When it comes to social media advertising, especially on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, two commonly used terms are “boosted posts” and “Meta ads.” Whether to use or boosted posts vs ads manager depends entirely on your business needs.
Both can significantly enhance your online reach, but they serve different purposes and come with distinct features.
In this blog, we will explore the difference between boosted posts vs ads manager, what they do, and why Meta ads hold particular importance for businesses.
Table of Contents
What Are Boosted Posts?
Boosted posts are essentially regular posts on your Facebook or Instagram page that you pay to promote to a wider audience.
They are a straightforward way to increase the visibility of your content without delving into the complexities of ad management.
- Ease of Use: Boosting a post is a simple process. You can boost a post directly from your Facebook or Instagram page with just a few clicks.
- Audience Targeting: While boosted posts offer some targeting options like location, interests, and demographics, they are not as detailed as those available for Meta ads.
- Objectives: The primary objective of boosted posts is to increase engagement—likes, comments, and shares—on your content. They are ideal for promoting time-sensitive posts or content that resonate well with your audience.
What Are Meta Ads?
Meta ads (also known as Facebook ads or Instagram ads) are created through the Meta Ads Manager, a comprehensive tool that offers advanced targeting, budgeting, and optimisation features.
For example, if you’re launching a new online ordering system for your bakery and want to drive traffic to your website, you would use Meta ads to achieve this goal.
What is the Difference Between Boosted Posts vs Ads Manager?
Advanced Targeting
Boosting posts lets you decide on interests, age, and gender for your ad targeting. This helps you reach people who most likely care about your business.
With Meta ads, you can use more advanced tools to create overlapping audience types, lookalike audiences, and more. For instance, you can target people who have bought food online before.
Ad Formats
Meta ads support various ad formats, including image ads, video ads, carousel ads, slideshow ads, and collection ads.
You can choose the best format to convey your message. Example: a restaurant or retail store might use a carousel ad to showcase different products.
Use Specific Ad Objectives
Boosted posts enable you to target objectives such as website clicks, page engagement, and local business promotions.
In contrast, the comprehensive ads system within Ads Manager offers a broader range of objectives, including lead generation, app promotion, and sales.
Additionally, you can create and manage ads using the Ads Manager mobile app.
Ad Placements
When boosting a post, you can choose whether to include your ad on Instagram, in addition to Facebook’s mobile and desktop feeds.
With Meta ads, you gain the advantage of selecting from a wider range of placements, such as Facebook Feed side ads, Messenger ads, Instagram Stories, Facebook Instant Articles, and the Meta Audience Network.
Performance Tracking
The Meta Ads Manager offers comprehensive analytics and performance tracking, helping you measure the effectiveness of your ads and make data-driven decisions. You can track metrics like clicks, conversions, and ROI.
Why Are Meta Ads Important?
Reaching the right audience with the right message is crucial for small businesses. When it comes to boosted posts vs ads manager, Meta ads have the one-up as they provide powerful tools that go beyond the capabilities of boosted posts, offering enhanced targeting, flexibility, and detailed performance insights.
Here’s why Meta ads should be an essential part of your advertising strategy:
Precision and Personalisation
With advanced targeting options, Meta ads enable businesses to deliver personalised messages to their audience. This increases the likelihood of engaging potential customers and driving conversions.
Flexibility and Control
Meta ads provide greater flexibility in terms of budget allocation, ad placements, and scheduling.
Comprehensive Reach
Meta ads can be displayed across the entire Meta network, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network. This extensive reach helps businesses connect with a broader audience.
ROI Optimisation
By aligning your ad campaigns with specific business objectives and leveraging detailed performance metrics, Meta ads can offer a higher return on investment (ROI) compared to simpler boosted posts.
Don’t Try This Yourself!
While setting up and paying for Meta Ads is relatively straightforward, achieving a return on investment (ROI) requires significant experience and expertise.
Many business owners spend substantial sums of money with little to no results, leading to frustration and disappointment.
For this reason, it’s wise to entrust Meta Ads management to a subject matter expert. This goes beyond hiring someone who is merely competent; it’s about engaging a professional who profoundly understands buyer behaviour, platform dynamics, and algorithms.
A true expert can navigate these complexities to create campaigns that effectively reach your target audience and deliver measurable results.
By leaving Meta Ads in the hands of a specialist, you can avoid most of the pitfalls of trial and error, which often lead to wasted resources and ineffective campaigns.
Conclusion
Boosted posts vs ads manager – whichever one you choose, both are valuable tools. Boosted posts are excellent for quick and easy engagement boosts, while Meta ads offer sophisticated targeting and optimisation capabilities for achieving specific business goals.
By leveraging the expertise of an experienced professional or advertising firm on the Meta ad platform, you can achieve significant results for your business.
Book a free consultation with a netstripes specialist to find out how to optimise your online advertising.
