If you run a business on Facebook, you’ve probably seen two ways to promote your content: boosting a post or running a Facebook ad.
While both can help your content reach more people, they work a little differently. Understanding the difference can help you choose the right approach for your next campaign.
What does it mean to boost a post?
Boosting a post is one of the simplest ways to put more budget behind something you’ve already posted on your Facebook Page.
You can select an existing post, choose your audience, set a budget and decide how long you want it to run.
It can be useful when you want to quickly increase the reach of a post, promote an announcement or get more people to see an offer.
For example, a local café could boost a post about its new festive menu to reach more people in the surrounding area.
What are Facebook Ads?
Facebook Ads give you more options to build a campaign around a specific business goal.
Instead of simply promoting an existing post, you can create an ad with specific messaging and creative, choose who you want to reach and set up a campaign based on what you want people to do.
Depending on your goal, you may want people to:
- Visit your website
- Send an enquiry
- Discover your business
- Take action on an offer
- Start a conversation
Facebook Ads are therefore useful when you want more control over how your campaign is set up.
Facebook Ads vs Boosting a Post: The key differences
| Boosting a Post | Facebook Ads | |
| Starting point | Existing Facebook post | Can be created specifically for an ad campaign |
| Setup | Quick and simple | More campaign options |
| Audience | Basic audience selection | More detailed targeting options |
| Goal | Increase reach or engagement | Built around specific campaign objectives |
| Creative | Uses an existing post | Can create campaign-specific ad creatives |
| Best for | Quickly promoting content | Running more targeted campaigns |
Which one should your business use?
It depends on what you want to achieve.
If you have an existing post that is already getting attention and you simply want more people to see it, boosting can be a quick way to give it additional reach.
If you’re planning a campaign and want more control over the audience, creative, messaging and campaign goal, Facebook Ads can give you more options.
The important thing is to start with your business goal, rather than simply putting money behind a post.
Want to run ads without the complicated setup?
For small businesses, creating a campaign can mean figuring out the creative, ad copy, audience and targeting before you even get started.
Pi helps simplify this process. Tell Pi what your business does, and it can help create your ad creative and copy, reach relevant customers and run your campaign on Facebook and Instagram.
You can also get leads directly on WhatsApp, so you can follow up with interested customers.
With Pi, you can get started with digital advertising without having to manage every part of the process yourself.
Ready to reach more customers? Try Pi on the Paytm for Business app.
Author
