Both boosting and Facebook ads can be effective strategies for growing your business and reaching new customers. Which one is better depends on your goals, target audience, and budget. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll compare boosting vs Facebook ads to help you determine the best option for your business.
What is Boosting on Facebook?
Boosting is when you pay Facebook to increase the reach and visibility of your existing organic posts. You select a post you’ve already published on your Facebook Page and pay a fee to “boost” it. This causes your post to be displayed in more users’ News Feeds beyond your current organic reach.
Some key things to know about boosting:
- It amplifies existing posts, rather than creating new ad content
- Ideal for reaching your current audience and followers
- Lower cost per reach compared to creating new ads
- Very easy to set up – takes just a few clicks
What are Facebook Ads?
Facebook ads allow you to create new sponsored posts and promote them to specific target audiences across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or Audience Network. You have full control over the creative, targeting, budget and schedule.
Some key things to know about Facebook ads:
- You create new ad content rather than promoting existing posts
- Very customizable – meticulously target your ideal audience
- More options for visuals, copy, links, etc.
- Higher cost but more potential to scale
Key Differences
Here is a quick overview of the main differences between boosting and Facebook ads:
| Boosting | Facebook Ads |
|---|---|
| Amplifies existing organic posts | Create new ad creative |
| Lower cost per reach | Higher cost but more flexibility |
| Quick & easy setup | More detailed targeting and options |
| Ideal for current audience engagement | Better for new customer acquisition |
When to Use Boosting
Here are some of the key benefits and appropriate uses of boosting your Facebook posts:
- Increase engagement – Boosting is a great way to get more eyes on your top-performing organic content and posts. This helps increase likes, comments, shares and overall engagement.
- Grow reach – Boosting allows you to reach more of your current audience beyond just those who currently follow your Page. It’s an easy way to grow your overall reach.
- Drive traffic – Boosting posts with links back to your website can generate more website traffic at a relatively low cost.
- Promote events – Create a post about an upcoming event and boost it targeted locally to drive awareness and increase signups/attendance.
- Re-engage inactive fans – Target fans who haven’t engaged with your Page recently and boost organic posts to get back on their radar.
- Send announcements – For important announcements you want your broader audience to see, boost the posts to extend beyond existing reach.
Boosting works best when you already have high-quality organic content on your Facebook Page that’s performing well. It acts as an amplifier for your best posts and helps you get more mileage from content you’ve already created.
When to Use Facebook Ads
Some of the key advantages of Facebook ads include:
- Highly targeted – Create customized audiences and target specific demographics, interests, behaviors and more.
- Full creative control – Craft ad creative optimized for different goals and audiences.
- Drive conversions – Include direct response elements like calls-to-action to drive website traffic, app installs, sales and other conversions.
- Increase reach – Reach broad new audiences beyond your existing followers and fans.
- Remarket across platforms – Remarket to people who’ve already engaged with you on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.
Facebook ads are ideal when you want to:
- Increase brand awareness and reach new audiences
- Drive traffic to your website from new sources
- Generate leads and conversions with custom landing pages
- Remarket to customers across Facebook’s family of apps
- Promote new products, services or promotions
The level of targeting, automation and optimization available with Facebook ads make them ideal for businesses focused on scaling growth through new customer acquisition.
Budget and Cost Considerations
One of the biggest differences between boosting and Facebook ads is the associated cost. Here’s an overview of how budgeting and pricing works for each:
Boosting Costs
- Minimum daily budget of $1 per day
- Maximum lifetime budget of $40 per post
- Only pay for reach actually achieved
- Typical cost per reach is $0.01 to $0.03
- No upfront media costs – only pay when people engage
With boosting, you control how much you want to spend to amplify each post. The minimum is $1 per day, while the max lifetime spend per boosted post is $40. You only pay for the amount of reach actually achieved.
Facebook Ads Costs
- Minimum campaign budget of $1 per day
- No lifetime maximum (set your own budgets)
- Pay for ad impressions upfront
- Average CPM around $5-10+ depending on targeting
- Minimum ad set spend around $50+
Facebook ads are more costly upfront, but offer more opportunities to scale. You pay estimated ad costs upfront and set flexible budgets at both campaign and ad set levels. The minimum budget is around $50 per ad set.
Measuring Results
Here are some key metrics to track the performance of boosting vs Facebook ads:
Boosting Metrics
- Reach – How many unique users saw your posts
- Engagement – Reactions, comments, shares, clicks
- Website clicks – If you boosted posts with links
- Event responses – If you boosted event posts
- Page likes – Did boosting increase your Facebook Page likes?
Facebook Ad Metrics
- Impressions – How often your ads were shown
- Reach – Total number of unique users who saw ads
- Clicks – Clicks on the ad creative or call-to-action
- Conversions – Signups, purchases or other goals
- CPM, CPC, CPA – Pricing metrics
Facebook ads offer more robust analytics to track conversions and optimize for your goals. But with both boosting and ads, aim to track engagement rate and relevance as well as reach.
Putting It All Together
So which is better for your business – boosting or Facebook ads? Here are some best practices:
- Use boosting to amplify your top-performing organic content and increase engagement.
- Create Facebook ads when you want to reach new audiences and drive conversions.
- Test both to see which strategy delivers the best results for your goals.
- Combine both as part of an “always-on” social strategy to sustain awareness.
- Analyze the data to optimize your spend and content for each.
Often the best approach is utilizing both boosting and Facebook ads based on your targets, budget and current content. Boosting takes just a few clicks and helps maximize existing posts, while ads offer greater customization for acquisition.
As you test both options, pay attention to your cost per result and aim for the most return on investment. With a strategic combination of organic content, boosting and Facebook ads, you can build a powerful presence on Facebook that boosts your business growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I boost posts or use Facebook Ads?
In most cases, the best approach is to use a combination of boosting for existing organic content that’s performing well, and Facebook ads when you want to reach new audiences or promote something specific. Boosting is best for increasing engagement and reach with current followers, while ads offer more customization and targeting for new customer acquisition.
Is boosting a waste of money?
Boosting can provide a positive ROI if used strategically. The key is boosting relevant organic posts that are already high-performing with your audience. With the right targeting and creative, a small boosting budget can further amplify your best content cost-effectively. However, indiscriminately boosting average or poor-performing posts can be a waste of money.
How much should I spend on a Facebook ad campaign?
Facebook ad budgets vary greatly based on your industry, target audience size and campaign goals. Most experts recommend starting with $50 to $100 per day for smaller businesses, and scaling up slowly as you test different ad sets. The minimum budget is around $50 per ad set. Monitor performance closely and only increase your budget if you’re achieving a positive return on your ad spend.
Are Facebook ads better than boosting?
Facebook ads provide more customization, targeting options and potential to scale, so they can be “better” if your goal is to reach totally new audiences to grow your business. But boosting has its place as an easy, low-cost tactic alongside Facebook ads. Often the best strategy is utilizing both boosting and ads to maximize your reach, engagement and conversions on Facebook.
Conclusion
Boosting and Facebook ads both offer powerful ways to grow your business on Facebook. Boosting provides an easy amplification of your top organic content, while Facebook ads allow you to reach new audiences to drive conversions. Use this guide to determine how to strategically combine both options based on your goals, target audience and budget.
With the right strategy incorporating organic posting, boosting and Facebook ads, you can increase your reach, engagement and conversions on Facebook to grow your business.