Boost Facebook Page posts

Promote Facebook Page posts to ensure your organic content reaches its full potential. You can boost Page content in just a few clicks from the Hootsuite dashboard. First, add your Facebook ad account to Hootsuite. Hootsuite’s new boosting feature will then recommend an ad campaign for you that promotes your posts with the most engagement. Review and approve the campaign, or edit the settings to define which types of posts get boosted. Professional plans and up can also create single post campaigns to invest in specific posts.

There is a maximum (based on plan type) to how much Hootsuite users can spend from their Facebook ad accounts through the boost feature every 30 days. More about each plan’s boosting budget below

In this article:

How does it work?
Getting started with Boost
Creating an automatic boosting campaign
Boosting a single post
Campaign status
Boost budget
Managing ad accounts

How does it work?

  1. Get started by selecting a Facebook Page and Ad Account connected to your Hootsuite account.
  2. Boost creates a drafted campaign that will automatically promote the best posts on your Page with a budget you control. You can get started in one click, or quickly edit and create your own boosting settings.
  3. That's it! You can get back to work while Hootsuite’s new boosting feature automatically optimizes your posts in the background. You can check in to the Overview section to view your campaign results.

Getting started with Boost

Boosting requires a Facebook ad account that’s associated to one of your Pages, and has a valid payment method attached. Learn more about Facebook ad accounts
Ad accounts are connected to Hootsuite in conjunction with an associated Facebook Page.

In organizations, team members with Advanced social network permissions for the Facebook Page can boost posts. Custom social network permissions are available to Enterprise team members to Manage Boost (to create boosting campaigns) and/or Manage ad accounts (to add or remove the Page’s ad accounts).

Select Publisher Publisher icon.png from the launch menu, and then select the Promote tab. The first step is to ensure you have both a Facebook Page and an associated ad account connected to Hootsuite.

Already have your Page and ad account added to Hootsuite? Skip to Creating an automatic boosting campaign

To add an ad account (if the associated Page is already connected to your dashboard)

  1. Click Get started with Boost.
  2. Select a Page to boost posts from.
    Missing a Facebook Page that’s connected to Hootsuite? Make sure that you have Advanced or Custom social network permissions for the Page.
  3. Click Add an Ad account.
  4. Select the ad account you want to add to Hootsuite, and then click Done.
    Not seeing one of your ad accounts? The user who adds the Page to Hootsuite also adds the ad accounts. To import another ad account, reconnect the Page with your Facebook credentials.
  5. Click Save and continue. Next steps

If you don’t have any Facebook Pages connected to the Hootsuite dashboard yet, you’ll be prompted to Connect to Facebook to import both the Page and its associated ad account.

  1. Click Connect with Facebook.
  2. Enter your Facebook profile credentials (email and password), and then click Log in.
  3. Check the box beside the Page(s) you want to add to your dashboard, and then click Done.
  4. Now check the box beside the associated ad accounts you want to add to the dashboard, and then click Done.

Creating an automatic boosting campaign

Select the Facebook Page and ad account you’ll be using to boost posts, and then Hootsuite’s new boosting feature will recommend a campaign for you. Publish the campaign right away, or edit its settings to determine what gets boosted, to which audience, for how long, and with how much budget. Up to three most recent live Page posts from the last seven days, and all future posts, that fit the campaign’s boosting criteria will be promoted. Note that only live posts can be boosted. Boosts cannot be applied to posts while they are scheduled to publish.

To create a new campaign

  1. Select a Facebook Page and ad account to boost from, enter a name for the campaign, and then click Next.
    Missing a Facebook Page that’s connected to Hootsuite? Make sure that you have Advanced or Custom social network permissions for the Page.
  2. Review the recommended campaign. Click Boost on Facebook, or click Edit to the right of each component to customize it:
    • Page and Ad account: Select a different Page or ad account to boost from, or edit the campaign name.
    • Objective and Automation Triggers:
      • Select the objective from Engagement, Website clicks, Video views, or Reach.
      • Change the boosting triggers based on your goal:
      • Engagement/Reach: Select which Post Types to boost: Link, Status, Images, or Video.
      • Website clicks: Boost posts that contain links that include or exclude certain keywords.
      • Select the number of likes, shares, comments, video views, reach, or clicks a post needs to have before it gets boosted.
      • Enter keywords to boost posts based on content.
    • Audience: Select a recommended audience, a saved or custom audience that you've created on Facebook, or build your own. Multiple custom audiences can be selected, including lookalike audiences.
    • Instagram Placement: Toggle this on or off to display your ad on both Facebook and Instagram, or just Facebook.
    • Budget and Duration: Specify the budget to be spent per day or in total during the specified date range.
  3. Click Boost on Facebook.

Your new campaign will appear in the Overview tab, which displays the status and progress of each boosting campaign.

Click the arrow to the left of the campaign name to see the posts being boosted under each campaign, and the engagement stats resulting from your ad spend.

Campaigns can be paused Pause.png, restarted Restart.png, or deleted Delete_campaign.png with the buttons in the top-right corner of each campaign. Campaigns cannot be edited at this time.

Boosting a single post

Select a specific Page post and ad account, and then review the recommended campaign that Hootsuite suggests for you. Publish the campaign right away, or edit its settings to modify your ad’s objective, audience, duration, and budget.

Single published posts can also be boosted from your Facebook Page My Posts and Timeline streams. Certain post types, like shared posts, cannot be boosted. If you see Boost Unavailable on a post, check this article to find out why it can't be boosted. Also note that scheduled posts cannot be boosted.

To boost a single post

  1. Click Find a post to boost, and then review a list of published posts from the Facebook Pages you can boost from. It can take up to two hours for a post to appear in the list after publishing.
  2. Click Boost Post to the right of the post.
  3. Select an ad account to boost with, and then review the recommended campaign.
  4. Optional: Click Edit to the right of each component to customize it:
    • Objective: Select the objective from Engagement, Website clicks, Video views, or Reach.
    • Audience: Select a recommended audience, a saved or custom audience that you've created on Facebook, or build your own. Multiple custom audiences can be selected, including lookalike audiences.
    • Instagram Placement: Toggle this on or off to display your ad on both Facebook and Instagram, or just Facebook.
    • Budget and Duration: Specify the budget to be spent per day or in total during the specified date range.
  5. Click Boost on Facebook in the bottom-right corner.

Your new campaign will appear in the Overview tab, which displays the progress and status of each boosting campaign.

Click the arrow to the left of the campaign name to see the posts being boosted under each campaign, and the engagement stats resulting from your ad spend.

Campaigns can be paused Pause.png, restarted Restart.png, or deleted Delete_campaign.png with the buttons in the top-right corner of each campaign. Campaigns cannot be edited at this time.

Campaign status

Each campaign has a status in its top-right corner: Boosting, Paused, Completed, or Error.

Failed_campaign.png Error status means the campaign failed to pass Facebook’s review and did not publish. Sign in to the ad account on Facebook for details. A common reason for failure is a valid form of payment missing from the ad account.

tip.png Make sure you have all email and Facebook notifications turned on in the ad account so you get notified by Facebook when a campaign fails.

Boost budget

Ad budgets in the boosting feature work the same way as they do on Facebook. Your ad spend for your boosted posts is paid to Facebook from your Facebook ad account. Learn more about how ad billing works on Facebook.

Hootsuite users can spend the following amounts from their Facebook ad accounts using the boosting feature in Hootsuite per rolling 30 days:

  • Free - $100 USD
  • Professional - $500 USD
  • Team - $2000 USD
  • Business - $5000 USD
  • Enterprise - No limit

These limits refresh over the 30 days. Click Monthly Ad Spend in the Overview tab to monitor how much of your maximum monthly ad spend through Hootsuite has been used so far. Boosting thresholds are calculated in your Hootsuite account currency.

If the budget threshold is reached, campaigns are paused. When your balance refreshes, you can create a new campaign to boost again.

Boosting from Hootsuite will also be unavailable if your Facebook ad account has any overdue balances.

Managing ad accounts

Ad accounts are managed under the settings of their associated Facebook Pages in the Manage social networks section of the Hootsuite dashboard.

important_icon_37x44.png Because ad accounts are tied to Facebook Pages, deleting a Page will also delete any associated ad accounts and ad campaigns from the dashboard; however, the campaigns will continue to run natively on Facebook.

To add a new ad account to the dashboard

  1. Click your profile picture (Newprofileicon.png by default) in the top-right corner of the dashboard, and then select Manage social networks.
  2. Under Private Social Networks: Click the Settings icon Settings_icon.png and then select Settings on the Facebook Page associated with the ad account you want to add.
    In an organization: Click Social Networks under your organization name, and then select the Facebook Page associated with the ad account from the list on the left.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the Profile Settings tab, and then click Add an Ad Account. The ad accounts your Facebook profile has access to will appear as options.
  4. Select an ad account, and then click Done. The ad account will now appear as an option to use in boost.

To remove an ad account from the dashboard

important_icon_37x44.png Note that deleting an ad account will delete all of its campaigns from Hootsuite; however, the campaigns will continue to run natively on Facebook.

  1. Click your profile picture (Newprofileicon.png by default) in the top-right corner of the dashboard, and then select Manage social networks.
  2. Under Private Social Networks: Click the Settings icon Settings_icon.png and then select Settings on the Facebook Page associated with the ad account you want to remove.
    In an organization: Click Social Networks under your organization name, and then select the Facebook Page associated with the ad account from the list on the left.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the Profile Settings tab, click the Settings icon Settings_icon.png on the ad account, and then click Remove from this Page.
  4. Click Okay.

To manage team member access to ad accounts

View which team members in your organization have access to each ad account in the settings of the associated Facebook Page.

  1. Click your profile picture (Newprofileicon.png by default) in the top-right corner of the dashboard, and then select Manage under the organization name.
  2. Click Social Networks under the organization name, and then select the Facebook Page from the list on the left.
  3. The Overview tab shows the members that have access to the Page, and the ad accounts associated with it. Members with Advanced permissions will have access to the ad accounts. Enterprise team members can also have Custom permissions to Manage Boost and/or Manage Ad Accounts.
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