Did you have a live stream recently? Or did you post a quick update about a new song idea out of the home studio? Or did you just say thank you to your supporting fans during the past months?

Whatever it is, organic reach won’t do the trick for you. But there’s a simple solution for it:

Boost great content to your engaged audience. By nurturing them, you stay top of mind. Thus, people continue supporting you.

Use the Facebook Boost button.

So many independent musicians complain about Facebook’s Boost button. They invested (or burned) up to hundreds of dollars before they stopped. Not because the system is bad but because these artists misunderstood the proper use.

When using the Boost button, the default target audience consists of people who like your page and their friends. You want to avoid them!

You will throw money out of the window if you reach the wrong people with a boosted post.

If you are like most independent artists, you have a bunch of people liking your social media pages because they like you and wanna support you (as a person). They don’t give much about your music. 

Here’s what you can do instead.

Go into your Facebook Business Manager account. Or create one and set up your Ad Account - name, address, payment settings, etc.

Create an engagement custom audience. I recommend choosing the maximum number of days. You will learn over time what’s best for you in every situation. 

Wait for Facebook to populate your custom audience. If you have few followers, a custom audience might not work for you. You could build a reach campaign to find new fans first.

Continue once your audience is populated.

(Pro tip: Use the Facebook Business Help Center whenever you need to know how to set up something on Facebook or Instagram.)

On your artist page, choose a post and click on boost. It will open a new window. 

First, scroll down to make sure to select the right account (your artist page’s account - not the personal Facebook profile). Next, set up all the details: select ‘get more reactions’, pick your right custom audience (!), schedule the duration, and set the budget ($1/day).

(By the way, ignore the boost button if you plan a real campaign, such as a promotion or release campaign.)

The boost button is fantastic to quickly push single posts to a selected engaged audience. In other words: nurture your existing followers.

Oh, and if your boosted posts get more engagements, your organic reach will increase. Because you know how Facebook works. Once people engage with content, Facebook will invite others to see it, too.

I only scratched the surface here. There are so many amazing options for independent artists, such as stacking or excluding audiences.

But, first, I wanna know how this simple paid promo idea appeals to you. Have you ever boosted before? What did you boost? How did it turn out for you? Why haven’t you boosted yet?