How much to spend when you boost a post

Key takeaways

How much to spend boosting a post depends on the audience, but for a local business £5–£10 a day for five to seven days, about £35–£70, is a sensible starting point. Boost only posts that already perform organically, choose an objective that matches what you want, and stop boosting when one campaign would do the job better.

• £5–£10 a day for 5–7 days suits most local boosts.
• Boost only posts that already do well organically.
• Choose messages or website visits, not just engagement.
• Move to Ads Manager once you boost the same thing often.

Why does the daily amount matter more than the total?

A boost spread too thinly over a long period shows your post to a handful of people a day and teaches you little. A short, steady boost gives the system enough activity to find responsive people and gives you a clear result within a week.

• Social media budget for a UK small business
• Which posts to boost: put budget behind the right content

What should a boost cost for different goals?

As a GBL rule of thumb: £35–£70 for a local event or offer over a week, £70–£150 for a product or service post aimed at a town or county, and more for wider areas. Set an end date so the boost cannot run on unnoticed.

• Local event or offer: £35–£70 over a week.
• Service or product post, town or county: £70–£150.
• Regional or national: test £150+ in Ads Manager instead.

When should you stop boosting and run an ad campaign?

When you boost similar posts every week, need tracking of website enquiries, or want to test two versions. Ads Manager gives more control over objectives, placements and audiences, and usually costs less per result for repeated activity.

• Facebook ads versus boosted posts: which should you use?
• Boosted post mistakes: why boosting often wastes money

When is boosting a waste?

When the post did poorly organically, when the goal is just more likes, or when the audience is everyone in the country. Boosting a weak post buys more people ignoring it. Fix the content first or save the money.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: an owner boosts a few posts a month for £10 each over 30 days, and each reaches almost nobody. Putting the same £30 into one strong post over five days usually reaches more of the right people and shows whether paid reach works.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Boost budget checklist

• Pick a post that already performs organically.
• Choose an objective that matches the result you want.
• Target the area you actually serve.
• Spend £5–£10 a day for five to seven days.
• Set an end date and review the result.

• Reddit ads budget for UK small businesses
• Daily vs lifetime ad budgets on social

Next step

Find your best organic post from the last month. Boost it for five days at £7 a day to your local area and note the messages or visits it brings.