Social media advertising is one of the most powerful ways to reach your audience, but not all ads are created equal. Two of the main categories of ads are boosted posts and paid social ads. While they look similar on the surface, they serve different purposes and deliver very different results. Understanding the difference can help you spend smarter and get better performance from your social media budget.
What Are Boosted Posts?
Boosted posts are regular social media posts that you pay to show to a larger audience. You simply take an existing post, such as a photo, video, or announcement, and add a budget to increase its reach.
Key Characteristics of boosted posts:
- Designed for short-term goals such as boosting visibility or alerting followers of last-minute changes
- Detailed targeting is available, but they work better with a broader audience.
- Because the goal is to boost the overall reach of that specific post, there are fewer areas the post can appear.
- While optimizations can be made to the original post’s graphic or video, these ads work best with minimal editing.
What Are Paid Social Ads?
Paid social ads are created through a platform’s ad manager. These ads are built specifically for advertising and offer much more control and customization.
Key Characteristics of paid social ads:
- Designed for long-term goals such as increasing brand awareness, advertising specials, or products.
- There is a greater variety of detailed targeting options available to help businesses reach their target audience
- A wider variety of placements is available across Meta platforms, as these ads are designed to follow the target audience as they browse social media
- Different creative formats are also available including carousels, videos, and single-image ads
Which One Should You Use?
Boosted posts work best for short-term goals, such as helping your organic post reach a larger audience and alerting followers to a sudden change or event. A social ad campaign is designed for longer-term goals, such as increasing brand awareness, pushing sales, or helping drive social users to another destination. Social ad campaigns are also designed to target a specific audience, while boosted posts are best optimized to target broader audiences.
With so many advertising options available on social media platforms, it can be hard to find the right strategy for your clients. Let our experienced social team help you craft a social media strategy that will help boost customer engagement and sales today!
