I’m no financial expert, but I know that $100 can get you a lot of things. For instance: $100 can buy a pair of jeans your mom will think are too expensive, or one hundred gumballs. Or, it could buy you some serious reach on Instagram.
To be clear, I’m not talking about buying an audience or likes. Here at Hootsuite HQ, we’ve been there, done that, and compromised our credit cards in the process. No, I’m talking about a more legitimate way to spend money: boosting Instagram posts to improve reach and gain followers.
Boosting posts is one of many advertising options on Instagram. You want eyeballs, they want your money, it’s a perfect storm. You’ve just got to set your budget, choose your target audience, and Instagram will deliver a post of your choosing directly to their feeds.
It’s an ad option that’s typically touted as a low-cost way to gain more followers and reach new audiences. After all, even spending $25 can allegedly help you reach an audience of thousands.
But it almost seems too easy, doesn’t it? Like a Sex and the City supercut, I couldn’t help but wonder: is boosting an Instagram post really worth the money?
And so, for our latest Hootsuite experiment, we’re putting the ‘does it pay to pay?’ question to the test. Please send your thoughts and prayers to my poor, battered Mastercard once again.
Hypothesis: Boosting Instagram posts will improve my reach and help me gain more followers
Methodology
Results
What do the results mean?
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
Hypothesis: Boosting Instagram posts will improve my reach and help me gain more followersBoosting is a simple way to increase the reach of an Instagram post.
Sure, you could sit around and wait for the Instagram algorithm to deliver your sweet pics to your followers, or lean on Instagram hashtags to make yourself known. But there’s also a totally-above-board shortcut for achieving reach on the app: just give Instagram your cold hard cash.
I think it’s safe to assume that, yes, buying a boost for my post will result in reaching an audience beyond my existing followers. After all, Instagram is a professional and highly successful brand that relies on effective advertising to function as a business, so it’s very much in its best interest to deliver on their promise of exposure. There’s no reason to think they would just take my money and run.
Theoretically, then, boosting will also result in new followers for my account. But obviously, Instagram can’t make promises there, and users gonna do what users gonna do. (Pretty sure I read that in the terms and conditions somewhere.)
With those assumptions in mind, and with $100 burning a hole in my pocket, I got to work.
Step one: I needed to choose precisely which post I’d be boosting.
My Instagram account these days is mostly pictures of my new baby because I am really leaning into my identity as “Unhinged Millennial Mom.” But as much as I think my infant photography could give Anne Geddes a run for her money, it didn’t quite feel like boosting one of those shots was going to inspire strangers to mash that “follow” button.
Instead, I decided to repost a digital illustration from a few months back and boost that.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Stacey McLachlan (@stacey_mclachlan)
It had experienced some success at the time (with supportive comments like “i want all these ducks to be best friends!!!!” and “one of these is a chicken”), so there was reason to believe non-friends might be interested if it appeared in their feed.
Plus, I reasoned, by repeating content, I’d be able to see the exact difference between an un-boosted post and a boosted one.
I posted my duck drawing and threw $100 (well, $75 CDN, technically) into a boost. I did this through the app directly, but it’s super simple to do though your Hootsuite dashboard, too.
I decided to run the promo for five days, targeted at an audience similar to my existing followers.
My goal was to encourage profile visits, which hopefully would lead to new follows.
When the five days were done, I managed to take a break from my latest baby photoshoot (the theme? “Being adorable while asleep”) to analyze the results and see if that $100 was worth it.
TL;DR: The boost helped my post reach much further, but the conversion rate wasn’t great. And — not to be all pity-party about it — I blame myself.
With $100 spent on a boost, my post reached thousands of new people: 7,447 to be exact. But… only 203 users tapped through on my ad. Of those visitors, only 10 of those became new followers.
Of course, this was still a huge jump from the original version of this I posted back in January. Other measures of engagement (like Likes and Saves) were higher with my boosted post, too.
| Visits from Non-Followers | New Follows | Likes | Comments | Saves | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic Post | 107 | 0 | 100 | 6 | 1 |
| Boosted Post | 203 | 10 | 164 | 7 | 18 |
I would be hurt by this abysmal return on investment, but it’s clear to me that the problem wasn’t the amount of money I spent: it was my content.
If I’m honest with myself, it makes a lot of sense that strangers wouldn’t be compelled to follow a feed that is primarily newborn photos and improv-show invites. In fact, they might have even been confused to find themselves looking at this sort of content after I lured them in with a wacky drawing of birds.
Basically, my $100 gave me a really great opportunity to be in front of a hyper-specific audience, and I blew it. I should’ve used an image that better represented what my “brand” was about. I also should’ve taken the time to write a compelling caption or call-to-action that would encourage people to click through to see more.
But that’s not to say it was money wasted: I learned at least $100 worth of lessons about using Instagram’s boost feature effectively.
What do the results mean?Revel in my newfound wisdom!
Boosting is a hack for beating the Instagram algorithmEven though Instagram has brought back the chronological feed as an option, the default experience on the app is guided by the Instagram algorithm.
If your content doesn’t fulfill the elaborate set of parameters to appear at the top of a follower’s newsfeed, it might get missed altogether. By putting some cash into a boost, at least you can guarantee some people will see it.
Of course, if you’re on a budget, that’s not always an option. So maybe it’s time to review our tips for getting your Instagram posts featured on the Explore page?
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
Get the free guide right now!
Quality content still mattersEven if you had a million dollars to drop on Instagram posts, even if you reached every single person on the app, if you don’t have something compelling to share, you’re not going to keep their attention.
All a boost can guarantee is that people will see your post; it doesn’t guarantee they’re going to like it.
Put as much effort into creating engaging, enriching content for your paid posts as you do your unpaid posts.
Need some inspiration? We’ve got 20 ideas to improve Instagram engagement right here.
Be accurate, authentic, and consistentI didn’t really mean to do a bait-and-switch with this experiment, but that’s really what happened. Apologies to all 200-plus people who visited my account and were disappointed it wasn’t all duck drawings.
If you’re going to boost a post, make sure it accurately represents what a user is going to find when they click through. There’s no point in dangling an image in front of an Instagram user that’s unrelated to what they’ll actually experience when they follow you. A boosted post should be authentically a snapshot of what your brand or account is all about.
Get specific with your target audienceReaching people is one thing; reaching the right people is another. Be sure you’re making the most of every dollar by honing in as specifically as possible on the ideal audience for your brand.
Are you looking to target people in the same demographic as your current followers? Or do you have dreams of reaching a different type of viewer?
Either way, drill down into the details to help Instagram deliver your boosted post to the right feeds.
If you need help defining your target market, good news: we’ve got a worksheet to help you find your dream audience right here.
Another fascinating spending spree done, another valuable lesson learned. If you’re itching to see what else we discover from putting our social media accounts on the line, head over to read about the rest of our experiments here.
Boost your Instagram posts and manage all your social media in one place using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts, engage the audience, and measure performance. Try it free today.
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These days, your Instagram promotion strategy is just as important as the content you push out into the world. You’re not going to be able to grow your account without putting yourself in front of the right people; and some of the things that would’ve guaranteed you reach and growth in 2018 no longer apply.
Come 2021 and Instagram promotion has become one of the most important factors in social media growth. Now, let’s be clear; we don’t mean throwing money behind posts and hoping it works, we mean getting creative with how you promote your brand on Instagram.
Don’t confuse Instagram promotion with Instagram ads. Much like Branded Content Ads, Instagram promotion is about elevating your reach and getting in front of new audiences, without running a typical ad campaign.
With Instagram promotion, you take a well-performing post or Story and convert it to a sponsored post.
In short, you’re requesting Instagram’s algorithm to ‘favour’ your post and push it out to a greater audience that’s likely outside your original network.
Remember: you’ll need to have a business account to be able to promote posts.
If you have a post that’s already performing well, you can promote it even further. Instagram lets you select specific audiences and demographics for your post so you can ensure it’s being seen by the right people.
It’s no secret the Stories offer great potential and that potential grows by being able to promote an individual Instagram Story so that it’ll appear in the Story carousel of users who don’t follow you. Even though the Story will disappear from your page after 24 hours, it will still run as a promoted Story for the duration you wish.
Promoting your posts on Instagram can cost as little as US$5.
Once you’ve selected the post or Story you want to promote, you can set a budget for how much you'd like to spend and your post will be boosted until this money runs out.
You pay for promotion on a CPC (cost per click) basis. For most users, the CPC hovers between $0.50 and $1, but this will fluctuate depending on your target demographic and your market. For example, the apparel industry is highly competitive and can have CPC's as high as $3.
The cost of Instagram promotion ultimately comes down to the audience you’re targeting — that’s why knowing your audience demographic is essential.
It’s crucial to know who you want to be engaging with your content. When you’re promoting a post, you’ll have a choice of three different audiences.
Automatic Audience targets users similar to those who already follow you and who have engaged with you in the past.
It’s great if you’re trying to solidify your audience, but not ideal for reaching new users.
Local Audience will target people in a specific geographic area.
Manual Audience gives you the power to create your own specific audience based on age, location, interests and more.
To make sure you’re getting your money’s worth, you should only promote posts that have already performed well with your followers. Have a look at the Insights tool in the Instagram app to gauge which of your posts received the most engagement and use these metrics to help you define which ones are worth promoting.
63% of people say they trust influencers more than brands—there’s an established level of trust that brands will forever struggle to reach. Influencer marketing is an extremely cost-effective way to build and grow your brand and TRIBE can help you find the perfect people who align with your brand identity and values.
When you promote your Instagram post, you’ll be given three options for where you want users to be directed. Before choosing, think about your motivation behind the promotion:
Send people to your profile if you want to boost your in-app presence—the Instagram algorithm favours profiles that receive a lot of views.
Direct people to your website to drive sales or educate potential followers about your business.
Or select Promotion View to push your post to be seen by as many eyes as possible; a good option if your goal is brand awareness.
Promoting Instagram posts can become costly, but the ROI is worth it if you know what you’re doing. While you’re still getting a feel for how it works, do a test run on one of your best-performing posts: set it to be promoted for 24 hours with a budget of $10 and assess how it impacts your engagement.
If done right, promoting your Instagram posts and profile can lead to massive success for your brand; and thousands of brands globally use TRIBE to help them source the very instant branded content that performs.
It is quite difficult to get conversions with a minimum budget. But if you choose the right settings, set up thoughtful targeting, and make the advertising creative clear and understandable, you can count on real user actions from the top of the funnel (by the way, read more about the funnel here).
Facebook has minimum daily budget requirements. They depend on the selected goal and optimization event. Here's what it costs to bill in dollars:
50 per day It is recommended not to set the budget below these requirements. If that's not possible, use your average cost per result - your daily budget should be five times that amount.
That's all for the math, now to the details. nine0003
Choose the goal of an advertising campaign that is comparable to your task and budget - the closer to the conversion, the more expensive the advertisement will be.
The cheapest goal is Reach, it allows you to quickly and easily introduce as many people as possible to a product, promotion or discount. But here you should not expect any actions from users, except for viewing the ad itself.
For connecting with a potential client, the Traffic objective is best suited to optimize for landing page views (not clicks!). Choose to go to a website or page on Instagram (it will help you gain followers if this is your task).
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If you're up for a bigger budget, try the Message and Lead goals to connect with a customer.
If you have a Pixel installed on your site for a long time, you can go to the "Conversions" goal. When there have already been transitions from advertising to the site, we recommend optimizing for the event that works most often - this way the algorithm will quickly understand who your potential client is.
First, about campaign timing in general: if you are waiting for action, new subscribers or conversions, it is worth running a campaign for at least a week. During this period, you will be able to understand whether users like your ad, whether the result is comparable to the costs, and whether you want to extend the campaign.
Set a budget for the entire duration of the campaign.
The algorithm will spend more in the first days, but it will quickly learn how to find users and placeholders to show. Also, with a budget for the entire duration of the campaign, you can build a display schedule and exclude the hours or days that are least effective for you (for example, so as not to show ads at night if you have an offline store). nine0003
It is recommended to select a daily budget if it is important for you not to spend more than a certain amount per day.
The best choice for the first time with a small budget is the automatic bidding strategy "Minimum price". Facebook will look for the cheapest results for you, but at the same time will try to spend the entire budget set for the day/term.
If you need to control the cost of the result or the cost of the budget per day, choose other strategies - but only if you know exactly how much the target action can cost you.
If you are not sure yet, it is better not to limit the bet, but to test how much the result is worth:
Budget control may reduce advertising performance. Also remember that in the "Bid Cap" or "Target Price" bidding strategies, the daily budget must be five times the cap bid or target price. nine0003
Facebook knows better: use automatic placement selection. The algorithm searches all its sites for users from the target audience and selects the placement where it is cheapest to reach the desired user at the moment.
This will help a lot, especially at first, when you have not had time to understand the behavior of your audience.
Example: Someone who watches Instagram Stories frequently, never responds to ads in them, but actively interacts with feed ads. You could not know this, but the algorithms saw and distributed your budget correctly. nine0003
Autoplacement will show ads on all available placements — prepare suitable creatives for them in advance.
Broad targeting for small budgets is less suitable than interest and behavior targeting.
The main rule: there should not be too many interests. Try to clearly define one characteristic of the target audience. For example, you know for sure that your ads need to be shown to managers. This will be enough - do not additionally indicate that they are interested in horse riding or yachting. The optimal number of interests/behaviors is up to five. nine0003
Set up a Facebook Pixel for your website.
This way you can collect a Lookalike audience based on the list of those who made a purchase and set up retargeting to other visitors.
This is only needed if the ad is not producing any results and is not exiting learning mode (for example, the Traffic objective doesn't get 50 actions in a week).
We do not recommend making significant changes (including editing the budget) to an already running campaign, as this will send the algorithm for retraining. nine0003
Post promotion is suitable if your goal is to work with the audience inside the site (for example, subscriptions to an Instagram account or a direct dialogue). If you have a website, we advise you to give preference to setting up advertising through Ads Manager - advertising will be more informative for the audience and will allow you to receive targeted actions.
When you're on a budget, it's important to get the message across quickly and clearly. Be creative. nine0003
Images courtesy of the author
It is inefficient to run ads through the "Promote" button in the application.
Because when launched through the "Promote" button, the goal "Engagement" is automatically set in the advertising account. Her task is to collect likes and comments. If you need clients, you will not get them because you have chosen the wrong target. Therefore, you need to set up advertising through the Facebook advertising account ...
The first task there is to choose the right goal.
If you want to generate leads, but have chosen the goal of "clicks to the site", most likely you will not receive any leads. nine0003
If you want applications - choose the goal "Conversions" , subscribers - "Traffic" , if you need messages in WhatsApp - choose "Messages".
Often, when launching an ad for the first time, we launch it to the entire (Wide) audience, instead of the Target. Since there are a lot more Instagram users than we need to attract at the moment, showing ads to more people, we spend significantly more money (drain the budget). The main secret of effective advertising is the correct segmentation of the audience. nine0003
This is where Targeting comes in.
For example, a certain fitness club has an audience segment “Girls 25-34 who want to play sports” .
Some of them want to do fitness in the gym, some prefer stretching/aerobics, some might want to do boxing, and so on. So, depending on the interests, each segment of the audience will interact better with ONE PARTICULAR creative (ad format). It makes no sense to talk about the need for strength training to a girl who is already ready to box in your club.
Same it makes no sense to tell about boxing to those who do not want to do it.
Suppose we set up an ad for those who want to go in for sports and love boxing, and showed ads not for 5000 girls, but 500. And paid 10 times less for coverage.
Thus, choosing the right audience through targeting settings, we save the budget.
In the advertising account, you need to correctly limit placements - show ads EITHER in stories OR in the news feed. Because when we show the same ad both there and there, it is shown to the SAME people, just several times - in Instagram Stories and News Feed. nine0003
If we want to promote in Stories, we create a SEPARATE VERTICAL BANNER for Stories and limit impressions only in Stories.
If we advance in the news feed, leave one placement in the ad settings — the news feed.
When launching an ad, it is important for the Facebook system to understand who exactly will make a conversion with a higher probability.
