I was wondering if anyone uses the paid promotion or boost options on their social media accounts, such as Facebook Boost, Instagram Promote or Promote a Pin. Has it made any difference to level of engagement and in turn, sales? Or is it just a waste of money? I would be interested to have the benefit of others’ experience. Thanks for your time.
I pay for an advert about twice a year and I can’t say that it has a direct effect but I don’t really know whether it has a knock on effect later on. I use social media a lot to promote my shop and I think it’s more likely that posting and promoting my things regularly has had a big effect on my sales but paid adverts certainly reach a much wider audience. I wouldn’t do it on a regular basis though.
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Thanks for the reply. I was considering doing similar, just using a promotion occasionally to give things a push. It can’t do any harm. I’m not necessarily expecting an increase in sales directly (though that would be nice), but a bit of a boost to my social media exposure.
I haven’t paid for any, but there have been a couple of times in the past when Facebook have offered me a free $10 worth of promotion, so I’ve used that to try it out. I’ve never noticed any sales from it, but it did get the posts more views and a few more likes (but not really any difference for anything I posted after). I think they say promotion is best on posts that are already performing well, and it’s best to be very specific about your target audience.
They can be quite fussy about what they allow though. I was actually going to pay for some when I was having a big 10 years sale, and then I realised I couldn’t work out a good way to do it that they’d allow. They don’t like you using images with too much text, but I really needed text on my image to explain my sale clearly.
If I was going to pay for an ad, I’d probably wait until it’s buying time for a gift giving occasion (unless they offer me any more free, you don’t get much choice with the free stuff, so I’ll just take whatever I can get 
)
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Thanks for the detailed reply Kim.
I have opted to spend a small amount on boosting an Instagram post. Instagram already has my highest level of engagement on social media and with a fresh audience of total strangers! I have gained more followers in a few months there than I have after years on Facebook. I can already attribute sales via that route. If it can increase my exposure there still further I will be happy.
We will see what happens.
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Rather than paying for promotion on one specific social media channel what about paying British Crafters (run by one of folksy’s own shop owners @dottiedesigns) and they will promote you across all the platforms to all their followers? You can find details of their packages at https://www.britishcrafters.co.uk/
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Thank you @SashaGarrett 
I have replied to your email Chris regarding promotion, but also wanted to add that I have used the Facebook Boost option for my promotion account and I have never (yet) done this without it resulting in a few bookings. I think you have to choose the audience that you target quite carefully so that you aren’t throwing your money away. You can find tutorials and guides to help you do this. I always start off a boost with a couple of different audience options, then after a few hours pause the one that is performing less well!
Hope this helps! Oh & I have tried both Instagram and Twitter ads with 0 results!
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I also use FB promotions (in addition to the more effective British Crafters version of course). Do it about 3 times a year once I notice that my views / reach figures are going down. These improve immediately again after I’ve paid (as little as I can get away with) and the feel good factor lasts a good 2 monthes afterwards as well as FB is a tad gullible.
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Thanks Susan. I have got your email and will be in touch shortly.
Thanks Sasha. I am already on it!
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Thanks Joy @JOYSofGLASS. I’m glad you have seen some positive results. I was thinking a promotion three times a year is a good plan.
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