The Difference Between Boosted Posts and Facebook Ads

A boosted post is a post to your Page’s timeline that you can apply money to in order to boost it to an audience of your choosing. This is the simplest way to advertise on Facebook. Boosted posts differ from Facebook ads because they are not created in Ads Manager and don’t have all of the same customization features.

When you boost a post, it’ll show up in your audience’s Facebook News Feed as an ad. You can also select Instagram as an ad placement for your boosted post. You can choose a post that’s already present on your Page’s timeline and boost it by following only a few steps. When you boost a post, you’ll tell Facebook 3 things:

1. Who you want to reach: you pick a target audience of the type of people you want to connect with
2. Your max budget: how much you want to spend over the course of your entire campaign
3. How long you want to run your ad: once you click Boost and your ad is approved, people in your target audience will see your ad in their News Feed for the duration you’ve set

Note: boosted posts are still considered ads because they require budget to be shared with a wider audience. This is the core similarity it shares with Facebook Ads.

What are Facebook ads?

While boosting a post is still considered an ad, Facebook ads are created through Ads Manager and offer more advanced customization solutions. There are many advertising objectives to help you reach your specific business goals and the audiences you care about most.

Where a boosted post may initially optimize for Page likes, comments, and shares or overall brand awareness, Facebook ads can optimize for app installs, website conversions, video views, shop orders and more.

What more can I do with Facebook Ads?

• Choose different ad placements:  With Facebook ads, you get the added benefit of choosing placements in Facebook Messenger ads, Instagram stories, and Audience Network.
• Use specific ad objectives: Choosing an ad objective early on helps focus on which campaign type best aligns with your current business goals. Boosted posts allows you to focus on website clicks, page engagement and local business promotions, but the full ads system in Ads Manager offers objectives like  conversions, and lead generation.
• Maintain creative control: With Facebook Ads created through Ads Manager, there are more options for ad types. For example carousel ads, add specific descriptions and add a call-to-action button that’ll drive more of your audience to take action. These are only a few of the creative and formatting options available in Ads Manager that aren’t available when boosting a post from your Page.
• Use advance targeting capabilities: Boosting posts let you decide on interests, age and gender for your ad targeting. This helps you reach people who most likely care about your business. With Facebook ads, you can use more advanced tools to create overlapping audience types, lookalike audiences and more.