“I can just use Facebook Boost”
Perhaps, the most common objection I find from prospects and clients when helping them develop their Digital Marketing Plan. My aim in this article is to help fellow marketers and business owners understand what is going on behind the scenes when using Facebook’s “Boost Post” feature. So lets take a look at Facebook Boost Post VS Ad Manager
If you are new to Facebook Ads, you have probably seen alot of sponsored ads lately. And if you own a business, chances are Facebook has sneakily advertised to you to boost your own post on a Page you manage right from Facebook.
YOUTUBE VERSION: (Gotta do SEO and YOUTUBE SEO)
From our testing with our clients, we would recommend NOT BOOSTING POSTS.
Five years ago, Facebook’s advertising platform was just starting and it was pretty complicated for business owners to understand the ins and outs. Facebook decided to simplify the process by adding “Promote Post” in 2012.
Essentially, this slimmed down version of the Business Manager offered quick and easy way to spend your marketing money and reach more people with your Facebook Posts.
While organic reach has lowered over the past few years (and for many it barely has any reach), many page owners are resorting to “Boost Post” to get their messages in front of audiences because its quick. But it doesn’t mean its smart or the right way to do it.
Facebook Boost Post VS Ad Manager: Boosted Post Options
What happens when I boost?
Boosted posts have limited options. You choose your audience, your budget, and the campaign duration. THATS IT!
What many don’t realize, is Facebook takes that Post and creates a ad campaign with your personal ad account with a Page Post Engagement objective. AKA THE LAZY MAN’s way to advertise.
With every consultation and every strategy session I give out along with our team, we almost certainly never recommend using Page Post Engagement.
If you are unfamiliar with Ad’s Manager here is a screenshot of all the types of ads you can run
So what is happening when you do an engagement post?
When you choose Website Click Objectives, Facebook will optimize sending your ad to people who had already converted that day. It will optimize to sending to people who are likely to click by past behaviors.
However, if you boost posts, Facebook will optimize for just more post engagements. In other words, they will go for likes, shares,comments. Essentially for people who HAVE NOT CLICKED (aka gone down your funnels) and just send to people who typically just…. Like stuff… and do nothing more.
In the end, with marketing and sales, the idea is to put $1 and get $2 out (or more). The only proven method is to send people down a funnel and marketing touches. But if you are boosting posts, it’s highly unlikely to convert those “Likes” into $$$.
Another point in the Facebook Boost Post VS Ad Manager battle
Facebook Boost Post VS Ad Manager: Ads Manager Options
Ideas on the Full Capabilities of Business Manager
Interests Based Strategy
One of the biggest controls of what you can do in Business Manager is split test your demographics based on Interests.
You can do detailed targeted on people who are interested in both Interest A and Interest B as well as control who sees your add based on Website Views (Pixel)
One example I constantly bring up in our meetings is segmenting your audience. Let’s say you have a website where you are helping people get into PA School… (Like my friend at ThePAPlatform.com)
You could send ads to people who have read your PRE-PA stuff, a different funnel+product for people in PA school and a different set of ads for people past all that!
Custom Audience Strategy
Not to mention the holy grail of advertising right now — Look A Like Audiences -(LLA). One of our most effective strategies is to monitor who is purchasing from the client site (Using Facebook Pixel) and tell Facebook to send ads of that product to LLA of your Paid Customers Audience. Simple. Effective.
Lastly, the biggest positive of learning and diving into the complexities of Business Manager is to gain CONTROL OF PLACEMENT.
One major thing to consider is Desktop News Feed vs Mobile News Feed.
When split testing our clients ads we found that mobile-friendly websites and funnels had usually 2x or 3x lower conversion than on desktop. Our speculation is that mobile conversion tends to be lower due to the inconvenience of signing up and purchasing information on hand-held devices. Our belief is with this much control in the Ads Manager back end, the Facebook Boost Post VS Ad Manager contest isn’t even a question.
So what can I do about it?
First off, you can start by NEVER USING “Boost Post” Again. Unless of course.. you don’t care about money or have VC money.
Whether you are a small business, restaurant, digital business, the audience you want to reach can be found more effectively using Ads Manager.
Yes, it will take longer, and it may seem confusing, but you’ll be able to choose the right campaign objective that makes sense for your business.
In the end, with Blendlogic Designs and Consulting — our strategies are built upon testing iterations upon iterations of marketing campaigns to find out what is right and proving our models. Facebook’s Ad Manager allows for us to effectively split test and validation hundreds of hypothesis of marketing objectives. We believe that for every business, our clients and anyone reading this, your decisions should be made on data and testing. Put simply, Ad’s Manager allows for more variable control testing then Boosted Posts which should allow your marketing team to identify what is working and what isnt. In the end, our conclusion from Facebook Boost Post VS Ad Manager is simple – Facebook Boost creates a plain and simple Ads campaign INSIDE Ad Manager. If you want to save money and control more
In the end, your goal of your marketing efforts should be for people to TAKE ACTION — visit your website, attend an event, opt-in their email for a contest, lead magnet, gift card… etc. Your focus should be doing everything in your power to achieve those results in the most effective way.
Continued Success,