Difference Between Boosted Posts vs. Paid Ads on Social Media
When businesses join social media, various tools are available to grow their followers through paid advertising. The two options companies have are boosted posts and paid ads. There are some key differences between these options, which can help your business decide which one is better for your campaign or overall strategy. Let’s look at boosted posts vs paid ads on social media.
Facebook and Instagram are some of the most favored social media websites for businesses and their customers. For businesses, Facebook has a convenient and innovative ad platform to create and publish boosted posts and paid ads for both Facebook and Instagram. So, for this discussion, we will look at boosted posts and paid ads, specifically on Facebook and Instagram.
What Are Boosted Posts?
A boosted post is a simple and convenient way to get one of your most popular posts out to more people. How it works is you take a post already on your Facebook or Instagram feed and promote it to a larger audience. Additionally, you still have some of the same features as paid ads, like choosing an audience, budget, and duration.
If you have a post on your page that’s particularly popular, that’s a great time to consider boosting the post. For example, a real estate agent who posts about their latest listing could boost the post to get in front of a larger targeted audience that might be interested in purchasing a home in that area. People who view the boosted post are directed to your Facebook or Instagram page, which could help increase your followers.
What Are Paid Ads on Social Media?
Paid advertisements on Facebook and Instagram allow you to create an ad from scratch with very specific parameters. Both Facebook and Instagram ads are built in the Facebook Ads Manager since Facebook owns Instagram. When you create paid ads on social media, you can choose the type of media you want to display (video or image) and write original content for the advertisement. From there, you can get very specific with audience targeting, ad placement, ad duration, budget, call-to-action, and monitoring ad analytics.
When do paid ads on Facebook and Instagram make sense? So, for the real estate company, if they want to focus on a niche audience, like first-time home buyers, creating a paid ad would be a great way to generate leads. These expanded and specific targeting options make paid ads ideal when a company is trying to generate leads, sales, or traffic to its website.
Key Differences
Now, if you got to this point and thought boosted posts and paid ads are still virtually the same, you’re not alone. There are some key differences between boosted posts vs. paid ads that will help you use your advertising budget wisely.
- Paid ads have more options
While boosted posts do have options to choose a targeted audience, budget, and duration, there is not as much customization with these options as with paid ads. With paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, you have a whole world of customization options to be as specific or broad as you want.
- Boosted posts have a simple setup
If you find a post on your Facebook page that is doing very well with your current followers, you have the option to boost the post right on your page. Boosted posts don’t require you to open Facebook Ads Manager for set up. For some businesses, this is much more manageable and preferable.
- Paid ads typically cost more than boosted posts
However, with the amount of customization and choices you get with Facebook Ad Manager, we’d say it’s worth it if you have the budget. On the flip side, some may be drawn to the affordability of boosted posts when otherwise, social media advertising wasn’t an option.
Which One is Better?
Now, for the final question. Which one is better, boosted posts or paid ads? This honestly depends on your company’s budget, goals, and marketing strategy. Both can certainly help your brand grow but in different ways. If you’re serious about expanding your marketing and trying to reach a new audience through Facebook and Instagram, then paid ads are definitely the right choice for your business.
We know that not every small or midsize business has the time, capacity, or desire to create successful ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. In this case, you need an expert digital marketing partner to fully know and execute your company’s goals on social media. The team at Suite Edge has the passion, expertise, and resources to take your business to new heights through digital and content marketing, SEO, and web development. Start the conversation today and learn more about our marketing services.
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