Promoted Content
Promoted content is when you pay to show your organic social media posts to a larger, targeted audience beyond your followers.
What is promoted content?
Promoted content takes your existing organic posts and amplifies them through paid advertising. Instead of creating separate ads from scratch, you're essentially putting money behind content you've already published to reach more people.
Think of it as giving your best-performing posts a megaphone. Your original post stays the same, but now it appears in front of people who don't follow you yet but match your target audience criteria.
Why promote your content?
Organic reach is declining
Most social platforms show your posts to only 5-10% of your followers organically. Promotion helps more people actually see your content.
Cost-effective advertising
Promoting existing content is often cheaper than creating dedicated ads because you're working with content that already has proven engagement.
Build on what works
Your best organic posts have already proven they resonate with your audience. Promoting them amplifies success rather than guessing what might work.
How does promoted content work?
Choose your post: Select a high-performing organic post from your feed, ideally one with above-average engagement rates.
Define your audience: Target people based on demographics, interests, behaviors, or create lookalike audiences based on your existing followers.
Set your budget: Start with $20-50 to test performance. You can run promotions for 3-7 days initially.
Monitor and optimize: Track metrics like cost per engagement, click-through rate, and conversions to refine your targeting.
How to promote content on different platforms
Instagram Promoted Posts
Go to your post → Tap "Promote" Choose objective: More profile visits, website visits, or messages Budget: $5-50/day recommended for small businesses Best for: Visual content, product showcases, lifestyle posts
Facebook Promoted Posts
Click "Increase Post" on any post Target: Saved audiences or lookalike audiences work best Budget: $10-100/day depending on audience size Best for: Educational content, community building, events
LinkedIn Promoted Posts
Use Campaign Manager for better targeting Focus on: Professional content and thought leadership Budget: $50+ daily minimum for meaningful reach Best for: B2B content, industry insights, company updates
TikTok Promoted Videos
Use TikTok Ads Manager Promote videos with existing organic traction Budget: $20+ daily minimum Best for: Trending content, tutorials, behind-the-scenes
Which posts should you promote?
High engagement posts
Posts with 2x your average engagement rate are prime candidates for promotion.
Timeless content
Educational posts, tutorials, and evergreen content provide long-term value when promoted.
Conversion-focused posts
Posts that include clear calls-to-action or drive traffic to your website.
Avoid promoting
- Overly promotional content
- Posts with negative comments
- Time-sensitive content (unless promoting immediately)
Promoted content with SocialRails
SocialRails makes it easy to identify your best-performing content for promotion. The analytics dashboard shows you which posts have the highest engagement rates, making it simple to choose winners for paid promotion.
Plus, with SocialRails' AI content creation, you can quickly generate variations of your top posts to test different promoted content approaches.
Common promoted content mistakes
Promoting every post: Only promote your best content. Quality over quantity saves money and improves results.
Poor audience targeting: Too broad or too narrow targeting wastes budget. Start specific, then expand.
Ignoring mobile optimization: 90% of social media is consumed on mobile. Make sure your promoted content looks good on small screens.
Not testing different audiences: Try 2-3 different audience segments to find what works best.
Measuring promoted content success
Key metrics to track
Cost per engagement: How much you pay for each like, comment, or share Click-through rate: Percentage of people who click your links Cost per click: How much you pay for website visits Conversion rate: Percentage of promoted post viewers who take desired action
Success benchmarks
Instagram: 1-3% engagement rate on promoted posts Facebook: 0.5-1% click-through rate LinkedIn: $2-5 cost per click for B2B content TikTok: 3-5% engagement rate on promoted videos