Odds are if you have a business page on Facebook, then you've experimented with Boosted Posts before. You may have wanted to reach out to more people with your content, grow your following, or any number of things. The question is this: Are Boosted Posts your best shot at success with your social media management? Before actual Facebook Advertising came on the scene, this was the best way to reach out to your audience and gain some quality traffic. Now though, Boosted Posts are known as "Facebook Ads Lite".

What people don't realize first and foremost about Facebook, is that they have a very powerful algorithm behind it. You can take a look at our earlier post, Why Facebook Marketing Is King, to read more on this. The algorithm is what can help or hurt your efforts on Facebook. Take a look at this graph below:

As you can see, and you may have already been noticing this, Facebook has stunted the reach of organic content drastically over the last several years. It's only getting lower here in 2019. Why is this? Some think it's because Facebook is pushing the "pay to play" model more and more on users. This means you have to boost your content (aka pay Facebook) or run targeted ads in order for the people you're after to see your stuff. This isn't fair to the average user, but it does give an advantage to marketers and business page owners.

Boosting Posts / Promoting Content

After you publish a piece of content to your page or group, Facebook (very prominently) shows you how you can reach a larger audience with it. You guessed it: Boosted Post. In a nutshell, here is what this does for you:

At first glance you may think, "Yeah this will do what I need it to." You woud be right, IF your goal is to just have this post in front of more people to read. Engagement alone is all Boosting is good for, and Facebook intentionally made it that way. Boosting is cheaper than running Facebook Ads, but it has its limitations. 

When you boost a post, you are telling Facebook, "Hey Facebook, take my content here and put it in front of as many people as you can, with these interests, for this amount of money." In a very hollow nutshell, this is the crux of Facebook Advertising in your Ad Manager account. What you DON'T get with boosting your content is control and customization over your objectives, gathered data, calls to action, or where your viewers go if they want to interact with you.

The truth is that simply promoting content on your page has it's shallow benefits, but also very deep drawbacks. Let's look into a better way to run content marketing on Facebook now.

If you want to check out a more in-depth article on Boosting Content, and the pros and cons, then take a look at Kim Garst's post on the topic here: To Boost or Not To Boost

Facebook Advertising

What is arguably considered the top way to market online these days, Facebook Ads are the way to go if you're looking to take your business to new heights. With its vast amounts of data and behaviors that it tracks on a daily basis, you have the ability to laser focus in on any audience you choose. With this, the availability to reach these people with your message is very widespread. So what all can you do with Facebook Ads that you can't do with Boosted Posts? Let's take a look:

Even though this is just a small glimpse of what can be done, you still get a clear view of the power of FB ads. If you're looking to really get down and market in a way unlike any other, this is the clear path to take. There is such a thing as optimization that FB will take your ad through over time, getting you better and more consistent results over time. Sound exciting?

In conclusion, it's easy to see where both Boosted Posts and Ads have their advantages. Usually, Facebook advises you to only boost content that is getting good engagement and exposure first. With ads, there is no real requirement since all ad content is built from scratch in your Ad Manager.

Are you looking for someone to help professionally run ads for your business? Are you looking to harness the incredible power of the Facebook Ad platform and get the customers and clients you want? The best time to start was 5 years ago, the next best time is NOW! Rech out to us and Book A Strategy Call so we can learn about you, your goals, and how we can help you grow!