How does the Instagram boost work?
Choosing your goal:
More profile visits: Drives traffic to your Instagram profile.
More website visits: Sends users to an external website or landing page.
More messages: Encourages users to send a direct message to your business.
Defining your audience:
automatic: Instagram uses its algorithm to show your post to people who are similar to your existing followers.
create your own: You can manually set the demographics (age, gender, location) and interests of the people you want to reach.
Setting your budget and duration:
Does boosting a post on Instagram actually work?
the pros: It’s incredibly easy to use and provides a quick way to test a post’s popularity. If a post is already getting good organic engagement, boosting it can give it a little extra push to reach a new audience.
the cons: The targeting is extremely limited compared to the full ads manager. You have no control over advanced ad placements, bidding strategies, or detailed creative optimization. This means you are essentially paying for basic visibility without the strategic levers to ensure that visibility turns into a sale.
Is boosting reels on Instagram worth it?
How much does it cost to boost posts on Instagram?
minimum budget: You can start with a very low budget, often as little as a few dollars per day.
cost factors: The actual cost per click or per engagement will vary based on your target audience, the competition for that audience, and the quality of your post. Highly competitive audiences will generally cost more to reach.
What are the disadvantages of boosting on Instagram?
- limited targeting: The ads manager allows you to create highly specific “lookalike audiences” (people who are similar to your existing customers) and use “custom audiences” (like a list of people who have visited your website). The boost button’s targeting is basic and lacks this precision.
- lack of creative control: You can only boost an existing post. With the ads manager, you can create new ads from scratch, with custom copy, visuals, and calls-to-action that are designed specifically to convert.
- poor measurement capabilities: The boost button provides only basic insights. The ads manager gives you in-depth data on return on ad spend (ROAS), cost per conversion, and other vital metrics that tell you if your ad is actually making you money.
- no real a/b testing: It’s very difficult to test different ad creatives or audiences against each other with the boost button. This is a foundational practice for professional advertisers.
