SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: Boosted Posts Vs. Meta Ads - What's Best For You?
It’s possible you’re already marketing your business on social media, but are you using the tools at your disposal as effectively as possible? In this article we’ll discuss Meta’s social advertising options and when to use what.
Should you market your business through Meta? Yes. Meta — Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp — has massive reach. Facebook alone has more than 3 billion monthly active users, and Instagram has some 2 billion. That’s a lot of potential eyes on your business!
Boosting posts is a quick way to increase brand visibility, but tapping into the Meta Business Suite and Meta Ad Manager opens up a wealth of valuable tools and analytics designed to help target your ads more precisely, assess and adjust marketing efforts as necessary and ultimately maximize your ROI. 
A BOOSTED POST
A boosted post is a regular social post on your Facebook timeline or Instagram page that’s backed by ad money to (hopefully) reach more people and increase engagement. You can boost any post, whether it’s already posted or you’re drafting a new one. Boosted posts look just like regular organic posts, save for the “sponsored” or “promoted” tag. They can include a call to action, like a link to visit your website or send your account a message. Once your content is ready, you can define your daily budget and target demographic. The options for the latter are limited to broad geographic location (cities/towns), gender and interests.
PROS
• Quick and easy
• Simple call to action options
• Simple demographic targeting
CONS
• Limited ad placement options
• Limited demographic targeting
• Limited advertising objective targeting
• Limited analytics
Boosted posts have their place, but they shouldn’t be your primary social media marketing plan. If they are, you’re almost certainly wasting money that could be better spent on more precise social marketing efforts. Unsure where to start? Talk with our partners at Nehlsen Creative to take advantage of the free marketing hour they offer to all SMACNA Greater Chicago members!
Need more? The Meta Ad Manager information on the next page is worth considering.
META ADS
Meta ads are managed through the Meta Business Suite and the Meta Ad Manager, which offer an impressive array of tools and analytics to help you better target your marketing efforts and fine-tune settings to ensure maximum ROI. Meta ads can be deployed on Facebook, Instagram and the greater Meta Audience Network, which includes Meta partner apps and websites. While boosted posts don’t give the option of choosing where/how your ad shows up, Meta Ad Manager gives you that power.
One of the biggest benefits of Meta Ad Manager is its ability to precisely define your target audience based on all kinds of demographics, interests, behaviors, locations and more.
When you put up a boosted post, it’s out there, that’s it. There’s no changing or customizing it after launch. Meta Ad Manager allows you to test ads and tweak them to maximize performance. And if you’re marketing your business with Meta Ad Manager, you can (and should) utilize the ads reporting function, which allows you to customize analytics reports based on the results that are most important to you. You can even breakdown data based on criteria like platform, location, age or gender. Not great with numbers? That’s OK, there are graphs to visually show performance!
PROS
• More detailed demographic targeting
• More ad placement options
• More creative control of design, messaging and calls to action
• Ability to test and alter ads
• Powerful analytics reporting
CONS
• Takes more time and effort
KEY TAKEAWAY
At the end of the day, a boosted post is an effective, simple way to build brand awareness, grow your audience and increase audience engagement. But if you’re looking for more, or want enhanced ability to maximize your ROI, step up to Meta Ad Manager.