Why We Advise Our Clients to STOP Boosting/Promoting Posts and Focus on Facebook Ads
Before we dive deep into the reasons why businesses should be running Facebook/Instagram ads through Facebook Business Manager and not boosting/promoting posts, let’s clarify the difference:
What is a Facebook Ad?
Facebook/Instagram ads are created in Facebook Business Manager using a series of steps leading to a highly customized ad which has been created according to the specific needs of the business and its target market. When creating a Facebook ad campaign, businesses will be able to target audiences based on a very specific objective, detailed interest, demographic and behavioral targeting criteria as well as the level at which the audience is aware of the business and the product/service offering taking into consideration the previous actions that they may or may not have taken on the business’ Facebook/Instagram page or website.
What is a Boosted/Promoted Post?
A boosted/promoted post looks similar to a Facebook ad on the outside but is VERY different on the inside. They are the short and quick version of advertising on this platform. Here, businesses ‘boost’ or ‘promote’ a post by allocating advertising budget to a post that they have already posted on their Facebook/Instagram pages and choose between a few basic targeting parameters. Only one post can be boosted/promoted to one audience at a time.
Boosting/promoting a post on Instagram or Facebook is one of the easiest ways for a business to market themselves and is without a doubt the path of least resistance. It’s quick, easy to set up and seemingly ‘affordable’. By boosting/promoting a post, new people are more likely to see the post and engage with it by liking, commenting or visiting your page. Boosting/promoting posts is a common go-to for page admins who are trying to drive page and post engagement as it quickly kills the frustration of having to deal with low organic engagement rates. So why wouldn’t you want to click that oh so tempting blue ‘Boost Post’ or ‘Promote’ button at the bottom of each post?
The simplicity of boosting/promoting posts are Facebook’s way of making digital advertising accessible to every business on their platform and of course, for Facebook to increase their revenue. You may be spending a few dollars here and there on boosting/promoting posts but these ‘boosts’ add up quickly and can easily cost businesses hundreds or thousands of dollars by the end of the year. Seeing how many people you have reached or how many have visited your website via your boosted/promoted post is all very exciting but what does that actually amount to? How valuable is that reach and are those clicks really meaningful? What can you do with that data? NOT MUCH. Facebook’s boosted or Instagram’s promoted posts fail to drive real results.
Let’s briefly understand why:
Boosted/promoted posts are limited in their targeting capabilities which is arguably one of the most important benefits and features to advertising on Facebook/Instagram (when running ads through Facebook Business Manager). You could have the best copy and creative around but if you’re showing it to the wrong audience, you are wasting your money, time, effort and the opportunity to deliver your ads to potential paying customers. Facebook automatically sets your target audience to ‘people like your followers’ which is extremely broad. Not everyone who follows your page is going to be interested in buying your product or service and their friends are even less likely to do so. A follower does not equal a customer and therefore, generally, the value of followers is found in the social proof that they provide on your profile rather than money in the bank. Other targeting options include age, gender, location and interest targeting with not as many interests available for you to choose from in comparison to Facebook Business Manager.
Your Marketing Goals are Not Being Achieved. Even though you are able to include a call-to-action button on your boosted post, this is no way to actually optimize your campaign. The call-to-action button is there to encourage the audience to click on the ad but the ad itself is not being delivered to people who are most likely to view products, add to cart or purchase for example. This can only be done in Facebook Business Manager. In addition, you only have a selection of three goals for your boosted post (profile visits, website visits and more messages) which is extremely limiting in comparison to the number of goals available in Facebook Business Manager which consist of a variety of more than 8 ad objectives. Boosted/promoted posts therefore give you no flexibility when it comes to choosing a promotional goal that best suits your business needs and objectives. In addition, the ads will not be shown to people based on the behavioral likelihood that the person will complete the specific action you would like them to, therefore leaving your ads to run with not much more than just hope that someone will bite.
You are unable to split test different creatives, copy and audiences. One boosted post goes out to the specific target audience selected in the set up process. You have no way of simultaneously testing different creatives with the same copy to the same audience or different copy using the same creative to the same audience, for example. In the same sense, testing different audiences is just as important as testing different creatives and copy, which is also not possible with boosted posts. This strategy is so important in determining what your audience responds to best as a means of optimizing your marketing efforts and budget.
You are not able to place your ads anywhere other than in the newsfeed. Boosted/promoted posts provides no options when it comes to ad placement. It’s the newsfeed or bust. Running ads through Facebook Business Manager allows ads to appear in the most strategic placements such as Instagram/Facebook stories, in Facebook Messenger and of course, the newsfeed among others. Facebook will determine the placement of your ads based on where they are most likely to be effective in achieving your objective e.g. website visits, product views, purchases etc. There is no option or placement optimization for boosted posts.
Lookalike audience targeting beyond your followers is not possible with boosted posts. Lookalike audiences are audiences created based on people who meet similar demographic, interest based and behavioral characteristics as your current customers/email list subscribers, website visitors, Facebook and Instagram page engagers, followers etc. These audiences are highly valuable in growing your reach/sales/website traffic etc. among the right audience on social media as they are likely to have a high level of interest in your offering. Highly specific lookalike audiences can be created on Facebook Business Manager that can really take your ad performance to the next level and is a common strategy used when scaling ads and performance. Businesses who boost/promote posts are missing out on this very valuable tool that is used to optimize campaign performance in a highly effective manner.
Boosted/promoted posts don’t allow custom conversion tracking or retargeting. The Facebook Pixel is a highly effective data collecting tool used in Facebook Business Manager to track the behavior of audiences. Custom conversions are then created using this data in order to optimize ads by combining people into one audience who are most likely to perform a certain action. Custom conversions greatly decreases advertising spend and increases ROI on your ads. Even though you may track conversions with a boosted post as you can use the pixel if you already have one set up, the number of custom conversion tracking options for boosted/promoted posts are a fraction of what is available when running Facebook ads through Facebook Business Manager.
There is no option to exclude audiences. Boosted/promoted posts are so limited in their targeting capabilities that you can’t be specific about who you DON’T want to spend your marketing budget on. People who fit within an audience who have shown interest in a specific topic related to your business might also show an interest in something completely unrelated and therefore don’t meet your ideal target market or customer profile. Under normal circumstances if you were to run an ad campaign in Facebook Business Manager, you would be able to exclude anyone who shows an interest in any unrelated or conflicting topic, reducing costs and improving the effectiveness of your ads.
Facebook boosted/promoted posts offer less control over managing your budget. The daily budget is only changeable in increments of $10, you’re budget allowed is maxed at a certain amount and you cannot manipulate the daily spend according to results as the boosted/promoted post is running. Not being able to manage the budget effectively places way too much control in Facebook’s hands when it comes to how, when and who your advertising budget is spent on which is not always in your best interests. Daily budget management is key to managing a campaign effectively and ensuring a positive ROI.
There is no ongoing campaign option. Boosted/promoted posts don’t allow advertisers to run ads for an unlimited time – you have to select when your ad will start and finish and you are limited to running a boosted/promoted post for 30 days at a time. This creates a loss in momentum and exposing yourself to the risk that the ads may end too soon before any real traction is actually generated.
Facebook boosted/promoted posts don’t allow for any creative control over the ad format. Boosted/promoted posts only offer the advertiser to boost/promote either an image or video ad and don’t offer the option to create carousel ads, instant experience ads, dynamic product ads etc. which can be vital ad formats for businesses to use in order to appeal to their target audience and grow their sales/leads.
Facebook / Instagram ads are hands down the best way for businesses to advertise their products and services on social media. Apart from the ability to optimize for a wider variety of objectives, Facebook ads offer highly advanced targeting and creative design capabilities as well as different ad placement options and metrics available to constantly measure performance. Businesses have a lot more control over who sees the ad, where they go after clicking on the ad and essentially what and who their advertising budget is spent on compared to boosted/promoted posts.
Boosted/promoted posts may reach a large number of people and increase the engagement of a particular post or page but there is not much more to them than that. Facebook ads are fully fledged marketing campaigns suited for businesses who want to advertise their product or service to a market in a highly strategic and effective way. They take more time to set up and require daily management to achieve complete optimization, but you can count on better results and return on your investment for your time, effort and budget. Stop wasting your advertising budget on boosted posts and start reaping the full benefits of digital advertising using Facebook/Instagram ads!