Social media algorithms are complex, meaning your posts will only reach a fraction of your total audience. To reach the rest, you need to run paid ads. Luckily, Facebook makes this super easy! In this blog post, we’ll look at the difference between boosting your organic posts vs running ads and when to use each strategy. First, let’s define paid ads and boosting posts.

Boosted posts

A boosted post is when you ‘boost’ a post already on your page to reach a wider audience. Usually, it’s a good idea to boost posts that have already done well with your own audience because this indicates that the post will do well with a broader audience.

When you boost a post, you’ll need to select or create a target audience. You’ll also need to allocate a budget and choose how long you want to run your ad. Facebook then takes your budget and allocates a certain amount to each day the ad is running to reach as much of your target audience as possible.

Pros of Boosted Posts

• Boosted posts are an excellent way to build brand awareness by showing your content to more people. 
• Boosted posts are very easy to set up, and Facebook event recommends settings that will get the optimal results.
• Compared to other forms of advertising, boosting posts can be more affordable.
• You know that the post will integrate well with your overall content marketing strategy because it’s something that you chose to post organically. 
• If you boost posts that have already been successful with your core audience, this gives a good indication that the post will be well-received by others.

Cons of Boosted Posts

• Boosted posts still appear as “ads.” 
• The customisation options available when boosting pots are limited since they’re not created in the ads manager.
• You can’t edit the content of the post. 

Paid ads

Whilst boosted posts are still technically paid ads, for this blog post, we’ll define paid ads as ads created in ad manager. 

You’ll need to select or create a target audience when you run an ad. You’ll also need to allocate a budget and choose how long you want to run your ad. Facebook then takes your budget and allocates a certain amount to each day the ad is running to reach as much of your target audience as possible. This works in the same way as boosted posts.

Pros of Facebook Ads

• You can choose where your ad is placed: This is useful if you know which platforms your audience (or a particular segment of your audience) is most active on
• Facebook ads include carousels so you can give your audience more visual information.
• You can provide a call to action button to motivate your audience to do something.
• Facebook ads allow you to create lookalike audiences – this means creating an audience that looks like the people who already engage with your page to reach more people who are likely to receive your ads well.

Cons of Facebook Ads

• Facebook ads are more complicated to create than boosted posts
• To get the full benefit from creating Facebook ads, you need to be familiar with ads manager and have an in-depth knowledge of your target audience 
• Ads are created from scratch rather than boosting an existing post that’s already doing well-meaning your ad might not perform as well, but you won’t know this until it’s running

When to boost posts

You should boost posts when you have an organic post performing well with organic reach. They might not get you converted customers there and then, but they’re great for building brand awareness and introducing your brand to more people.

If you’ve shared a client case study that’s gaining lots of traction with your audience – this post would be a great candidate for boosting! You’ll boost your brand to a broader audience by boosting this post. You might not convert everyone who sees that ad into customers, but you’re letting people know who you are and what you do, setting you up for long-term success.

Client testimonials and case studies are great posts to boost because they tell your brand’s story through your customer’s lens. This makes your brand more trustworthy in the eyes of potential new customers.

When to run ads from the ads manager

Imagine you’ve just launched a new product or you’re running a flash sale. In this case, you want people to take action, purchase your new product, or take advantage of your sale. 

If you’re launching a new product, we can assume that you’ve identified a gap in the market and have an ideal customer in mind. This is who you should target with your paid ads when you set up an audience in the ads manager.

You should run ads with a niche, targeted audience in mind and want to convert leads there and then with a compelling call to action.

We boost posts and run ads for our clients. Generally, we boost posts when our goal is to build brand awareness, and we run ads as part of a broader campaign, such as a new product launch or flash sale.