How to Boost Reels on Facebook

Boosting your Facebook Reels is one of the fastest ways to get your best short-form video content in front of a targeted audience. This guide walks you through exactly how to boost a Reel, from choosing the right one to setting up your campaign and analyzing the results. We’ll cover the step-by-step process and the strategy you need to turn your top-performing organic content into a powerful growth engine for your brand.

What Does "Boosting" a Facebook Reel Actually Mean?

Before we get into the "how," let's clarify what a "boost" is. Boosting a post, including a Reel, means you are paying Meta to show your content to more people. It’s a simplified form of advertising that turns an organic post into a paid ad. Unlike a complex campaign built in Meta Ads Manager, boosting is designed to be quick and easy to set up directly from your Facebook Page or mobile app.

So, why would you pay to boost a Reel?

• Expand Your Reach: Organic reach on social media can be unpredictable. Boosting guarantees your content gets seen by a larger audience outside of your existing followers.
• Target Specific Demographics: You can show your Reel to people based on their location, age, gender, interests, and behaviors. This is perfect for reaching potential customers who don't know your brand yet.
• Drive Action: A simple organic Reel exists to entertain and engage. A boosted Reel can have a specific business goal, such as driving traffic to your website, generating messages, or getting more profile visits.
• Amplify What's Working: If a Reel is already performing well organically, boosting it is like pouring gasoline on a fire. It gives your proven content the push it needs to generate even better results.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Boosting Your Facebook Reel

You can boost a Reel directly from the Facebook mobile app or from your Page on a desktop. The process is very similar on both. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Choose the Reel You Want to Boost

First, find the Reel you want to promote. Go to your Facebook Page, navigate to the "Reels" tab, and open the Reel you want to use. You'll see a blue "Boost Reel" button underneath the video. Click it to get started. Be aware, you can only boost Reels that use original audio or music from Meta’s Sound Collection. If you used a popular, copyrighted commercial song, the "Boost" button will likely be greyed out.

Step 2: Define Your Goal

Facebook will ask you to choose a goal for your ad. This is the primary action you want people to take after seeing your Reel. Your options may vary, but they typically include:

• Automatic: Facebook will select the goal most likely to get you results based on your settings, which usually lean towards engagement (likes, comments, shares).
• Get more messages: This encourages people to start a conversation with your Page through Messenger. Great for service-based businesses or lead generation.
• Get more video views: The simple goal of getting your Reel in front of as many eyes as possible. Perfect for brand awareness campaigns.
• Get more website visits: This allows you to add a "Learn More," "Shop Now," or similar call-to-action button that directs users to a specific URL.
• Get more calls: This adds a "Call Now" button, allowing users to call your business phone number directly.
• Get more Page likes: This goal focuses on growing your follower count.

Choose the goal that directly aligns with what you want to achieve with this specific ad.

Step 3: Add a Call-to-Action (CTA) Button

If you chose a goal like "Get more website visits" or "Get more calls," you'll be prompted to set up your call-to-action button. Select the text for your button (e.g., Shop Now, Book Now, Sign Up, Learn More) and, if applicable, enter the website URL you want to send people to. Make this destination page relevant to the Reel's content! Don't advertise a specific product and then link to your generic homepage.

Step 4: Select Your Audience

This is where you determine who sees your boosted Reel. You have a few powerful options:

• Audience: Automatic: Facebook automatically creates an audience for you based on your Page followers' characteristics. It’s a good starting point if you’re unsure, but custom audiences usually perform better.
• People who like your Page: This targets only your existing followers. Useful for promoting a special offer or announcement to your loyal community.
• People who like your Page and people similar to them: A combination of targeting your followers and a lookalike audience.
• Create new audience: This gives you full control. You can target users by:
  • Location: Target by country, region, city, or even a radius around a specific address.
  • Age &, Gender: Set the specific age range and gender you want to reach.
  • Detailed Targeting: This is where it gets powerful. You can add interests, behaviors, and demographics. For example, a coffee shop could target people who live within 5 miles of their store and have an interest in "coffee," "lattes," and "local cafes."

Step 5: Set Your Budget and Duration

Next, you’ll decide how much you want to spend and for how long. You have two main settings:

• Total Budget: You set the total amount you are willing to spend over the entire campaign period.
• Duration: You set the number of days your ad will run.

Facebook will give you an estimate of your daily reach based on your settings. For your first boost, it's smart to start with a smaller budget (e.g., $5 to $10 per day) for a short period (3–5 days). This lets you test the ad's performance without committing a large amount of money. You can always extend the campaign or increase the budget later if it's doing well.

Step 6: Add Your Payment Method and Boost

Finally, review your ad settings - the goal, audience, budget, duration, and ad creative. If everything looks right, add your payment information if you haven’t already. Once you are ready, hit the "Boost Reel now" button. Your ad will go into a short review process with Meta. Once approved (usually within a few minutes to a few hours), it will start running.

Beyond the Button: Strategies for a Successful Boost

Simply knowing how to boost isn't enough. You need strategy. Here's how to make sure your marketing dollars are well spent.

Select the Right Reel to Promote

Don't boost a brand new Reel with zero organic traction. Look for a Reel that is already performing well with your current audience. This is your "proof of concept." Check your analytics for a Reel that has:

• High engagement rate: Look for more likes, comments, shares, and saves than your average post.
• Strong watch time and audience retention: If people are watching your Reel all the way through, it’s a great sign that a new audience will find it interesting too.
• Content that represents your brand: The Reel should clearly communicate what you do, what you sell, or the value you provide. It should be an excellent first impression for someone who has never heard of you.

Craft Ad-Friendly Creative

An organic Reel and an ad Reel have slightly different jobs. When preparing to boost, make sure your video is set up for success:

• Hook them in the first 3 seconds: Capture attention immediately with movement, a compelling question, or an intriguing visual.
• Use text overlays for key messages: Many people watch Reels with the sound off. Use clear, easy-to-read text on screen to communicate your message.
• Keep it authentic: The best-performing Reel ads don't look like ads. They feel like native, organic content that fits seamlessly into the user’s feed. Avoid overly corporate or polished videos.

Monitor and Analyze Performance

Don't set it and forget it. After your boosted Reel has been running for a day or two, check its performance in the Ad Center or Meta Ads Manager. Look at these key metrics:

• Reach: How many unique people have seen your ad.
• Impressions: The total number of times your ad was seen (one person might see it multiple times).
• Cost Per Result: This is a big one. It tells you how much you paid for each desired action (e.g., per website click, per message, per view). Your goal is to get this number as low as possible.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who saw your ad and clicked on the call-to-action button. A higher CTR often indicates a compelling ad and relevant audience targeting.

If your Cost Per Result is too high or your CTR is low, it might be time to pause the ad and reassess. Is the creative weak? Is the audience targeting too broad? Use the data to make improvements for your next boosted post.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to boost Facebook Reels effectively is a game-changer for extending your reach and hitting specific business objectives. By turning your standout organic video content into a targeted ad, you can attract new followers, drive website traffic, and grow your brand in a measurable way.

For us, success with boosting always starts with a strong organic content plan. Consistently creating and scheduling high-quality Reels for your platforms gives you a library of content to test. Once you have a clear idea of what’s performing best, boosting becomes a much smarter investment. With a tool like Postbase, we can manage our entire short-form video workflow - from planning content on a visual calendar to scheduling on all major platforms simultaneously - and then use simple analytics to pinpoint exactly which Reels are winners and ready for a budget behind them.