Social ads vs boosted posts on Meta (Facebook & Instagram)

I have discussed this topic with several people recently. One client, new to social media required an advert to spread reach as she had no real audience (yet). A business owner friend of mine then saw this ad and, aware of my work with that client, asked why their ads were not achieving similar reach. I found that they were boosting posts rather than creating ads and the response was; “I thought they were the same thing.” In another conversation this week, someone said to me; “we don’t need to advertise, we share in local groups to spread reach.”

Given these conversations, it seems beneficial to share a few thoughts on this topic, subject to the usual caveat of every business being different and so it does depend on your audience, goals and objectives.

Sharing into local groups

It is a good way to spread reach, though sharing needs to be carried out by a personal profile and not a business page. If you want to keep business/personal separate, then there are ways to do this.

Boosting posts

This takes an existing post and boosts it to a larger audience. People who may not follow you will see your posts and you can set the audience you wish to see your post. You set your budget and your posts will be shown to the audience you have selected.

Social ads

These perform differently from a post. Firstly, you set a goal, then choose the call to action. You set the parameters to suit your objectives.

You choose a headline, which can be tricky as you only have 25 characters to play with, but it makes a big difference to how the ad looks. This and a call to action is what sets it apart from a standard post.

You then set the audience as you would when boosting, set your budget and off you go!

The results

The results speak for themselves. The person who was boosting posts was seeing very little return but in just one day of placing an advert she’s seen double the interactions of what she was achieving within seven days of a boosted post.

My client who was growing slowly and steadily through regular posting and sharing into local groups reached 3,769 people and received 160 link clicks in one advert. This advert was shown to people in a very specific audience and ran for seven days. Her bookings tripled within a week. She spent £28.

Social media can often feel like a jungle and you need to have both a content and advertising plan linked to your overall strategy in order to succeed. Unsure whether social advertising is for you? Or looking to generate a better return on both investment and effort on your existing strategy? Then please do get in touch 😊