How to use Facebook boosted posts

Discover how to turn your Facebook posts into adverts to help generate enquiries and attract new members to your club.

When you create posts on your club’s Facebook Page, sometimes you'll see a blue Boost Post button appear after you publish the post. If you have a Facebook Group for your club you won’t see this option when you post. Discover why a Facebook Page will help you promote your club. A Facebook post can be anything you choose, from a picture, a link to your website or even a video.

What are 'boosted' Facebook posts?

Boosted posts are a quick and easy way to show your content to people who might be interested in your club, learning to dive or even further diver training. The blue 'Boost Post' button at the bottom of your Facebook page post allows you to quickly turn your content into an advert. For example, you may have posted about an upcoming Ocean Diver course or Try Dive event, you could boost this. This means your boosted post, now an advert, will appear in different places on Facebook, and you can target an audience of people you choose (people on Facebook who might not usually see your posts).

Your boosted post can include a call-to-action button so that you can drive people to take other actions you care about, like learn more, book now, sign up, send a message and more. 

You can target a particular audience. You can define an audience based on things like location, interests and more. Or even create a custom audience based on contacts you already have or a ‘lookalike’ audience based on people who've already shown interest in your club’s Facebook Page.  

You’re in control of your Club’s Facebook Page boosted posts

You set the budget and time. The amount you pay to boost your post, and the amount of time you want your ad to run, is completely up to you. You can select a pre-populated budget or set a custom amount, and you choose the duration you wish it to run. The minimum is £1 per day, so you can run a 5-day ad for as little as £5.

Boosted posts are really easy to set up

The advert design work is already done. The advert you create will look just like the Page post you decided to boost. The only difference is that your advert will appear with a Sponsored label and will have a call-to-action button (if you choose to add one).

How to boost a Facebook post

Watch our 'how to' video guide below or even follow Facebooks step by step guide on boosting posts, it’s really quick and you can be recruiting new members in no time. If you need support please email BSAC marketing support or call us on 0151 350 6224. 

Real-life example from Chester Sub-Aqua Club

BSAC clubs are benefiting from using Facebook as a recruitment tool right now, and you can join them. Here’s a quick Q&A with Martin, Club Liaison at Chester SAC, to see how Facebook boosted posts worked for them:

Picture (right) of the Facebook post Chester SAC boosted, as you can see it’s really simple and to the point. Use your club’s own images for posts or download images from the BSAC website which are free for clubs to use.

• So Martin, how much did you spend on your boosted post?
  We limited our spend to £10 for this post.
• When did you boost your post and how long did you run it for?
  We posted on 7th January 2018, and we ran it for 3 days.
• Who was your audience for this boosted post? (did you pick a specific audience?)
  We went for both Male and Female, ages 18 - 65+, aimed at the following categories; sport, outdoors, adventure recreation and outdoor life enthusiasts in the region of England and Wales.
  
  The catchment area was quite vast, we had interest from Llantysilio which is North of Llangollen, Wrexham area and Winsford. As we couldn’t accommodate all of the enquiries we contacted the Shrewsbury branch and Wrexham branch to see if they could. 
• Did the boosted post take the person to a specific landing page on your website? If so which page and what was the call to action on that page?
  There wasn’t a specific landing page, it just went to our website, as this was something I did to see what would happen. Most of the enquiries came through the website and we have really clear contact details on the site which I think really helps with enquiries. We have spent time gearing up our website with information for people who aren’t familiar with the diving scene, so directing them there worked quite well.
• So how many enquiries did you get?
  We mainly got emails via the club website (as that’s where the link from the boosted post went to) and received around 30 enquires over January and February 2018.
• How many of the enquiries as a result of your boosted Facebook post did you convert to join and start the Ocean Diver course?
  The short answer is 8. We had around 12 Try Dives, plus people who previously been to our club for a Try Dive who saw the ad which encouraged them to sign up for the course.
  
  We had 20 people wanting to sign up to our March Ocean Diver course in total. We signed up 10 (but two dropped out due to illness).
  
  We did get some enquiries from people wanting to learn to dive before they went on holiday (winter break to hot countries etc.) and we couldn’t train them in the short time period they wanted, plus our training is based on dry suits, not wetsuits (it’s another opportunity we are thinking about).
  
  To solve this, we direct holiday divers to our local PADI School, we have a good relationship with them, Dee Sports. They then refer students back to us if they want to continue diving in the UK.
• Would you recommend any other recruitment tips that work for Chester Sub-Aqua Club?
  Yeah! We sell Try Dive vouchers throughout the year, which generates lots of interest around November and December as they're good for a Christmas gift - £20 per voucher. This also brings in good footfall over January and February, in most cases the person receiving the voucher brings a friend and recently they have signed up for the Ocean Diver course.
• So, do you think you will continue to use Facebook boosted posts to advertise your club?
  Absolutely, I’m actually having a Facebook advert session with another club member who is looking at promoting Try Dives. I think we will be using the Facebook adverts as well as boosted posts for that. Find out about Facebook adverts here.