Comparing Facebook Boosted Posts and Ads

Comparing Facebook Boosted Posts and Ads

You know that few other platforms offer you as effective and robust demographic as well as behavioral targeting as Facebook. When it comes to reaching your customers based on their specific interests, likes, and dislikes, demographics, and behavior, Facebook is, without a doubt one of the strongest and most effective digital social marketing platforms. There are different types of Facebook ads, such as Facebook paid ads, which help you in reaching your target audience.

However, if you, like most businesses, have a Facebook page, you may have learned the hard way that your organic Facebook posts just do not reach most of your followers anymore. For example, if you share something on your Facebook page, it is likely that just 1% to 5 % of the individuals who liked your Facebook page will see it. However, you can change that by paying for an ad or using boosted posts.

So, what can you do? The good news is that when it comes to promoted content, Facebook marketing is cost-effective. You can easily amplify your brand via two main ways. One is boosted posts and the other is Facebook ads.

Facebook boosted post vs. ad, which is better? This is a very common question among many Facebook page administrators. We will help you decide.

What are Boosted Posts?

A boosted Facebook post is the most basic type of advertising that you can do on Facebook (we’re not counting organic here). It is worth noting that a boosted post is less complex compared to a promoted Facebook ad and is easier and quicker to get a handle on, especially if you are familiar with Facebook’s News Feed. Unlike a Facebook ad, note that boosted posts are simply standard Facebook posts. However, you pay for them in order to reach a much wider audience and reach your marketing goals.

Here is how it works. When you decide to publish a post or multiple posts to your business’ Facebook page, you have the option to put a little budget behind it; this is a “boost.” This boost means that Facebook will share your post much higher in the News Feed of your target audience. However, promoted posts offer more targeting capabilities, such as matching a specific list of people.

Therefore, you can create a boosted post by allocating some marketing budget to a post that is already on your business page. We can say that boosted posts are a subtype of Facebook Ads—they are simply Facebook posts that you have amplified to reach a much larger audience.

What are Facebook Ads?

In contrast, we can define a Facebook ad as a targeted campaign. You design the campaign to meet your specific marketing or advertising objectives. Note that your marketing goals can be diverse and can include everything from attracting more Facebook users to your website or page to promoting events and increasing clicks on your Facebook posts.

Keep in mind that they have sophisticated and advanced marketing analytics and segmentation on the backend that you can use to tailor your Facebook ads to target particular groups of customers based on gender, location, and age, among others. If you’re considering testing ad creative (such as messaging or imagery), A/B testing with Facebook ads can be useful.

Many people and businesses prefer Facebook ads. This is mainly because they provide many more options for advertisers compared to a boost. Remember that there are many types of Facebook ads, and the type of ad you choose will largely depend on your campaign goals and objectives.

Some of these goals include clicks to your website, likes, app engagement, more app installs, website conversions, and video views and more local awareness, etc.

Facebook Boosted Post vs. Facebook Ad: What’s Best for your Business

Like many businesses, you may be confused about whether to go for Facebook ads or posts. Keep in mind that choosing between boosted posts and Facebook ads primarily depends on your different social media marketing objectives and goals. It is worth mentioning that Facebook Ads will usually be the right choice over boosted Facebook posts. This is true even if you are not familiar with the system just yet.

While there is no denying that each format helps encourage results, remember that Facebook ads often have a bigger immediate impact than Facebook posts. In addition, Facebook ads tend to translate directly to your campaign goals, such as app installations, lead captures, and sales, etc. This is why if you are developing an advanced and specific social media ad strategy in order to:

  • reach a wide or diverse audience, or
  • draw site traffic and improve sales,

then a Facebook ad may serve you better.

By leveraging this method, you can benefit from various advanced customization options, such as extensive audience channeling, language and behavior targeting, and better call-to-action capabilities. Therefore, for specific marketing campaigns, the extra functionality offered by Facebook ads can make them a much better fit for your marketing campaign.

Boosted posts, on the other hand, are a simple way to improve your brand’s overall social presence and social media engagement metrics. Therefore, if you simply want to promote your Facebook posts, increase your brand awareness in the Facebook community, and ensure that your Facebook posts reach the greatest number of people in your audience, then a boosted post may work for you. This is because boosted posts help drive the most engagement to your platform through likes, shares, and comments, helping increase the number of customer interactions at the lowest possible cost.

There are times when boosted posts option provides the necessary value for your campaign. For example, this is true when your business has a post with a strong call to action.

Combining the Two

It is worth mentioning that for specific marketing campaigns, the decision between a Facebook ad and a boosted post will usually come down to your long-term vs. short-term goals and outcomes. Note that in some situations, a combination of boosted posts and Facebook ads may work well. However, that is not always the case.

Final Thoughts

As the boost post option is located right on your Facebook page’s timeline, and you can set it up with just a few clicks, it is easy and accessible. Facebook ads cannot be created and run directly through your Facebook page.

Boosted posts can help you easily in just a moment’s notice, especially if you are in a hurry and want to get your business more exposure.

On the other hand, if you have the time and resources to develop a new ad from the ground up, then the utilization of Facebook ads proves to be an incredibly powerful route. It will help you present your brand to the world in nearly any way you can imagine. The amazing features available within this platform give you full freedom to advertise just the way you deem fit, which is great.

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