Boost an Instagram post

Boosted posts are paid ads that you create from existing Instagram posts. When you put money behind your high-performing posts, Meta shows them to more people. Promoting your posts on Instagram can get you more engagement and more followers.

You can only boost posts from your Instagram Business account. Meta doesn’t support boosting posts from Instagram personal accounts. Meta also doesn’t support boosting stories or ICTV posts.

Currently, you cannot boost carousel or reel posts in Hootsuite.

Before you begin

Boosted posts are a form of paid advertising, so you need to add an ad account to Hootsuite that’s associated with your Instagram Business account before you can promote any posts. If you’re on a Team, Business, or Enterprise plan, you also need advertising permissions on the social account to run promotions. For instructions on how to add an ad account and set advertising permissions, see our article on Manage ad accounts and advertising permissions.

If you don’t have an ad account for your Instagram Business account yet, see Facebook’s help article on adding an Instagram account to your Business Manager.

Boost an Instagram post

Follow these steps to boost an Instagram post.

1. Go to Advertise, and then select Instagram Boost.
2. Select Find a post to Boost to see a list of organic Instagram posts you published in the last 30 days. Keep in mind that it can take up to two hours for new posts to show up in Hootsuite.
3. Choose the post you want to promote, and select Boost.
4. In the Boost settings window, select the ad account you want Meta to charge for the boosted post, and select Save.
5. Enter the rest of your Boost settings.
   • Choose an objective (engagement, video views, or reach). Meta uses this information to show your post to people who are likely to take the action you want.
   • Choose who you want to see your post. If you want to customize the audience, select Edit and specify which attributes to target, like location, gender, age, and interests.
   • Choose whether you want Meta to promote your Instagram post on Facebook. or just on Instagram.
   • Set your budget and the length of your promotion.
6. Select Boost on Instagram.

Manage boosted posts in Planner

If you added Boost settings to a scheduled post, you can change them before the post is published.

1. Go to Planner to view your calendar. You can quickly identify your promoted posts here - just look for the $ sign on the post.
   
2. Select the scheduled post, and then select Edit.
3. In the Edit post window, go to the Promotion section, and select Edit.
4. Make your changes, and then select Save settings and continue.
5. Select Save edits.

You can also delete the boosted post from Planner. If you want to duplicate the post (select More and then select Duplicate), you'll need to re-enter your Boost settings.

Once a scheduled promotion is published and live, you can monitor the promotion results in Advertise (go to Advertise, and then select Instagram Boost).

Review Instagram boost performance in Advertise

You can review performance metrics for your boosted Instagram posts at any time.

1. Go to Advertise, and then select Instagram Boost.
2. Select an ad account from the list to see all Instagram Boost campaigns associated with it.
3. Optionally, filter the campaign list by campaign status.
4. For each boosted post, you can review specific metrics like reach, amount spent, and engagement.
5. Select See Post on Instagramto view the post on Instagram.