How to Boost an Instagram Post

Boosting an Instagram post is one of the fastest ways to get your content in front of more people beyond your existing followers. It's an easy entry point into paid advertising on the platform, designed to be straightforward and quick. This guide will walk you through exactly how to boost a post, when you should (and shouldn't) do it, and the strategies to get tangible results from your budget.

What Does "Boosting" an Instagram Post Actually Mean?

Think of a boosted post as the simplified version of a formal Instagram ad. When you boost a post, you're paying to turn an existing feed post into an ad to reach a wider, targeted audience. This is different from creating an ad campaign from scratch in Meta's Ads Manager, which offers far more complex customization options.

The primary purpose of boosting is simple: reach and engagement. It's designed for simplicity. With just a few taps, you can select a goal, define an audience, set a budget, and send your top-performing content out to thousands of new potential customers or followers who otherwise would never have seen it.

Boosted Posts vs. Instagram Ads Manager: What's the Difference?

While both use your money to show content to more people, their purpose and complexity differ significantly.

• Simplicity: Boosting is done directly within the Instagram app in under five minutes. Ads Manager is a powerful, desktop-based tool with a much steeper learning curve, offering dozens of objectives and placement options.
• Goals: Boosting focuses on three simple goals: more profile visits, more website visits, or more messages. Ads Manager offers more advanced objectives like conversions, lead generation, and app installs.
• Targeting: Boosting gives you basic audience targeting (location, age, gender, and interests). Ads Manager allows for incredibly detailed targeting, including layered interests, behaviors, custom audiences from your email list, and Lookalike Audiences built from your best customers.
• Creative: With a boost, you're promoting a post that already exists on your feed. In Ads Manager, you can create ads that don't live on your profile feed, known as "dark posts," allowing you to test different creative and copy for ads only.

So, when does boosting make sense? It's the perfect choice when your goal is to amplify great content quickly, increase brand awareness, and drive initial engagement without the complexity of a full-blown ad campaign.

Choosing the Right Post to Boost

This is where most people get it wrong. Hitting the "Boost Post" button on a low-performing post is like throwing fuel on a fire that's already gone out. The key is to amplify what's already working.

Before you even think about spending money, look for a post that has strong organic performance. This means content that has already received a good number of likes, comments, shares, and saves from your current audience. High organic engagement is a clear signal that your content is compelling and resonates with people. If your existing followers love it, there's a strong chance a new, similar audience will too.

Here's what to look for:

• High Engagement Rate: Pick posts with more likes, comments, saves, and shares relative to your other posts. This is your best content.
• Clear Value: Does the post offer something valuable? This could be a helpful tip, an inspiring story, a stunning photo, or an entertaining Reel that grabs attention.
• Business Goal Alignment: Does the post naturally align with a business goal? For example, a post showcasing a new product is perfect for a "visit website" objective. A post asking a question is great for a "get more messages" goal.
• Great Visuals: Instagram is a visual platform. Choose a post with a high-quality, eye-catching photo or video that will stop people from scrolling.

Don't waste your budget trying to rescue a failed post. Boost a winner to make it a champion.

A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Boost an Instagram Post

Ready to get started? First, you need to have an Instagram Business or Creator account to access this feature. If your account is set to "Personal," you can switch it in your settings. Once that's done, just follow these steps.

1. Select Your Post and Tap "Boost Post"

Navigate to your Instagram profile and find the specific feed post, Reel, or Story you want to promote. Beneath the post, you'll see a blue “Boost Post” button. Tap it to begin the process.

2. Choose Your Goal

Instagram will ask you to select a goal. This tells the algorithm what you want people to do when they see your ad. You have three main options:

• More Profile Visits: This is a great choice for brand awareness and growing your follower count. It encourages people to check out your profile, see your other content, and hopefully, tap that follow button. Make sure your bio is clear and your recent grid posts are looking good!
• More Website Visits: If you want to drive traffic to your online store, a blog post, or a landing page, this is your goal. You'll be able to add a call-to-action button like "Shop Now," "Learn More," or "Sign Up" that links directly to your website.
• More Messages: Choose this option to start conversations. It drives users to send you a message via Instagram Direct. This is powerful for service-based businesses, lead generation, or answering questions about custom products.

3. Define Your Target Audience

Next, you'll decide who sees your boosted post. This is the most important step for getting a good return on your investment.

• Automatic: Instagram can create an audience for you based on people similar to your existing followers. This is a good starting point if you're unsure, but custom audiences usually perform better.
• Create Your Own: This gives you manual control. You'll define the audience based on:
  • Locations: You can target by city, region, or country. For a local business, you can even target a specific radius around your physical address.
  • Interests: This is where you can get specific. What are your ideal customers interested in? Think about related brands, hobbies, publications, or public figures they might follow. For example, if you sell handmade ceramic mugs, you might target interests like "coffee," "pottery," "home decor," and "Etsy."
  • Age &, Gender: Set the age range and gender that aligns with your target market.

Start with a slightly broad audience and narrow it down as you learn what works. You can save your custom audiences to use them again for future boosts.

4. Set Your Budget and Duration

Now, you decide how much you want to spend and for how long. There are two simple settings here:

• Budget: This is the total amount you'll spend over the entire duration of the promotion. You can start with as little as a few dollars.
• Duration: This is how many days you want the boost to run.

Instagram will give you an estimated reach based on your selections. For your first boost, it's smart to start with a small budget (e.g., $20-$30) and run it for 3-5 days. This gives you enough data to see how the post is performing without a huge financial commitment.

5. Review and Submit

Finally, you'll get a chance to review all your settings on one screen: your goal, audience, budget, duration, and payment information. Give it a final look to make sure everything is correct. Once you're happy, tap “Boost Post.” Your post will then be submitted to Meta for a quick review process (usually an hour or two, but can take up to 24 hours) to make sure it follows their advertising policies. Once approved, your boost will go live!

Best Practices for a More Successful Boost

Following the steps is easy, but getting great results requires a little strategy. Here are a few tips to make your money go further.

Optimize Your Call-to-Action (CTA) in the Caption

Even though you're selecting a goal with a built-in button (like "Visit Profile"), your caption is still incredibly important. Reinforce your desired action directly in the text. Explicitly tell people what to do next. For example:

• If your goal is website visits: "Tap 'Shop Now' to see our new collection!"
• If your goal is profile visits: "Visit our profile (link in bio!) for more tips like this."
• If your goal is messages: "Have questions? Send us a DM - we'd love to help!"

Monitor Your Insights

Don't just set it and forget it. While your boost is running, you can track its performance by tapping "View Insights" on the promoted post. Don't get distracted by vanity metrics like likes. Focus on the metrics tied to your goal:

• How many website clicks did you get?
• How many profile visits did it drive?
• How many new DMs did you receive?

These are the numbers that tell you if your budget is actually working for you.

Test and Experiment

The only way to find out what works best for your brand is to test. Don't be afraid to experiment. Use a small budget to test different things:

• Test two different audiences: Create two specific but different audiences and boost the same post to each. See which one delivers better results for your goal.
• Test different creative: Boost two different posts with the same audience and goal to see which type of content resonates more. A video might outperform a static image, or vice versa.

By constantly testing and iterating, you'll uncover valuable insights that improve your strategy over time.

Final Thoughts

Boosting an Instagram post is a fantastic way to reach new people, drive meaningful action, and grow your brand without getting lost in the complexities of Ads Manager. By choosing your best-performing content, setting a clear goal, and carefully targeting your audience, you can turn a small investment into real business results.

While boosting is excellent for reaching a wider audience with your best content, it works best when built on a foundation of a strong organic strategy. Having a clear and consistent content plan is vital. We created Postbase to make that part easier. Our visual calendar helps you plan and schedule your content across all your platforms, so you can stop worrying about what to post and focus on creating engaging Reels and posts that are actually worth boosting in the first place.