Boosting Posts vs Facebook Ads
In general, there are two options for setting up ads on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, these are called “boosted posts” and “ad campaigns”.
It can get confusing though as technically both are ad campaigns, they’re just different ways of setting an ad up.
A boosted post set up is somewhat simple but a proper ad campaign involves a complex setup process.
In simple language, a boosted post is kind of like a ‘mini ad campaign’, it can be made from your Facebook or Instagram profile.
A proper ad campaign though is made in a totally seperate part of Facebook that marketers use called, Facebook Ads Manager. Ads here are much more complex and almost every part of them can be customised to get you the result you want. They have a higher set up cost and that means usually the overall budget is much bigger compared to boosted posts.
In the past, boosting a post meant you had limited features during the setup process to choose from but recently this has changed to allow slightly more customisation, like directing people to a website instead of just getting people to engage with a post - but the post must be made in a certain way to “unlock” these features.
Boosted Posts
Boosting a post is a way to increase the visibility of an existing post on your Facebook or Instagram page. You can still choose a certain age range of people to target and select the location they are in.
Benefits of Boosting a Post:
Boosting a post can be done from a Facebook page, instead of going through Facebook Ads Manager which takes longer and is more complex.
Boosting a post now includes more advanced options like telling Facebook you want people to click a link to your website from the post, instead of just having people engage with the post or simply view it but the post must be made in a certain way to “unlock” these features.
Drawbacks of Boosting a Post:
Boosted posts can’t be easily customised when they are being set up, so you must know what you’re doing when you make the ‘organic’ page post in the first place, as this will change the options Facebook shows are possible when you are in the boosted post set up section.
Boosted posts are not good for things like getting leads, if this is your goal you should use a proper ad campaign.
Proper Ad Campaigns
Setting up a proper Facebook or Instagram ad campaign is much more complex than boosting a post. The interface and setup process is totally different and almost every aspect of the ad can be customised.
Benefits of proper ad campaigns:
It’s often better at getting you the result you want, for example, if you sell handbags; you can connect Facebook to your website to track what type of people not only click on your ad, but actually buy the handbag and pay for it on your website. This way Facebook will then show your ad to not just people who will click on your ad, but to people who will actually purchase the product.
Ads have more features and targeting options than boosted posts, which can make them more effective in getting the outcome you want, like getting leads.
Great for content that has more than one image as all images etc in the ad are clickable, e.g. pushing people to your website.
Drawbacks of proper ad campaigns:
Setting up proper ads campaigns takes far longer than boosting a post, so there’s a much higher set up cost, and therefor you’d want to put a bigger ad budget behind the ad as well, to make paying for the higher set up cost worth it.
Similarities
On both boosted posts and ad campaigns - you can choose demographics to target like an age range and the area a person is in.
Differences
Boosted posts can perform very well if your goal is traffic to a website or engagement with the post.
Proper ads usually make every element on the ad clickable, e.g. to your website. Whereas boosted posts need to be clicked in certain spots for this to happen. The exception is if your boost is for a Facebook post with one image - then a boosted post does actually allow a “Learn More” button to appear, and the entire image, when clicked will direct people to your website too.
If you want to target a group of people, like a list of database contacts, that’s best done with a proper ad campaign and not a boosted post.
Which One is Right for You?
If you work in real estate and your Facebook posts have one image, then boosting works well - as you can now tell Facebook your goal is website “traffic” instead of just post “engagement”.
If you want to promote your brand or agent and get leads from people in your area, a proper ad campaign is needed.
If you want to target a list of database contacts as they scroll through Facebook and Instagram, a proper campaign is needed.
If you have a low budget e.g. under $500 a boosted post is usually appropriate as most businesses who setup Facebook ad campaigns wouldn’t setup a basic campaign for less than this price.