Facebook Ads vs. Boosted Posts: Pros and Cons

If you're posting consistently, especially to a Facebook page that doesn't have a lot of traffic, it's hard to grow that page and reach more people.

Facebook organic reach is very, very poor nowadays. If you generally don't have the time to take every post and turn it into a Facebook ad campaign - boost these posts, and you can get it in front of many new people for a small budget with minimal effort.

There is one important thing you should know if you boost your posts. This thing is Facebook behavioral targeting. Facebook knows which kinds of people are more likely to click on a messenger ad or more likely to click on a traffic ad if you're sending them to a landing page or your website. It also knows which people are more likely to download something if that's what you're offering or people that are more likely to go ahead and buy right away.

That's what the boost post button does for you. Because it knows which people like to click the like button and like to comment and like to share posts, but not do anything else besides that.

So it's possible that you can reach somebody that's really interested because of boosting a post, but it's very unlikely. Because you're targeting those people that spend all day on Facebook clicking on posts, sharing them, liking, and commenting. And maybe you're one of those people, not a problem, but those aren't the people that are going to buy your products or services, especially if you're an eCommerce business.

Another big con of boosted posts is that you don't have nearly as many options as custom Facebook ads provide. Basically, you're just taking one audience and showing them one ad.

And that's his own self-contained thing. It's just like creating a quick ad campaign with one audience, one ad set, and an ad, based on your post. And you can't change the text or image of that post. So if you're running basic Facebook ads for eCommerce and trying to generate a ton of online sales, I recommend starting a full ad campaign in the Facebook ad manager.

Facebook ads manager allows you to set the objective. You can customize detailed ad targeting, location, and different ad placements. You can also create an ad with custom video and picture, headline, and description text.

You can get more advanced with the demographics, behaviors, and interests when it comes to targeting with actual Facebook ads.

When you're building out a Facebook ad campaign you can see it's a lot more in-depth, and there are more options. You can choose what to try to optimize your ads better. You have more creative control, and that's the main difference.

We do have some clients who say that they've been boosting posts on their pages for a couple of years now, and it just gets a few results. All they have is not really customers. It's just people liking and commenting and sharing. And there hasn't been a lot of actual tangible results or ROI out of it. The reason why that's happening, as I already mentioned, is Facebook's smart behavioral targeting.

You can even implement automation where it is turning up the budget of ads that are performing well and turning down the spend of underperforming ads. You can also use various tools like manual bid strategies if you, let's say, are only comfortable spending $15 to get a customer and set those bids.

Also, in terms of placements, you can choose all options available. This includes the mobile or desktop news feed, stories, Instagram, instant articles, In-Stream video, and other choices.

The most useful thing is a lookalike audience, that Facebook ads will help you to find. First, you have to create your custom audiences based on customer lists, website visitors, Facebook page, and Instagram engagements, then allow the Facebook algorithm to perform its job. And it will find more similar people for you to target.

Boosted post Pros:

• Huge time saver
  
  
• Easy to set up
  
  
• Simple learning curve
  
  
• Quickly test how your Facebook posts perform with a wider audience Facebook
  
  
• Get an early indication of whether your boosted post will be approved beforehand
  
  

Boosted Post Cons:

• Doesn't use best audiences & ads to drive purchases/leads (results)
  
  
• Can't change the text (copy)
  
  
• Can't have a headline & description
  
  
• No manual bids
  
  
• No daily scaling or advanced adjustments
  
  

Ad Campaign Pros:

• Access to all audiences
  
  
• Advanced ads reporting, result tracking & adjustments
  
  
• Daily scaling & automation
  
  
• Manual bids
  
  
• Can run ongoing over a long time
  
  

Ad Campaign Cons:

• Time-consuming to set up
  
  
• More difficult to make
  
  
• Extended learning curve
  

In fact, there is no comparison.

Businesses that think they're doing enough on Facebook by only boosting posts from time to time are probably just wasting their ad budgets.

The entire basis of Facebook advertising is to be highly strategic and specific. Smartly use your campaign objectives to support the customer journey according to your sales funnel. Build hyper-targeted audiences and nurture leads to grow loyal customers.

While it may seem simple to get started with Facebook Ads, it's one of the most underutilized and misused instruments in advertisers' arsenal. It's media buying, and if you think you may be missing out on how to maximize your ROAS (return on ad spend), we offer you a free Facebook ad account audit! It's absolutely free, and there's no obligation or pressure to work with us afterward.