We are increasingly doing content marketing work on social media for our clients. Creating engaging content is the first step. Knowing when to boost your social media post can help you gain better ROI in your ad spend.

Tip 1:
Boost the post that is performing well organically.
Why?
There’s a reason why a post has higher engagement rates and why your followers are willing to like, comment – and best of all – share with their friends. If they like it, there’s a higher chance other people that match your followers’ demographic would feel the same way too.

It’s a common mis-step to boost a post that’s doing poorly in the hope of greater engagement, you know, in case people missed it. This will translate to a higher cost-per-click and inefficient budget usage.

It sounds brutal to let go of the content baby you’ve worked so hard to put together. But life happens.

When it comes to getting more out of your boost budget, go for the “favourite child” everyone already adores.

Tip 2:
Boost on the time and day where most of your online audience is likely to see it.
Why?
This seems obvious but we have seen page posts on a Sunday evening. You want your post to reach as many people as possible, and ultimately, gain greater engagement at that point in time with the hopes it will enter into new audience territory.

Avoid odd times when you know for sure that most of your target audience are unplugged from social media, like weekends or public holidays. Take note of certain periods on a week day – say, between 10am and 11am on a Monday when people are likely to be in meetings, or on a late Sunday night when people are already in bed, dreading Monday.

Wait for better timing. Boost during the hours when people are commuting to work, lunch hours or after work hours, when their attention will be lured to catching up on social media. The afternoon slump of 1pm to 4pm is also sometimes useful to catch those in the post-lunch stupor and looking for interesting content online to motivate them to continue the day.

Monitor your traffic to find out when most of your online followers are online.

Use this moment to cast a wider net and give yourself an edge to present your brand or product. The right post that’s already doing well organically (see Tip 1 again) and boosted at the right time will do the trick!