What Is The Difference Between A Facebook Ad Vs Boosted Post?
With 2.23 billion users, it is clear why businesses allocate such a large sum of their advertising budget to the Facebook platform. Facebook provides businesses with the opportunity to reach billions of potential customers.
However, whenever the topic of Facebook advertising arises, there is a common question that is asked. Facebook ad or boosted post?
Most digital advertisers and social media experts understand the difference, but the question is a head-scratcher for many business owners.
In this blog, we will be covering the difference between a Facebook ad vs boosted post and which option is best for your advertising goals.
Table of Contents
What Is A Boosted Facebook Post?
Like any other boosted post, a boosted Facebook post is a post to your company’s Facebook page which you can apply money to in an effort to extend that post’s reach.
The amount of people you reach depends on how much money you spend and the duration you set the boosted post to run.
The post you boost will appear in your target audience’s news-feed as an advertisement.
What Is A Facebook Ad?
A Facebook ad is different on the account that there are many more customizable features to help you meet your businesses goals.
Opposed to just increasing brand awareness, which is the goal of a boosted post, Facebook ads can help you drive and track all conversions. When we say conversions we are referring to views, orders processed, leads made, video views, app installs, subscription signups, etc.
Facebook ads are created through Facebook’s ads manager. The creation of campaigns and advertisements can be confusing first and do require a certain amount of expertise for them to be effective.
Boosted Post or Facebook Ad?
So, when do you use what?
From a business standpoint, it all depends on your overall objective. Like any advertising campaign, you need to have a set goal.
Along with the overall goal you need to assess your business’s budget, resources, expertise and skill level. Below are the pros and cons of both boosted posts and Facebook ads.
Boosted Post Pros:
- Fast Implementation: Boosting a post is quick. With a click of a button, you can set a budget, duration and target market. You can also boost any existing post that is on your company’s page, saving you the hassle of creating new content from scratch.
- Simplistic: Tying into fast implementation, is the overall simplicity of boosting posts. It requires a minimum amount of knowledge and almost anyone in your office can do it.
- Makes Up for Organic Losses: Facebook has really limited organic reach in their effort to fill user’s timelines with content posted by friends and families. Boosted posts are an effective way to make up for organic loss.
- Low Cost: Boosted posts are good if you’re working with a small budget. Depending on the duration, target market and amount of money you want to spend each day will determine your overall reach. What is nice is that Facebook will provide you with an estimated reach once you plug in the needed information.
- Control: At any time you can pause or resume a boosted post. If your budget is running thin or if you have reached your overall goal you can stop boosting the post at any time.
Boosted Post Cons:
- Limited Channels: Boosted posts only appear as advertisements on news-feeds. Boosted posts will not appear on other Facebook channels including stories, messenger, Instagram, etc.
- Limited Customization: A boosted post can only consist of copy and an image/video.
- Lack of Data: Boosted posts lack important data points that can drive business decisions. Boosted posts only record post engagements such as the reach, clicks, reactions, comments and shares.
Facebook Ad Pros:
- Customization: Creating Facebook advertisements allows you to choose from a variety of formats. Videos, carousels, images, etc. Facebook ads also allow you to create unique headlines, CTAs and more.
- Channel Access: When creating your advertisements in Facebook ads manager, you have the option to select other Facebook channels you wish to display your advertisement on. This includes Facebook Messenger, Facebook stories and even Instagram.
- Advanced Targeting: Facebook advertisements allows you to really pinpoint your target market, all the way down to exact geographical location.
- Analytics: Along with typical engagements, Facebook’s advertising analytics gives you an in-depth look on conversions made, impressions, Click-Through-Rates and more. This is the data your business wants in order to measure the overall performance of your campaign.
- A/B Testing: A/B testing allows you to experiment with different advertising campaign elements. These elements include changes in headlines, images, etc. Split testing helps you determine what ad performed best among your target audience.
Facebook Ad Cons:
- Complex for Non-Experts: Working in Facebook ads manager can be tedious for the common user. If you’re not familiar with the platform you may find yourself getting frustrated when trying to set up campaigns.
- Time-consuming: Setting up a Facebook advertising campaign takes time. With so many customization options it is recommended to create at minimum three different types of advertisements. This requires writing copy, finding images, formatting the ad, etc.
- Pricey: Like most digital advertising, advertisement placements go to the highest bidder. To run an effective Facebook advertising campaign, you better be willing to allocate a fair share of your advertising budget to the platform.
Boosted Post |
Facebook Ads |
|
|---|---|---|
| Customization | ||
| Channel Access | ||
| Advanced Targeting | ||
| A/B Testing | ||
| In-Depth Analytics | ||
| Control | ||
| Fast Implementation | ||
| Simplicity | ||
| Low Cost |
The Importance of Facebook Ads and Boosted Posts
In this day in age, business is done on the internet and social media is a key player. 2.7 billion people use Facebook and its subsidiaries including Instagram, Messenger and Whatsapp every day.
Advertising on the Facebook platform can help increase your overall brand awareness, establish relationships and drive conversions. If you have not already done so, now is the perfect time to begin establishing your Facebook presence.
Your competitors and target market are on it, so you need to be too.