When you’re getting started with Facebook advertising, it’s hard to know which types of ads will drive the most return for your investment.
And, honestly, it can be confusing. Where do you start? Should you boost a post or should you create a specific, targeted ad campaign?
In this post, we’ll answer these questions and help you understand the difference between boosting Facebook posts and building a Facebook ad.
Let’s get started.
What does it mean to ‘Boost’ a Facebook Post?
Boosting a Facebook post is easy, and often tempting – all you have to do is click that ‘Boost Post’ button, fill in a few targeting and budget options and you’re good to go.
Boosting is a form of Facebook advertising that makes it easy to put a little bit of money behind a Facebook post and help it show up in more news feeds.
Sometimes, Facebook will even send you a notification to inform you that one of your posts is doing well, and that it would be doing even better if you put a little bit of budget into boosting it.
And sometimes, it is a good idea.
Boosting your Facebook posts can get your content to show up higher in the news feeds of the audience you target and make sure your followers see more of your posts.
Boosting Facebook posts is a good idea if:
- You want more of your current followers to see your posts
- You’re trying to work around Facebook’s new algorithm update
- You don’t have a lot of advertising expertise, but you have a post you want more eyes on
- You have a current post that’s doing well, and driving traffic to your website, but you want it to do even better
But while boosting a Facebook post is a great way to get more engagement from people who already follow your Facebook Page, it isn’t always the best way to go about advertising on Facebook.
What does it mean to create a Facebook ad campaign?
Creating a full ad campaign on Facebook is a little more complicated than boosting a post.
To create an ad campaign, you’ll usually start from scratch in Facebook business manager, and you’ll need a little more advertising expertise.
Here are some questions you’ll need to answer before you create a Facebook advertising campaign:
What is your ad’s goal? How can your ad reach that goal?
When you get started with Facebook advertising, you’ll need a goal for your ad. You can choose goals (or objectives) within Facebook ad manager, including building local awareness, generating engagement and maximizing conversions.
Choose your ad’s goal before you start so that you can create a strategy around that goal, getting you the most return for your budget.
Who is your ideal target market?
Who’s your ideal customer? You can target based on age, gender, occupation, interests and more. The more specific you are with your Facebook ad targeting, the better your ad results will be.
What materials do you need for this ad?
Do you need personas, images, videos or other resources for your ad? You ‘ll need to make sure you have access to these materials.
What is your budget?
Plan your budget so that you know how much you’re spending, and how long your ad should run.
And, don’t forget that when you set up a Facebook ad campaign, you’ll need to keep an eye on it and monitor your relevance score. Ads aren’t something you can set up once and forget about. They require consistent optimization, and some understanding of how advertising works.
Building a Facebook ad campaign is a great idea if:
- You have more advanced Facebook advertising knowledge
- You want to expand your reach to new local consumers
- You have a specific goal, and boosting a post won’t help you reach it
Additionally, you can add call-to-action buttons to your Facebook ads, giving your audience a direction to take and prompting some sort of interaction with your business.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it – both boosting a Facebook post and Facebook advertising work well in certain situations and for certain goals, so keep that in mind the next time you are hovering over the “Boost” button on your Facebook Page.