Is the Facebook Boost dead?

If you listen to many marketing experts, Facebook’s Boost Post button should have been buried years ago. It’s often labelled as “lazy advertising,” “for beginners,” or “a waste of budget.”

If you ask me, it still totally works. And here’s why…

Paid ad campaigns through Meta are incredibly intricate. They require expertise and time investment, both of which cost money, right? So what’s the other option?

Yep, you guessed it, Facebook Boost.

A boosted Facebook post allows you to target:

• Age

• Location

• Demographic

• Website visitors (using a Meta Pixel)

• Facebook and Instagram engaged users

Don’t get me wrong, there are still some setup bits you have to do in order to target these people, but it can be done. 

So, if you can target all of those things with a $10 budget, and allow your content to be seen by up to 3 times the number of people as it usually would if you didn’t boost it, why on earth wouldn’t you do it!?

You’re getting in front of more eyes, you’re spending a fortune and you're not sending your content into the abyss of Meta.

Facebook Boost is not dead, but it has evolved. It is not a full advertising strategy, and shouldn’t be seen as one. However, when it’s used intentionally, Boosting a post can still deliver meaningful value, especially for small businesses with a low marketing budget.

What Facebook Boost actually is (and isn’t)

Boosting a post is essentially a quick and easy advertising option. It allows you to put a budget behind an existing organic post directly from your Facebook Page, without opening Meta Ads Manager, which, to be frank, is a big humongous beast.

What a Boost can be good for:

• Fast reach to a specific audience

• Engagement amplification

• Social proof

• Simple awareness campaigns
  

What it’s not designed for:

• Conversion-heavy sales funnels

• Advanced audience targeting

• Placement-specific imagery and copy

Understanding this distinction is the key reason Boost hasn’t died and why it still works when used appropriately.

Why Facebook Boost hasn’t died

Despite newer platforms and formats, Facebook still offers:

• Massive daily usage across older and mid-age demographics

• Strong local and community-based reach

• High visibility for service industries and small businesses

• Ability for content to be seen on both Facebook and Instagram

I use Facebook boost for all of my clients on the majority of their posts (alongside a monthly paid ad), and here’s what we see…if we don’t boost a post, we might reach 300-500 people not within your target audience, with a boosted post, we see the reach get up to anywhere between 1000-5000 people who are in your target audience. The most successful $10 boosted post I’ve had recently reached over 18,000 people, and for context, this was targeted at a suburb in Christchurch with a 30km radius.

Of course, the content has a part to play in this, but if you can get the content and the target audience correct, then you can really hit the sweet spot.

The bottom line

Facebook Boost is not dead, it’s just a very cheap way of targeting an audience to maximise reach and engagement on consistent posting.

In 2026, the Facebook Boost works best as:

• A visibility amplifier

• A social proof builder

• A low-risk testing tool

• A fast way of reaching a local audience

If this might be something you’re looking to do for your small business, I’d love to help. Get in touch and let’s have a yarn about it.