We get it. Times are tough. Even when we’re not dealing with a health crisis, spending more money than necessary just seems … unnecessary. And you’re busy. Running a business is time consuming, particularly when you’re in the restaurant industry. We talked in the past about how you can modernize your restaurant’s marketing plan, today we discuss why you should never boost a Facebook post.
We’ve all seen it. It’s so tempting. Reach 10,000 more people for only $5. You think, Hell, that’s less than I spend on my morning coffee, and I crafted a good post. I’d like more people to see it.
Here’s the problem: Boosting a post is a waste of advertising dollars.
Well, let’s be clear, it’s not a complete waste. You’re getting more eyeballs on your post. However, a better use of your money would be to target your optimal audience, A/B test against other ads and lead people through a sales funnel, converting them into customers.
While the post you boosted was good, it probably wasn’t perfect. That’s why A/B testing is crucial. It doesn’t matter what you, me or the pope thinks is a perfect Facebook post, effectiveness can only be determined by the masses. Constant testing, and I do mean constant, to adjust your ads so they’re more successful is what leads to powerful campaigns.
On top of that: You got your happy hour special in front of a few more eyeballs, now what? Chances are the vast majority of people aren’t going out tonight, and by next week, or tomorrow, you’re long forgotten. Studies show it takes five to seven contacts with a potential customer before they’ll do business with you. The hurdle may be a little bit lower for restaurants, but the principal still holds true, which is why sales funnels are crucial for a restaurant’s success. The idea of the funnel is simple: you make first contact with a potential customer, that’s the top of the funnel (TOF), then — using Facebook targeting — you retarget said customer time and time again until they become a customer.
Leading a potential customer through a funnel would be a daunting task without targeted advertising. If you run an ad in a newspaper, you’re hitting a broad audience. How do you know who you’re hitting, though? And how do you follow up? With Facebook targeting, and retargeting, you can choose who sees your ad, and then follow up with a different ad directed toward the people who saw your first ad and so on.
See how retargeted ads can be valuable for a restaurant? This is why you should never boost a Facebook post.
Of course, creating ads to find the right audience to target takes time and time is money. Facebook knows that and effectively tempts you with the bright blue Boost button. I would argue that extra time/money spent on a real advertising campaign is far more valuable than smashing the blue button of the unknown. Yeah, more people will see your post, but who? Facebook doesn’t know your business. They don’t know your target customers.
Now, for these detailed and finely tuned ads, you’d expect to pay a lot of cash. But the beauty of this style of advertising is you get to set your own budget. It’s not like traditional methods in the newspaper or on TV, where you have to fork over a large sum of money and just hope your ad works. You can start with $5 or $10 a day and with digital advertising, and unlike traditional advertising, you receive results in the form of statistics — good or bad — and continually fine-tune until those results are the best they can be. Traditional advertising just doesn’t stack up.
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