In Automated Post Boosting, the boosted posts are selected by filtering the post feed containing posts from one or more Facebook pages. You can decide what kinds of posts are promoted, and how many of them are promoted at the same time. The filtering logic is exactly same as for any Automated Ads campaign, and can be done on on feed and/or creative level.

Setting up filtering rules

The most important thing to do is filter out posts that do not fit your use case. For example, if you want to create a Conversions campaign or optimize for Link Clicks, you need to filter out posts that do not have a link URL in them (for example: "message contains http"). For more detailed information how to filter the post feed, see the main Automated Ads article on filtering.

We include the latest 100 published posts per page in your post feed and sort them by publishing time. You can limit this number further by filtering.

You can filter and sort posts based on several parameters. Here are some examples:

Performance metrics – e.g. All reactions (likes and other post reactions), shares, total engagement rate, unique impressions: Include only posts that have more than 50 reactions.
Time since the post was published – "Published Time (as date)": For example, include only posts that were published under 24 hours ago
Post content – e.g. Description, Link URL: For example, match only posts where the message contains 'Sale'
Post type - "Type": For example, don't include link posts
Post ID: Only promote posts with specific IDs.

Note: Engagement metrics and reactions are not available for filtering with Instagram posts (they are not available via the API). These metrics will always have a value of zero for Instagram posts.

What happens when a post does not match the filters anymore?

When a post no longer matches your filters, the ads based on it will be archived. To avoid this, you can exclude the ad from automation.

Post types and campaign objective

The campaign objective must match the post type. For example, Event RSVP Ads can only be boosted with a campaign that has Event RSVPs as its Facebook objective. Events can't be shared directly, but if you share the event on your Facebook page, you'll be able to boost that post. (The post on your Wall must say "X shared an event".)

Similarly, a Conversions or Link Clicks campaign can only boost posts that have a link URL in the body. If you don't filter out posts that don't include 'http', for example, you will see error messages.

How posts are synced and processed

As post feeds automatically update once per hour, we don't recommend boosting posts for less than 1.5 hours.

Note that metrics for posts are updated every time a campaign is processed, but the posts themselves are downloaded to Smartly.io on a different interval. This can cause minor mismatches between what the current state of the post in Facebook is and what gets boosted by the campaign. However, these differences are resolved during the next update cycle.

Posts that are not eligible for boosting

Not all kinds of posts are promotable on Facebook. Smartly.io will filter out these posts automatically. For example, you cannot boost posts shared from other pages if you do not have permissions to access the content. See Why is my boost unavailable? on the Facebook Advertiser Help Center for details.

Facebook has made some posts ineligible for advertisement (boosting). According to Facebook:

”In order to ensure businesses get the most value from their Facebook ads, we are removing the ability to boost some post types that are rarely used and are not tied to advertiser objectives. This change will allow us to improve and expand our most effective ad products, and help advertisers identify solutions to help them reach their goals."

The following types of posts cannot be boosted:

the share of products from shops
the share of a story about a for-sale post
a check-in on a map, at a restaurant, or in a city
a shared note
a shared poll
place recommendations
a shared cultural moment
a shared comment
change of a profile picture
a file upload or share
a sports event
a video or image uploaded through the Facebook camera
attendance for an event
a shared video playlist
the status of watching a television show, movie, or other types of programming
a post from an app posted to a page's timeline
a political endorsement
Facebook watch video (API limitations regarding this type)

Illustration on Publish time conditions