Just because posts do well organically doesn't mean that they'll behave the same in a boost.

Here are the reasons why:
– Text- heavy posts, especially memes, violate the 20% text rule, so you get disapproved or penalized.
– Some organic posts cannot be boosted– they have profanity, use Facebook’s brand the wrong way, or violate the ads TOS (like having a gun pointed towards you).
– You’ve exhausted the original audience, so your frequency is high when you a boost.
– You’re targeting the wrong audience– this is hard to diagnose.
– Your organic post wasn’t evergreen– perhaps for an event that expired.

You can see that the boosted part of this post got north of 10% engagement, which is excellent.

But we’re paying a $50 CPM– meaning $50 to reach just 1,000 people.

(Yes, the experts here will point out that impressions and reach aren’t exactly the same, but for the purposes of simple analysis, it’s good enough).

Even with a high base cost of traffic (CPM), the cost per engagement is good enough that I’m willing to let the boost live for a few months longer.

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.

Dennis Yu