Facebook Ads vs Boosted Posts – What’s the Difference?

On Facebook, there are a couple of things you can do to advertise your business page more. Two things you may have heard of are Facebook Ads and boosted posts. If you have zero knowledge of managing a business Facebook page, you may be confused as to which option will give you more visibility. While our digital marketing agency in Kansas City thinks both options are great, they are different in their own way. In this article, our Facebook marketing company in Kansas City is going to discuss Facebook Ads vs boosted posts – what’s the difference?

What are Boosted Posts?

As a Facebook business page admin, it is likely you have or will eventually see a notification on one of your posts encouraging you to “boost” it. Essentially Facebook’s algorithm may see a post that is either performing better than some of your more recent posts or have found a post that is similar to content that other business pages have boosted before. 

The goal of boosting is to drive more engagement to a post. When you boost a post, you will choose a target audience, how much you want to spend, and how long you want to keep it boosted. Once it is boosted, that specific post will be shown to a broader audience and appear higher up in your current audience’s News Feed.

What are Facebook Ads?

As you can likely assume, a Facebook Ad is an actual advertisement. Facebook Ads can appear on someone’s mobile or desktop News Feed or the right-hand column of a desktop screen. Similar to boosted posts, Facebook Ads offer brand awareness but with more customization. For instance, when creating an ad, you have advanced options when it comes to creating content, choosing the audience, ad placement, call-to-action (CTA) buttons, etc.

Many of the best social media marketing companies in Kansas City would argue that Facebook Ads are much more effective at promoting products and services. They are also known to drive more leads and bring people to business websites. Additionally, every ad you run, you will receive comprehensive data that you can use when creating future ads.

Here’s an example Facebook Ad from Beauty Brands. It blend’s right in with the News Feed, but you can tell it’s an advertisement by the way it says “sponsored” at the top and the inclusion of a CTA button.

Which Is Better?

Now that you understand the difference between Facebook Ads vs boosted posts, you may be wondering which one is better for your business. As a Facebook Ad company in Kansas City, our clients ask us this question all the time.

Basically, boosting a post is a good idea if you are new to running a Facebook business page and want to increase post engagement without spending a ton of money. Good posts to boost are ones that promote your brand or a particular event.

On the other hand, our digital marketing company in Kansas City suggests Facebook Ads when you want to drive traffic to your website and generate more leads. Ads provide a higher ROI than boosted posts because they target a more specific audience. 

For Facebook Ad management in Kansas City, contact the team today at Social: Managed! We are an expert Facebook Ad company in Kansas City that has a distinguished reputation for bringing businesses to the top with our advertisements.