Most business owners and social media/marketing directors know that getting traction on your Facebook posts has gotten more and more difficult as Facebook has changed their News Feed algorithm. Changes rolled out this spring emphasize post engagement and personal connections. With a potential organic reach of 2% or less of a business’ followers, achieving enough critical mass to get engagement is difficult. Even the best content can be overlooked when followers are discovering that their best friend is having a baby or their favorite band is coming to a nearby festival.
Promoting important content has become a necessary expense for many businesses in order to ensure that those posts are seen by enough interested followers to create interaction. Facebook knows this and has made it incredibly easy to spend a relatively small amount of money quickly and easily by hitting the boost post button. I’m here to ask you to stop doing that.
Wait. What? Stick with me. This will make sense by the end of this blog.
Boost vs Ad
Boosting is a simplified version of the Ads Manager algorithm. It allows minimal targeting, which means that it’s not nearly as effective in reaching the right people as the full-blown Ads Manager algorithm. This means that when boosting your post, you’re likely to be showing your ads to the wrong people instead of the right people. Facebook’s goal with boosting is to spend your budget as quickly as possible. This is probably not the smartest strategy for your money.
Look at this comparison. Boosted content only allows for location, age, gender, and interest targeting. It doesn’t allow you to specify what your goals are (website traffic, app downloads, etc.) nor does it allow you to use the very powerful scheduling tool to deliver your ads when they are most likely to be relevant to your potential customers.
| Targeting Features | Boosted Content | Ads Manager |
|---|---|---|
| Location, Age, Gender, Interest Targeting | Yes | Yes |
| Behavioral Targeting | No | Yes |
| Ad Scheduling | No | Yes |
| Language Targeting | No | Yes |
| Bid Strategy | No | Yes |
| Frequency Controls | No | Yes |
| Custom/Lookalike Audiences | No | Yes |
| Marketing Objectives | No | Yes |
Learn to love the Ads Manager
While it is an extra step, promoting the same content by using the Ads Manager will make your campaigns more effective and will allow you to spend your money in a way that has better ROI. The Facebook Ad Manager interface is designed to be relatively easy to use. It walks you through the process of designing the campaign and selecting your targeting options. Once you get used to it, promoting a post through the Ad Manager should take no more than five minutes.
Using the Ads Manager
Promoting a post takes five steps in the Facebook Ads Manager.
- Go to the Facebook Ads Manager, log in, and then select “create” in the upper left.
- There are multiple marketing objectives available. Some good starting points to get more eyes on your content are “Brand Awareness” and “Engagement”. If you are trying to drive event responses, select “Engagement”. You will also set a daily or lifetime budget at this point.
- Select your targeting parameters and campaign dates – location, demographics, interests, and scheduling (advanced section of the budgets & scheduling menu).
- Click the drop-down menu and select a post.
- Launch the campaign.
In addition to spending small budgets more effectively, learning the Ads Manager interface will allow you to create content specifically for paid marketing and advertising purposes. It’s time well-spent and will increase your ROI.
Need help learning Facebook Ads Manager or just want someone to run your paid Facebook campaigns? We do that. Just contact us to find out how we can help you spend your Facebook budget more effectively.
