How to Boost Views on Facebook

Getting your videos seen on Facebook can feel like shouting into the void, but it doesn't have to be. With the right approach, you can cut through the noise and get your content in front of a much larger audience. This guide provides actionable strategies you can use today, covering everything from optimizing your video content and mastering Reels to smart distribution tactics that actually work.

Rethink Your Video for the Facebook Feed

Before you even think about posting, it's important to understand how people consume content on Facebook. They're scrolling quickly on their phones, often with the sound off, looking for something to catch their eye. If your video isn’t designed for this environment, it’s already at a disadvantage.

Hook Them in the First 3 Seconds

The first three seconds of your video are the most important. This is your one chance to stop a scroller in their tracks. Forget long, cinematic introductions or slow-fading logos. You need to open with immediate value, a compelling question, or a surprising visual.

• Start with the action: If you're demonstrating a recipe, show the delicious final product first. If it's a DIY project, start with the satisfying "after" shot.
• Ask a question: "Are you making this common workout mistake?" or "Ever wonder how to do this?"
• Use a strong text hook: A bold text overlay like "3 Facebook Hacks You Didn't Know" immediately tells the viewer what they'll get.

Your goal is to make people pause long enough to be counted as a "view" and, more importantly, to get them interested enough to watch the rest.

Design for Sound-Off Viewing

According to Facebook's own data, a huge percentage of users watch videos with the sound off. If your video relies on someone speaking to make sense, you're alienating a massive part of your potential audience. Always design your content to be understood without audio.

• Use burned-in captions: Don’t rely on Facebook's auto-generated captions alone. Use a video editing app to add stylish, easy-to-read captions directly onto your video. This ensures they are always visible and match your brand's aesthetic.
• Leverage text overlays: Use text to highlight key points, list steps, or add context to what's happening on screen. This makes your video more of a visual story than a lecture.
• Focus on strong visuals: Let your actions, expressions, and the product itself do the talking. Show, don't just tell.

Go Vertical or Go Home (Mostly)

The vast majority of Facebook users are on mobile. A horizontal widescreen video creates a tiny rectangle on a vertical screen, surrounded by empty space. To maximize screen real estate and create an immersive experience, you must shoot and edit for mobile displays.

• For Reels & Stories (9:16): This is the full-screen vertical format. It’s the most engaging format for these placements.
• For the Feed (4:5 or 1:1): While vertical 9:16 can appear in the feed, a 4:5 vertical video or a 1:1 square video often performs best. It takes up more vertical space than a horizontal video without requiring the user to tap in to see the full frame.

Whatever you choose, just avoid the old-school 16:9 horizontal format unless your audience specifically consumes your content on desktop, which is increasingly rare.

Master Facebook Reels for Maximum Reach

If there's one format you should be focusing on right now, it's Facebook Reels. Meta is heavily pushing Reels to compete with TikTok, which means the algorithm is giving preferential treatment and massive organic reach to this content type. It's your single best tool for getting new eyeballs on your Page.

Lean into Trends, but Add Your Own Twist

One of the easiest ways to get views on Reels is to use trending audio, effects, or formats. The algorithm recognizes this content as relevant and shows it to more people. Don’t just copy a trend, though - adapt it to your niche.

• Find trending sounds: While scrolling Reels, tap the music icon at the bottom of a video. If you see a little upward-trending arrow next to the sound, it’s currently popular. Save it and use it in your next video.
• How to adapt it: A business coach could use a trending sound about "relatable problems" to talk about common entrepreneurial struggles. A restaurant could use a popular lip-sync audio to showcase a new menu item. The key is making the trend relevant to your brand.

Provide Standalone Value

The best Reels are entertaining or educational in a short, digestible burst. Someone who has never heard of you should be able to watch your Reel and get something out of it. This creates followers who stick around.

Ideas for high-value Reels:

• Quick Tips & Hacks: "One simple trick to make your houseplants thrive."
• Mini-Tutorials: "How to create this photo effect in 30 seconds."
• Behind-the-Scenes: Show the process of packing an order, setting up for an event, or a "day in the life."
• Relatable Humor: Create funny skits about the pains and joys of your industry or target audience.

Craft Engage-Worthy Captions and Hashtags

While the video is paramount, the caption is your opportunity to start a conversation. End your caption with a question to encourage comments. For hashtags, use a mix of broad, niche, and location-specific tags to help Facebook categorize your content.

Example Hashtag Strategy for a Coffee Shop in Brooklyn:

• Broad: #CoffeeLover #Cafe #BaristaLife
• Niche: #SpecialtyCoffee #LatteArtGram #ThirdWaveCoffee
• Location-Specific: #BrooklynCoffee #NYCCoffeeShop #Williamsburg

Amplify Your Views with Smart Distribution

Hitting "publish" isn't the final step. To really boost your views, you need a strategy to get your content in front of more people after it goes live. This involves a mix of community engagement and leveraging other platform features.

Share Your Content to Relevant Groups

Facebook Groups are powerful communities built around specific interests. If you share your video in a group where the content is genuinely helpful and relevant, you can tap into a highly engaged audience.

Important: Don't be a spammer. Always read the group rules first. Some groups don’t allow self-promotion. The best approach is to be an active, helpful member of the community first. When you do share your video, frame it as a helpful resource, not an ad.

Go Live to Get Priority Placement

Facebook's algorithm still loves Live video. When you go Live, Facebook notifies a good portion of your followers, placing your broadcast at the top of their News Feeds. It creates a sense of urgency and direct interaction that pre-recorded videos can’t match.

• Promote it beforehand: Let people know you’ll be going Live a day or two in advance.
• Have a plan: Don’t just turn on the camera. Plan a Q&A session, a product demo, an interview, or a behind-the-scenes tour.
• Engage with commenters: Call people out by name and answer their questions in real time. This boosts engagement and keeps people watching longer.

After the broadcast ends, the replay lives on your Page as a regular video, continuing to collect views.

Encourage Shares and Saves

Shares and saves are powerful signals to the algorithm. A share is a direct endorsement of your content, and a save indicates that your video was so valuable someone wanted to come back to it later. The best way to get these is to ask. A simple call-to-action in your video or caption like, "Share this with a friend who needs to see it!" or "Save this post for later!" can make a huge difference.

Analyze and Adapt Based on Data

You can't improve what you don't measure. Guessing what content will work is a recipe for burnout. Instead, use Facebook's own analytics to make informed decisions.

Know Which Metrics Matter

Go to your Page Insights and look at your video performance. Don't just obsess over the view count. Pay close attention to:

• Average Watch Time: This tells you how long people are actually sticking around. A high view count with a tiny average watch time means your hook works, but the content itself isn't holding attention.
• Audience Retention: This graph shows you the exact moment when viewers drop off. Identify that spot in your video. What happened? Was it slow? Was the energy flat? Use this feedback to make your next video tighter.
• Engagement Rate (Likes, Comments, Shares): This shows you how much your video resonated with viewers. A video with fewer views but an incredibly high engagement rate is often a signal that you've hit on a topic your core audience loves.

Double Down on What Works

After a few weeks, look at your top 3-5 performing videos. What do they have in common? Was it a specific topic? A particular format (like talking-head vs. a demonstration)? A certain type of hook or editing style? Once you identify a winning formula, create more variations of it. If a video about "3 mistakes to avoid" did well, make another video about "5 beginner tips" on a related topic. This isn't about being repetitive, it's about giving your audience more of what they've already told you they want.

Final Thoughts

Boosting your views on Facebook comes down to a consistent strategy: create mobile-first video that grabs attention, lean into the power of Reels, and actively engage your community beyond just posting. By looking at your analytics and refining your approach, you turn what feels like a guessing game into a repeatable process for growth.

Staying consistent enough to see real results can be the hardest part of any social media strategy. At Postbase, we built our platform to solve exactly for the modern creator juggling multiple formats and platforms. Our visual content calendar makes planning your Reels and videos effortless, and you can trust that when you schedule content - especially video - it will publish reliably every single time. It helps remove the friction so you can focus less on administrative tasks and more on creating fantastic content.