To anyone unfamiliar with the in-depth, behind-the-scenes structure of Facebook ad campaigns, the difference between a fully-fledged FB ad and a simple boosted post can quite easily go over your head.
In many cases, understanding the difference doesn’t necessarily matter, but if you run a business or page and want to really get the most out of the audience Facebook offers to you, understanding what sets these two apart is very important.
While it might not seem it, there’s much more separating these two than meets the eye. If you want to put your money in the place you know it’ll be most effective, make sure you’ve got your information right before taking any risks.
Boosted Posts
A boosted post represents the most basic form of advertising Facebook offers on its platform. To boost a post you need to select one that already exists on your timeline, which you are then able to apply money to in order to ‘boost’ it to an audience of your choosing.
When you make a post on your timeline via a business page, you’ll often notice a button in the bottom right corner that appears next to the metrics. It says ‘Boost Post’ – you really can’t miss it.
When you boost a post, Facebook begins feeding it out the same way it feeds out all ads on the platform, meaning it will appear on the timeline of relevant people as an ad or ‘sponsored post’, and they can do with it as they please.
Boosting a post is short, sharp and simple, and cuts out the complexity of creating and micro-managing a full-blown ad campaign. All you need to do when boosting a post is select your budget, the ideal audience, the rough objective you’d like to achieve, and the length of the boost.
As soon as this is done and FB confirms you’re good to pay for it, the post begins feeding out to the relevant parties, and can begin achieving whatever you had in mind.
Facebook Ads
Facebook ads & ad campaigns are much more in-depth creations, built and handled in your Facebook Ad Manager account. They offer far more intricacy than a standard post boost, trading a simple process in exchange for one with much more promise.
When creating campaigns in Ad Manager, you’re able to handpick all the relevant characteristics of your ads & campaigns, and tailor them in a highly specific way in order to help achieve a range of business objectives.
Right off the bat, it’s clear that the depth offered by Facebooks intuitive ad creation tools allows for much more business-centric creations, hence why in the vast majority of cases, individuals and businesses alike will choose properly fleshed-out ads over the simplicity of boosted posts.
When creating FB ad campaigns, you can select different business objectives, conversions to track, like purchases or leads. You can home in on super-specific target audiences, test different variables like copy & images, and optimise ongoing campaigns.
It’s a thorough, time-consuming process, but one that’s much more likely to generate the results you’re looking for over time.
Boosted Posts vs Facebook Ads
Compared to the wide range of tools & customisation options offered by Facebook Ads, boosted posts are a quick, simple, burn & churn method of putting a post out there and seeing how it performs.
Ad Manager presents more of an overall challenge and a certain level of complexity some might take a while to adjust to, but with this aside, it allows greater creative control and a better likelihood of achieving business objectives.
But, while FB ads are the better, more complete method of advertising on the platform, this doesn’t necessarily write boosted posts off altogether.
In most cases, a well-planned, targeted, tested & optimised ad campaign will result in far greater success than a standard post boost, but, in some cases the work required to put a full campaign together may be unnecessary, and potentially offset by simply clicking a few buttons and sending a boosted post off into the wilderness.
Before making any decisions between the two, there are a few key aspects to consider. What exactly are you hoping to achieve with an ad?
Despite its simplicity, you are able to target some specific objectives when boosting posts. At present you can aim to generate engagement, traffic, reach, and even new messenger connections, giving standard posts greater opportunity to achieve more for less.
However, this still pales in comparison to Ad Manager, wherein you can optimise for every potential objective, including particularly powerful ones like conversions and lead generation.
If you’re hoping to generate sales, leads or web traffic through a highly specific audience, then a campaign might suit you best. But if you’re after generating engagement on a funny branded post or trying to push more traffic towards your page, you might find that a smaller budget spent boosting that post will achieve just as much success as a fully-fledged campaign would.
In Summary
To surmise in as simple an explanation as possible – if you’re after specific, measurable, substantial results from a targeted audience, you’re better suited to Ads Manager. But if you’re after a simple way to generate some engagement and get some decent traction on your posts, then consider boosting, and save yourself any hassle.
Navigating Facebook’s Ad Manager platform can be a daunting task, but if you’re looking to get the most out of your FB investments, conquering the intricate platform is an enormously important step.
If you’re looking to up your Facebook performance, getting help from an experienced agency can turn a laborious process into a smooth transition – that’s where we fit in.
With Glide, we combine in-depth platform knowledge, expertise & professionalism to generate strong, consistent results for all our clients through highly efficient Facebook campaigns. If you’re looking to put your money where it matters, get in touch today, and start taking your social media game to the next level with Glide Agency.
