In today's social media world, social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, have become a juggernaut tool for small business marketing. With the click of a button, your brand and your message can be out there, potentially, to thousands of interested customers.
The question is, how do I most effectively get my product and brand out there? How do I reach my target audience, who’s Facebook pages are, most likely, already flooded with content? With millions of new posts and new content flooding websites like Facebook each day, businesses need to learn the tools that will enable their content to be viewed by as many people as possible.
Due to the recent Facebook algorithm changes, businesses are forced to put their marketing dollars behind some of their social media content in order to better reach their audience. Facebook provides two major options, boosting a Facebook post and running a Facebook ad. These two methods have some similar traits which makes them easily confused, however, there are major differences between these tools and understanding these difference can be the difference between running a successful campaign or not.
Here are the major differences between Facebook Ads and boosting a Facebook post:
Boosting a Facebook Post:
When you, as a small business, upload a Facebook post, you will have the ability to “boost” that post. Boosting a post will allow your post to pop up on more of your audience’s Facebook feeds. In the simple and clear menu screen for a boosted post, you get to choose your target audience, how long you would like the Facebook post to be boosted for, and how much you are willing to pay for the boosted post (your budget). Factoring all of this information into its algorithms, Facebook gives you an estimate of the approximate number of people your post will reach.
Boosted posts also allow you to specify the objective of the posts. You have two options here, either website visits, where Facebook will prioritize this post to people who they believe are more likely to click a link to your landing page. Or, the engagement option, where Facebook will boost your post to users who they believe are more likely to comment, like, or share your post.
The boosted post is a simple, easy, and intuitive way for businesses to reach a wider target audience, with the click of a button and a few specifications, business can easily reach a much wider audience.
Facebook Ads:
Many times business marketers will tell you to always choose Facebook ads over boosting a Facebook post, regardless of the intuitive and simple nature of boosting a Facebook post. This is because, with Facebook ads, there is a much wider range of customization and options in order for your posts and ads to reach more qualified leads.
With Facebook ads, you can customize a wide range of specifications, so that your ad can be utilized to its highest potential. One of these specifications include the ability to fine tune the objective for the post. This goes beyond what boosting a post allows you to do, with many more options to specify the real objective of your post.
A huge advantage to using Facebook ads rather than a boosted post, is the ability to run retargeting ads based on the the information from your website. By utilizing a Facebook Pixel, you will have the ability to track the success of your website, what your customers are clicking on and what pages are gaining traffic on your site and what isn't. With this information, you can create Custom Conversion Tracking, the ability to hyper-target your preferred audience and increase the data and information of your website, in order to make your ads, more successful and more effective. If you are not utilizing a Pixel to track your posts success or create a custom audience, you’re missing out!
The main difference between posts boost and Facebook ads is ease of access and use. Facebook ads allow customers to further refine their ads, making them more specific and more likely to actually reach their target audiences. On the other hand, boosted posts allow small business an easy and intuitive way to quickly widen their audience. Both have a time and a place, and it's up to you to decide which one will work best for your business and platform.
Need help deciding whether to use Facebook Boosts or Facebook Ads to increase your marketing prowess?
Here at Skigital, our team of professionals can help you decide which Facebook tool is best for you, working hands on with you to create content that your business can be proud of.
