In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Edkent Media is featured as one of our Top Social Media Agencies in Canada. Check out their profile here.
The real power a platform has is measured by the number of active users on it. Businesses nowadays are reaching out to a wider audience on social platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram. With plenty of competitors, businesses will now have to actively interact and engage with users to spread awareness of their brand.
There are two choices for promoting posts online: “Boosted Posts” and “Facebook Ad Manager.” Boosting posts is a great option for social media influencers and bloggers who are looking to build engagement rates or receive more blog post views. However, small businesses may struggle initially to promote their content independently. Therefore, it may be beneficial for small businesses to utilize paid social media advertising campaigns. If you are hesitant about paying to promote your content, learn the differences between a sponsored post and paid advertising to generate traffic on your website:
What are Boosted Posts?
Companies that have a business account on either Facebook or Instagram have the option to promote an existing or new post as a boosted post. Boosting posts increases the exposure of a post that has already been published on your profile. By selecting to boost a post, it will show up on your target audience’s profiles sponsored by ads. These post options are limited; only allowing you to select one audience base at a time but will not create various combinations or exclusions of audiences. A boosted post is the one that is pushed into more news feeds of people who like your page or target people based on their age demographic, gender, location, and interests. Many businesses use the boosted posts feature to place their top content, in front of a larger audience than their current main following. If you’re trying a certain tactic through social media marketing such as driving people to your website, a paid advertisement will get you better results.
Boosted Posts vs. Facebook Ad Manager
Facebook ads manager is more complex, leaving room for flexibility and control in advertising posts. Businesses are able to create ads based on their goal objectives while staying within the range of their budget. There are options to place an ad, on a video, single image, slideshow ad, and carousel. They even include options such as pay-per-click, where you spend a certain amount each day to get the results you’re looking for. Check out the Facebook ads manager tool to see how your posts are performing and make adjustments accordingly.
The benefit of Facebook Ad Manager over boosted posts is the ability to test a number of different ads at once so you can get a better idea of which online marketing tactics are working or not. Another important tip, these ads created on Facebook, do not just show up on the timeline of target audiences. They also appear on Instagram’s network (Facebook owns Instagram), these ads are shared on the newsfeed, stories, and the explore page.
Boosted posts offer three main objectives:
- Post engagement
- Messages
- Website visits
Facebook Ads Manager three main objectives:
- Leads
- Conversions
- Website traffic
The objectives of Facebook Ads Manager will deliver your ad directly to the target audience and prove to be beneficial. People are more likely to click through to your desired action. It is a sustainable target-advertising solution, meanwhile boosted posts are rewarding in the moment. Not every post is meant to be a boosted post. Boosted posts might not be the best choice if you’re interested in learning more about the business analytics side since they only display “Reach” and “Impressions.” It does not provide any in-depth analysis. The maximum number of views that will reach your posts with boosted posts is limited. By learning the Facebook Ad Manager features, posts are able to have better performance results to track analytic growth.
Are Facebook Ads Worth the Investment?
It’s better to plan ahead — your ads will stick to your budget range. Facebook’s ad placement options are far more selective, sending people directly to your website. It increases a business’ website conversion rates and traffic being analyzed. It’s a great way to maximize visibility in order to grow your audience. While using boosted posts as an advertising tool for small businesses to increase a general post’s appeal, views, and engagement, it might not be the best option for your business exposure.
Placing a display ad on Facebook is a far more sophisticated tool when it comes to targeting a particular audience. Instagram statistics refers to users aged 13 to 17. Marketing to a younger audience requires Instagram influencers to share content as they are keeping up with their social media pages. According to Hootsuite, Instagram advertisers can reach a youth audience of 52.9 million, behind Facebook by 113.3 million. If your business is not yet on Instagram, it is extremely likely your competition is using this platform to market their online store.
Making the Right Choice for Your Business
Now that the differences have been taken into account, you are probably wondering which option is the better ad promotion choice. Between the two, there is a trend seen across Facebook and Instagram, which is that boosted posts tend to deliver less in-depth analysis results in a long-term perspective and don’t offer the kind of control that Facebook ads platform makes it so valuable, to begin with. It’s worth taking the time to publish content using Facebook ads manager for maximum impact.
Boosted posts are designed to reach views, but not where businesses are looking to generate analytical conversions and leads. Initially, it may seem to be a more effective approach to get immediate results by boosting a post; however, being organized and tracking your campaign’s strengths and weaknesses will lead to gaining a better insight into how the business’ social media advertising campaign is doing.
Final Thoughts
Facebook and Instagram are great marketing tools if properly used. There are tons of benefits of the marketing tools, such as targeting, testing, optimization, and format options that will grant you more web traffic. Tracking results can lead to better ad performance, rather than simply boosting posts. The money invested in the two types of social media advertising would be the same. The real difference is one boosts vanity metrics, while the other makes it easier to generate meaningful analytical results. Remember, creating ads requires creativity and it takes time for brand awareness to be built.