Facebook is one of the largest and most powerful advertising platforms in the world, but mastering it can be challenging. Without a well-defined Facebook ad strategy, you could easily exhaust your budget on ads that fail to generate reach, clicks, or a return on investment.
Adding to the complexity are the various advertising options Facebook offers. Not all of them will align with your business goals, so understanding how each one functions is crucial to running a successful campaign.
In this post, we'll break down two of the most popular Facebook advertising methods: Boosted Posts and Paid Ads. We'll also explore the differences between using Facebook posts and Facebook Ads Manager, along with the pros and cons of each approach, and how to leverage them for optimal results.
Let’s dive in!
What are Facebook boosted posts?
A Facebook boosted post is a regular post that you've published on your business page that you've chosen to "boost" with paid advertising.
Let's say you have a post about a new product you're launching. You notice that it's been doing well – it's receiving tons of likes, comments, and shares from your current audience. So, to reach an even wider audience, you decide to boost the post for a small fee to Facebook.
Boosting a post transforms a regular Facebook post from your brand's Facebook page into an ad.
You can choose how long you want the ad to run, your target audience, your budget, and more. Facebook will then show your post to more people who fit your target audience.
The thing about Facebook boosted posts is that you don't have to go into your Ads Manager dashboard to create one. Instead, you can simply boost any post right from your Facebook business page by clicking the "Boost Post" button.
What are Facebook Ads?
On the other hand, think of Facebook Ads as a more "formal" way of advertising on Facebook. Instead of simply boosting the audience and reach of an existing post, it allows you to create an ad from scratch.
This means you have more control over the creative, copy, call to action, and overall look and feel of your ad. On top of that, you can also choose from a variety of ad types, such as video ads, carousel ads, lead generation ads, and more.
To create a Facebook ad, you'll need to go into your Ads Manager dashboard. This is where you'll create your ad, set your budget and target audience, and determine how long you want your ad to run.
Pros and cons of Facebook boosted posts
Facebook boosted posts can be an excellent complement to your Facebook ad strategy. But like any marketing tool, it has its unique set of pros and cons. Let’s take a look at them closely:
Pros of Facebook boosted posts
1. They're a breeze to set up
Boosting posts on Facebook doesn't require technical skills or knowledge of the Ads Manager dashboard. If you can post on your business page, you can boost a post.
This is great for small businesses without the budget for a dedicated Facebook Ads specialist or for businesses that are new to advertising on Facebook.
2. They're relatively inexpensive
Compared to other types of online advertising, Facebook boosted posts are very affordable. You can set your budget as low as $5 per day, which makes them a great way to test the waters of paid social media marketing.
3. Leverage successful posts
If you have a post that's already performing well with your audience, boosting it can help you reach an even wider audience.
This is a great way to get more mileage out of content that's already resonating with your target market.
4. Drive traffic to your website
Boosting a post enables you to add a call-to-action button that links directly to your website. You can use this to direct people to your website, a landing page, or even to message you directly on Facebook messenger.
5. Gain valuable insights
When you boost a post on Facebook, you gain access to valuable performance insights that can help you fine-tune your ad strategy. For example, you can see how many people saw your ad and even from where.
So for something that's way cheaper than most other types of advertising, you get a ton of data that can be used to improve your marketing campaigns.
6. You can simultaneously boost posts on Instagram
In case you didn't know, Facebook has acquired Instagram. Because of this, advertisers can now simultaneously market on both platforms. When you boost a post on Facebook, you now have the option to also show it as an ad on Instagram.
This is amazing news for businesses because it allows you to reach people where they're already spending time - and all from one platform.
Cons of Facebook boosted posts
1. Limited audience targeting options
One of the downsides of Facebook boosted posts is that you have limited options when it comes to targeting your audience. You can only use basic targeting tools, such as by location, age, gender, language, and connections.
2. Boosted posts are automatically labeled as ‘ads’
When a post is boosted on Facebook, it's clearly marked as an ad. This means that people will know that you've paid to promote your post.
This may defeat the organic feel that you're going for, and some people may be turned off by the fact that you've paid to promote your content.
3. You have no control over ad placements
While you can apply targeting options to your boosted post, you have no control over where your ad will appear. It could show up in the middle of someone's feed, or it could be placed in the right-hand column. You just don't know.
This can make it difficult to control your message and ensure that your ad is seen by your target market.
4. Can require marketing expertise for success
Sure, anyone can boost a post, but in order for it to be effective, you need a keen sense of your target audience, business objectives, and marketing strategy.
Without this, you could end up wasting a lot of money on boosting posts that go nowhere. It takes skill to get results despite the limitations of Facebook boosted posts.
Pros and cons of Facebook Ads
While Facebook Ads offer more powerful features than Facebook boosted posts, it also comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Here are some of them:
Pros of Facebook Ads
1. More control over ad placement
With Facebook Ads, you have more control over where your ad appears. You can choose to show your ad in the News Feed, Instagram, Messenger, or the right-hand column.
This flexibility allows you to better control your message and ensure that your ad reaches your target market.
2. Goal-oriented advertising campaign design
Another major advantage of paid ads on Facebook is that you can design your campaigns around specific business objectives.
For example, if you're trying to increase brand awareness, you can design an ad campaign focused on visibility. To do this, you can go on Ad Manager and create an ad set with the optimization for the ad delivery option set to “Reach.”Or, maybe you want to drive sign-ups for your email newsletter. In this case, you can create an ad campaign that's optimized for clicks to your website. In addition, paid ads lets you go granular in terms of your goals, which makes it easier to tailor your campaigns for maximum impact.
3. Better audience targeting capabilities
In addition to having more control over ad placements, Facebook Ads also offer powerful audience targeting capabilities.
Aside from the basics like location, age, gender, and language, you can also target people based on what's on their Facebook profile, and even exclude certain criteria from your target market.
4. Wider reach
Unlike Facebook boosted posts, which can only be seen by people who are already on Facebook, paid ads can reach a wider audience.
For example, you can use Facebook's Audience Network to place your ad on websites and apps outside of the Facebook ecosystem.
5. Sophisticated Facebook Ads manager platform
Facebook's ads manager platform is one of the most sophisticated and user-friendly platforms out there. With its intuitive design, detailed insights, and reporting features, you can easily track your ad campaigns and make changes on the fly.
On top of that, there's also a ton of support in terms of ad design, creative, and recommendations.
6. Control your Facebook ad spend
Another advantage of Facebook Ads is that you can control your ad spend. For example, you can set a daily, monthly, or lifetime budget for your ad campaigns, and you can also choose to manually bid for your ad placements, or let Facebook optimize your bids for you.
This flexibility gives you a lot of control over how much you're spending on Facebook ads, which is important for businesses of all sizes.
Cons of Facebook Ads
1. Ads need to be created from scratch
One of the main disadvantages of Facebook Ads is how complicated it can be to create effective Facebook Ads. Unlike boosted posts, where you can simply select posts you already have, Facebook Ads require you to create your ad from the ground up.
This includes the ad copy, creatives (e.g., images and videos), and making sure they all meet Facebook's ad guidelines. Then, you also need to consider elements like your target audience, budget, and ad objectives. So, it's definitely a more involved process.
2. More complicated than just boosting posts
Facebook's powerful Ads Manager platform comes at a price - it can be complicated to use, especially for beginners. There are a lot of features and options, such as different ad types, campaign objectives, bidding options, and targeting options.
It can be overwhelming for those who are not familiar with how Facebook advertising works. As a result, trying to DIY can lead to wasted ad spend and subpar results.
3. You need a deep understanding of your audience
Since you have no idea how your ads will perform before you launch them, audience insights matter more with Facebook advertising. If you don't have a deep understanding of who your target audience is and what they're interested in, chances are your ads will fail.
4. Ad costs can increase
In terms of ad spend, there are so many pitfalls when it comes to paid ads on Facebook. For example, if your ad isn't well-optimized, you could be paying more per click than you need to. Also, without understanding concepts like CPC, CPM, and CTR, it's easy to overspend on your Facebook ad campaigns without understanding concepts like CPC, CPM, and CTR.
Additionally, the Facebook algorithm can also drive up ad costs. If your ads are getting a lot of engagement (e.g., likes, comments, and shares), Facebook will show your ads more often, which means you'll be paying more per impression.
So, while you can control your ad spend to some extent, there are still a lot of factors that can impact how much you're paying for your Facebook Ads.
5. It can be hard to predict results
Finally, it's important to note that your results with Facebook advertising may vary. Just because one of your friends or competitors is having success with their ads doesn't mean you will too.It all comes down to your specific business, target audience, ad copy, creatives, and so forth. So, while Facebook advertising can be a great way to grow your business, there's no guarantee that it will work for everyone.
Facebook Ads vs boosted posts
Facebook boosted posts and Facebook paid ads both have a place in a strong Facebook advertising strategy. The key is understanding their pros and cons, then leveraging each tool to achieve specific business objectives.
According to Facebook, boosted posts are great for developing brand awareness and enhancing engagement on your page. On the other hand, Facebook Ads are better for more complex campaigns, such as promoting a specific offer, rebranding, launching a new product, and so on.
To determine which tool is right for your business, start by identifying your advertising goals. From there, you can match those objectives to the strengths of each tool. In general, however, we recommend using a mix of both boosted posts and ads to get the most out of your Facebook advertising efforts.Below is a quick guide to jumpstart your Facebook Ads strategy.
Use Facebook boosted posts when you:
- Want to increase visibility, aka get more eyes on your brand
- Have successful posts you want to take advantage of
- Want to promote a local business, short promotions, and limited-time giveaways
- Don't want to spend a lot of time and effort on ad creation
- Want to leverage existing post content
Use Facebook Ads when you:
- Want to run a campaign focused on generating leads, conversions, and sales
- Understand how to use Facebook Ads manager - or have the budget to hire someone who does
- Need to create custom ad campaigns
- Are interested in using a variety of ad types, such as video ads, carousel ads, and lead ads
- Want to target Lookalike audiences
- Can commit the time and resources to create high-quality ad content
- Need custom CTAs, such as "Buy Now" or "Sign Up"
Regardless of the method you choose, you'll want to stay away from these common mistakes when it comes to Facebook advertising:
- Not having a clear advertising objective
- Failing to target the right audience
- Not using relevant and engaging ad copy
- Using low-quality images or videos
- Not testing different ad types
- Not monitoring your campaigns on a regular basis
- Not complying with Facebook's best practices
And speaking of best practices, keep the following in mind as you create and manage your Facebook Ads:
- Start small: You can always increase your Facebook Ad spend if you need to, but it's best to start small and see how your campaigns perform before increasing your budget.
- Set a daily ad spend limit: This will help you control your overall ad spend and avoid overspending on your Facebook ads.
- Test, test, test: Always be testing different aspects of your campaigns, such as ad copy, images, videos, target audience, and so on. That way, you can figure out what works best for your business.
- Stay up-to-date on Facebook's ever-changing guidelines: Facebook is constantly changing its rules and guidelines. This includes the size and dimensions of ads, ad copy length, and more. So make sure to continually check for updates so your ads don't get suspended or rejected.
Learn how to read and apply analytics data: In order to improve your campaigns, you need to understand how to interpret your analytics data. Otherwise, you won't be able to tell what's working and what isn't.
Wrapping it up
Ultimately, the choice of whether to use Facebook boosted posts or ads comes down to what you want to achieve. And having intuitive yet feature-packed reporting and analytics tools at your disposal is essential to understanding which Facebook ad tool will deliver the most ROI.
If you want to save time on report creation and analysis, we recommend trying out Reporting Ninja. With our Facebook Reporting Services, it only takes a few clicks to extract insights, organize data into beautiful reports, and schedule automatic delivery straight to your (or your client's) inbox. Those are just some of the features you're about to enjoy - sign up for a free trial today!
