the GSC API
  • Percent Human: A list of tools for detecting lower-quality AI content
  • True Destination – Demystifying the confusing, but often accurate, true destination url for redirects in Google Search Console’s coverage reporting
  • Google’s September 2022 Broad Core Product Reviews Update (BCPRU) – The complexity and confusion when major algorithm updates overlap

Web Stories

  • Google’s December 2021 Product Reviews Update – Key Findings
  • Google’s April 2021 Product Reviews Update – Key Points For Site Owners and Affiliate Marketers
  • Google’s New Page Experience Signal
  • Google’s Disqus Indexing Bug
  • Learn more about Web Stories developed by Glenn Gabe

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • GSQi Home
  • About Glenn Gabe
  • SEO Services
  • Blog
  • Contact GSQi
Copyright © 2023 G-Squared Interactive LLC. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Are you ok with the site using cookies? You can opt-out at a later time if you wish. Cookie settings ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. You can read our privacy policy for more information.
Cookie Consent