Before attempting to advertise on Facebook, all companies should determine their specific advertising goals, as some could be achieved by boosting a post and others by producing a Facebook ad. The following guide illustrates how boosted posts are slightly different, as well as when each should be used.
Facebook Boost Post
A boosted post is a post on your Page's timeline to which you can spend money to boost it to a specific audience. This is the most straightforward method of advertising on Facebook. Boosted posts are different from Facebook ads in that they aren't made in Ads Manager and may not have as many customization options.
Boosted posts are less complicated than Facebook ads and are easier to understand if you're familiar with Facebook's News Feed. A boosted post, unlike an ad, is just a regular Facebook post that you pay to reach a larger audience. This guarantees that your post is viewed by a larger number of users, or by users who are more likely to engage with its content, on a more frequent basis.
Compared to Facebook ads, Facebook boosted posts offer one major advantage: free audience research. Most brands boost posts after they've gathered audience engagement data, allowing them to promote posts that they know are popular with their target demographic.
Facebook Ads
Some users have trouble distinguishing between Facebook advertising and ordinary postings. Since many advertisements display alongside status updates, images, and videos from friends in users' News Feeds, this is the case. While adverts are always identified by a light grey text that states "Sponsored Content," they are occasionally unrecognizable from regular posts in other ways.
Despite boosting a post counts as an ad, Facebook ads are generated through Ads Manager and provide more comprehensive personalization options. There are a variety of advertising objectives that might assist you in achieving your specific company objectives and reaching the audiences that matter most to you.
What separates Facebook advertisements from regular postings is what's going on behind the surface. Facebook ads include a variety of analytics tools, allowing marketers to analyse ad engagement and set campaign goals in a variety of ways. Furthermore, Facebook advertisements provide extremely precise targeting capabilities, enabling you to target individuals based on their age, gender, geography, hobbies, and other factors.
Facebook advertisements also have additional formatting possibilities than Facebook posts, including carousel advertising, slideshow ads, canvas ads, and other choices. Certain Facebook ad styles are designed with specific campaign objectives in mind, such as advertising that gathers leads, drives viewers to your website, or promotes products. Call to action buttons can be used in ads, giving them a more interactive option for social media marketing.
Boosted Posts vs. Facebook Ads: What's the Gap?
i. Advertisement Placements
When you boost a post, you have a limited number of options for ad placement, with the option to display your advertising on Instagram, Facebook mobile, or Facebook desktop News Feed. Facebook Ads offer greater ad placement options, including Messenger ads, News Feed side ads, Instagram Stories, Audience Network, and Instant Articles.
ii. Targeting Capabilities
The key to increasing conversions is to select the right audience. Keep in mind that just because you target a larger audience doesn't guarantee you're targeting the appropriate ones. Nevertheless, the targeting options of Facebook Boosted Posts are quite constrained, mainly focusing on age, hobbies, and gender.It's difficult to ensure that your adverts hit the precise audience who are more likely to convert. Conversely, when it comes to putting up your ad campaign, Ad Manager provides significantly stronger targeting choices. It has a far more advanced tool for creating overlapping audience types, Lookalike Audiences, and other features.
You can figure out which type of audience is ideal for your business, whether they're viewing, engaged, or converting.
iii. Creative control
When boosting a post through your Facebook page, you won't be able to use features like ad formatting or creative selections. Alternatively, you can use Facebook Ads Manager to create an advertisement that better fits your company's objectives. Build carousel advertising, specific descriptions, and a call-to-action button are all options. All of these elements have the potential to encourage more people to take action.
The option between Facebook advertisements and boosted posts is heavily influenced by your social media marketing objectives. Each method promotes a particular set of outcomes. Facebook ads have a greater instant effect and are more likely to result in campaign goals such as lead captures, app instals, and sales. The extra flexibility of Facebook advertisements may make them a great option for certain campaigns. Boosted posts, on the other hand, have been shown to strengthen your brand's social media engagement metrics and overall social exposure.The choice between an ad and a boosted post for a certain campaign will fall back to long-term vs. short-term results. A combination of Facebook ads and boosted posts is generally the ideal method to split up your Facebook social media marketing spend on a larger scale.