How to Boost a Video on Facebook

Posting a great video to your Facebook Page is an awesome first step, but with organic reach being what it is today, simply hitting “publish” often isn’t enough to get the eyes on it you deserve. That’s where boosting comes in. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about how to boost a video on Facebook, turning a simple post into a powerful tool for growing your audience and your business.

Why Bother Boosting a Facebook Video?

You might be wondering if it’s really worth spending money to promote a video. While a strong organic strategy is foundational, boosting a post is one of the most direct ways to guarantee your content reaches a new and relevant audience. Think of it as putting rocket fuel on your best content.

Here’s what a simple boost can do for you:

• Break Through a Crowded Feed: Organic reach is limited. Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes content from friends and family, making it tough for business pages to stand out. Boosting gets your video in front of more people, period.
• Reach a Hyper-Targeted Audience: Don’t just show your video to everyone. You can show it specifically to people in your city who love hiking, or to people across the country who have shown interest in your competitors. The targeting capabilities are incredibly powerful.
• Drive Specific Business Goals: A boosted video isn’t just for getting views. You can use it to send people to your website, encourage them to send you a message, or build brand awareness for a new product.
• Gather Valuable Data: Every boost provides insights into who is engaging with your video. This data helps you understand your audience better, which can inform your entire marketing strategy, both paid and organic.

The Pre-Boost Checklist: Setting Your Video Up for Success

Hitting the “Boost Post” button without any prep is like starting a road trip without a map - you’ll be moving, but probably not in the right direction. A successful boost starts long before you spend your first dollar. Here’s what you need to lock in first.

1. Make Sure Your Video is Ready for Prime Time

Not all videos are created equal. For a boosted post, your video needs to be optimized to grab attention immediately in a fast-scrolling feed.

• Hook Them in 3 Seconds: This is non-negotiable. The first few seconds must be visually compelling, ask an intriguing question, or present a problem your audience wants solved. Don't waste time with a long logo intro.
• Design for Sound-Off Viewing: The vast majority of users watch videos on mobile without sound. Use bold, easy-to-read captions (you can generate these automatically on Facebook) or use on-screen text to tell your story visually.
• Keep it Vertical: Most people are on their phones, so a vertical or square video (like a 4:5 or 1:1 aspect ratio) takes up more screen real estate and performs much better than a traditional horizontal video.
• Add a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): What do you want people to do after watching? Tell them explicitly. This can be text on the screen at the end, a verbal callout, or part of your post copy. For example, “Click the link to shop our new collection!”

2. Define Your Goal: What Do You Actually Want to Achieve?

When you start the boosting process, Facebook will ask what you want to accomplish. Knowing your goal ahead of time clarifies all your other decisions, from the button you choose to the audience you target.

Are you trying to:

• Increase brand awareness? Your goal is getting as many people as possible to see your video (Video Views).
• Drive traffic to your website? Your goal is to get people to click a link to your blog, product page, or homepage (Get More Website Visitors).
• Start conversations with potential customers? Your goal is to get people to contact you via Messenger (Get More Messages).
• Generate leads? Your goal is to direct people to a landing page where they can fill out a form (Get More Leads).

Having one clear objective is far more effective than trying to do everything at once.

3. Know Exactly Who You're Talking To

This is where the magic happens. Instead of guessing who might be interested, you can tell Facebook exactly who to show your video to. A well-defined audience is the difference between a wasted budget and a huge return on investment.

Think beyond just age and gender. Consider:

• Location: Are you a local business? Target your city or even specific ZIP codes. Are you an e-commerce brand? Target entire countries.
• Detailed Targeting (Interests & Behaviors): This is the most powerful feature. You can target people based on what they're interested in, pages they've liked, and behaviors they've shown on the platform.
  • Example for a local bakery: Target people within 10 miles of your shop who are interested in "Weddings," "Cakes," "Desserts," and "Baking."
  • Example for an online fitness coach: Target people nationally who are interested in "Weight Training," "Healthy Eating," and "Peloton," and follow influencers like "Jen Selter" or "Joe Wicks."
• Custom Audiences: This is a more advanced option but incredibly powerful. You can create audiences based on people who have already interacted with your business, such as your website visitors, your email list, or people who have engaged with your Facebook Page.

How to Boost a Video on Facebook: The Step-by-Step Guide

Once you’ve done your prep work, the actual process is pretty straightforward. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Find the Video You Want to Boost

Go to your Facebook Business Page and find the video post you published. Below the post, you’ll see a blue Boost Post button. Click it.

Step 2: Choose Your Objective

Here, you’ll tell Facebook your goal. You’ll see a list of options that may vary slightly, but they typically include:

• Automatic: Facebook will select the most relevant goal based on your settings. It’s a good place to start if you’re new.
• Get more engagement: Focuses on getting more reactions, comments, and shares. Good for building social proof.
• Get more video views: The default for videos, optimized to show your video to people who are likely to watch it.
• Get more website visitors: Prompts you to add a website URL for people to click.
• Get more messages: Encourages users to start a conversation with you on Messenger.

Select the one that matches the goal you defined earlier.

Step 3: Add a Call-to-Action Button

This button appears right below your post and gives people a clear, clickable next step. Make sure your button text aligns with your goal. Common options include:

• Shop Now (for e-commerce/retail)
• Learn More (for driving traffic to a blog or service page)
• Sign Up (for lead generation or webinars)
• Book Now (for appointments or reservations)
• Send Message (to start Messenger conversations)

Step 4: Select Your Audience

This is where you'll use the audience profile you created during your prep. You can choose a saved audience or create a new one. Click 'Create New Audience' to start from scratch.

1. Give your audience a name so you can reuse it later.
2. Set the Gender, Age, and Locations. Be specific with your location targeting if you're a local business.
3. Dive into Detailed Targeting. Start typing interests, behaviors, or demographics related to your ideal customer. Facebook will suggest more as you type. Get as specific as you can.

Step 5: Set Your Duration and Budget

You can decide how long you want your boost to run and how much you want to spend in total.

• Duration: A good starting point is between 3 to 7 days. This gives Facebook’s algorithm enough time to learn and find the right people for your ad.
• Total Budget: This is the maximum amount you'll spend over the entire duration of the campaign. Start small to test the waters. You can get meaningful data with as little as $20-$50 for an initial test run. Facebook will show you an estimate of how many people you will reach per day based on your budget.

Step 6: Choose Your Placements

By default, Facebook will run your ad across its "placements," which can include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and its Audience Network. For beginners, it’s usually best to stick with the Automatic placements option and let the platform figure out the most effective place to show your video.

Step 7: Check Your Payment Method and Boost!

Add your payment information if you haven’t already. Do a final review of all your settings - goal, audience, budget, duration - to make sure everything looks correct. When you're ready, hit the Boost Post Now button at the bottom.

After the Boost: Tracking and Learning

Your work isn't over once the boost is live. You should check in on its performance to see what's working.

How to Track Performance

You can see basic results by clicking View Insights on the boosted post itself. This will show you metrics like Reach (how many people saw it), Engagement (reactions, comments, shares), and a breakdown of the demographics that responded best.

Key Metrics to Watch:

• Reach: The number of unique people who saw your video. Is it reaching the size of audience you expected?
• Cost Per Result: This is the most important metric. Facebook tells you how much you're paying for your desired outcome (e.g., Cost per Video View, Cost per Link Click). The lower the cost, the more efficient your campaign is.
• Video Engagement: Pay attention to the average watch time. If people are dropping off in the first few seconds, your hook might need work on the next video.

Don’t forget to check the comments on your boosted post and respond to them! This is a great chance to engage with a new audience and build community.

Final Thoughts

Boosting videos on Facebook is an incredibly accessible way to break through the noise, connect with highly targeted audiences, and drive real results for your brand. Success isn't just about clicking a button, it's about a thoughtful approach that pairs a compelling video with a well-defined goal and the right audience.

Getting your organic content strategy right is the foundation for any successful paid campaign. When your content calendar is consistent and full of high-quality clips, you have plenty of great material to choose from when you decide to boost a post. This is a big reason why we built our platform, Postbase, to be video-first. We found that legacy scheduling tools make you fight to plan and publish the short-form videos that actually work today. By making it simple to schedule all your content from a single visual calendar, you can stay consistent, see what's resonating organically, and make smarter decisions about which posts are worth putting money behind.