Boosted posts. Promoted posts. Facebook ads. It’s an overwhelming amount of options just to get your message across to the audience you need. How do you know which is best for you? What differences do they offer? Don’t let the industry jargon overwhelm you! As always, Zebra 360 Online Marketing is here to help clear up the mysteries of these key Facebook advertising options. We’ll help you make the very best choice for your business, the smart way.
So what is a Facebook Ad, then?
Facebook Ads were Facebook’s original form of advertising. Here, you create a formal advertisement through their ad manager. You have access to a wide variety of specific advertising objectives, such as radius from your address and target demographics. You can optimize for page likes, comments, shares or overall displays, and can shape your ad to suit a wide variety of displays. It can also optimize for app installs, website conversions, views and much more.
With Facebook Ads, you have the power to control where the advert is placed. You can opt to add Instagram to the bundle, display on mobile or desktop browsing, and opt for a side ad, messenger ads, Instagram story, news feed ads or ‘instant article.
In short, this is much more like a formal advertisement than other options. You have a lot more optimization of objectives, and more freedom over where they place. You have a lot of creative control over what the ad looks like, be it a carousel of pictures or specific text. The targeting options are also great.
So, what is a boosted post then?
Boosted Facebook posts are a little different. You create a post to your existing business page, and pay to have it ‘boosted’ to the audience you choose. It’s an incredibly simple way of raising your visibility throughout audience networks. Very little customization options exist (although you can still choose your target audience), but the boosted post appears much more ‘organically’ within the viewer’s feed. It doesn’t display as a separate advert, but keeps the look and feel of a Facebook post. They came about as a paid way for businesses to ensure more visibility to their fans when organic visibility started declining on Facebook.
What is a promoted post, then?
Unlike boosted posts, promoted posts are also created through ad manager. You gain back many of the audience-tailoring features that were missing from the ‘boosted post’ option. However, the sponsored content retains the look and feel of a News Feed post, as opposed to the tailored advertising look of a full-blown Facebook Ad. Think of it as the middle ground between the boosted post and the Facebook Advert.
So when should I use which Facebook advertising type?
Each of these niche advertising types serves its own purpose. As part of a well thought out, diverse advertising campaign, you’ll probably make smart use of all three types of Facebook Ad. Which type you focus on, however, will depend on the exact aims of this segment of your campaign. Boosted ads are typically great to raise engagement with your existing fans or push brand awareness. They’re also a great way to push specific posts to more prominence that may not be strictly ‘advertorial’, but are important to developing your brand profile, image and voice. They will do little for enhanced traffic, outward clicks or sales, though. They’re an engagement developing tool.
Both promoted posts and Facebook Ads offer a lot more diversity for goals. You can drive traffic and sales more, and they tend to be a great way to ‘link’ with other campaigns across different channels you are using. They offer a little more on the targeting side, and can be a better way to reach new audiences or drive goals other than engagement.
From the utter simplicity of a boosted post, to the complicated but powerful world of promoted posts and Facebook Ads, each of these means of engaging with your target market has a place in your digital marketing toolbox. Not sure which would suit your current coals the best? Then why not allow Zebra 360 Online Marketing to help you custom-tailor your campaigns to drive the goals you need? Get in touch today.
