Digital marketing becomes more expensive by the day. For many entrepreneurs and marketers, the challenge is to find a balance between running effective campaigns and saving money. This is why many of them are wondering whether they should give up their Facebook ads campaigns and focus on boosted posts instead.
Are Boosted Post a Cheaper Replacement of Facebook Ads?
The answer is an emphatic “no”. Boosted posts are not the same thing as Facebook ads. You cannot target the same objectives and audience and obtain the same results as you get from an ad campaign.
This does not mean that boosted posts on Facebook are totally unnecessary. They have their use, if you are utilizing them with a specific outcome in mind. Otherwise, you may get a lot of “vanity” results that do not translate into a steady traffic funnel and actual sales.
The best way to understand the difference is by learning what each of them does and when they are most effective.
Facebook Ads
So far we have discussed extensively about Facebook ads, but a short recapitulation cannot hurt.
1. What Can Businesses Achieve with Facebook Ads?
Facebook ads allow companies to target existing customers and find new ones, by targeting users with an adequate profile. Facebook offers very detailed selection criteria for audiences, starting from:
- An existing list of email addresses (custom audiences)
- Users with similar profile to existing customers (lookalike audiences)
- Demographic and behavioural profile corresponding to the company’s buyer persona.
Marketers can achieve various goals with Facebook ads, such as:
- Grow the number of followers for their Facebook page
- Promote app installs
- Drive traffic to a website
- Promote sales.
2. How Easy It Is to Create and Run Facebook Ads?
Facebook ads consist of two parts: the visuals (photo or video) and the written part (title, description). Both require attention to branding, a good fit with the customers’ likes and interests and proper keyword analysis for the copy.
Fortunately, there are various apps, tools and software suites that help marketers create visuals, test their copy and monitor the results of their Facebook ads.
3. How Expensive Are Facebook Ads?
Facebook ads are paid by bidding for a specific audience group and a specific placement. According to the level of competition, the ads may run or not. If the ad bid is not properly optimised, you may pay too much for each click or action.
Boosted Posts
Boosted posts are regular Facebook posts for which you pay to show to a larger audience than your page followers. In a sense, boosted posts are ads, because you pay to have them shown to an audience.
1. What Can Businesses Achieve with Boosted Posts?
Boosted posts can be used to reach objectives, such as:
- More page likes
- More comments
- More shares
- Increased brand awareness.
Theoretically, you can also drive traffic to your website, if the post contains a link and people click on it.
2. How Easy It Is to Run Boosted Posts?
Boosting a post is very simple. First of all, you already have the copy and the visuals – the post itself. The button Boost Post is large and prominent under each of your Facebook page posts.
After you click it, you can select the audience by:
- Geographic location
- Gender
- Interests.
Next, you set your total budget and the number of days when the post is boosted. Facebook will give you an estimate of the number of people you will reach according to the audience selection and budget.
3. How Expensive Are Boosted Post?
You can decide how much you want to pay for boosting a post. However, if you set a low budget, you will reach a small audience. Nevertheless, for small companies that have recently created their Facebook page and ad account, boosted posts are great for growing followership.