If you are on any form of social media, chances are you’ve seen a sponsored post or two. After all, each time you open Facebook, you are exposed to 1,500+ stories. Meanwhile, Instagram has about 1 billion active monthly users and 500 million of them are on the platform daily.

This makes it clear that social media is a big deal, and social media marketing is something every business should be focusing on. But with so many users and a nonstop flow of content on these platforms (and others), how can you stand out and get more exposure? The answer is simple. Boosted and sponsored posts.

Facebook

Of those 1,500 or so stories that Facebook has to offer at any given moment, they only show users 300 or so of them each day. This is all based on the information they’ve collected about interests and demographics, using algorithms to provide their members content they would enjoy and that is relevant to their interests.

So, what does this mean from a digital marketing standpoint? Well, it can be an intimidating feat to stand out in the flood of content that Facebook users see every day. However, boosting your post is equivalent to cracking the code. It gives your post a head start on reaching prospects.

Boosted posts are powerful for many reasons. One is that they don’t look like an ad, which many people glance over, and they appear higher on a newsfeed than posts that haven’t been sponsored. Choose a post that offers a lot of opportunity for engagement. This way, when a user likes or comments on it, that post is now exposed to their friends and, therefore, an entirely new audience.

Instagram

Onto the powerhouse that is Instagram. This platform has a huge userbase and a big part of that audience is interacting with businesses. In fact, 60% of users are discovering new products on Instagram. Just like Facebook, it is hard to reach users that would be interested in your product. But, also like Facebook, you can do so through sponsored posts.

While the “sponsored” label is slightly more obvious on Instagram than Facebook, there are several display options through Instagram ads. From single photo ads to video, collection or carousel ads, the visual appeal of your promoted post is entirely in your hands. So is the audience it is shown to through targeting.

Targeting

One of the biggest benefits of promoting posts on social media is the control you have over who sees it. You can narrow down your audience through the targeting option on both Facebook and Instagram. Control what age group, location, gender, language – even interests and behavior – your audience should have. This helps make sure the people seeing your sponsored post are people who are interested in your product.

Boosting a post is powerful and crucial to standing out in today’s online world. Using these strategies at Wolf & Key, we’ve gotten amazing results for our clients. For one of our clients, boosted posts have a reach almost 11 times that of the regular, unpaid posts. So one thing is certain, marketing on social media is not something to be slept on. If you’re interested in learning more about our successes and what we could do for you, check out our application page.