What’s the Difference Between Facebook Boost and Promote?

Facebook marketing is an essential component of social media marketing. It gives you the opportunity to reach millions of users and specifically target your local community. Facebook has expanded its paid placement marketing options to include both boosted and promoted posts. This can be confusing to business owners that want to engage users but are unsure of the most effective and cost efficient way to do so.

In the past, you could simply write a post or share a picture on your Facebook page, and all of your fans would see it. Now, they have reduced the number of people that will see your post organically, making it necessary to use their paid placement marketing options in order to get the exposure you are looking for. Even with the additional cost, Facebook marketing is still an effective tool since they are the largest social media platform online.

Boosted Posts

When you boost a post you simply post it like normal then click “boost post” in the bottom right corner. You will then have the option of setting your budget and determining who you want it to reach. You can select your current fans and their friends or set specific targets. When you select specific targets, you can narrow it down to your fans only.

When selecting your audience you can pick the location, age range, gender, and what their interests are. This will help your ad to be seen by those who are most likely to respond or engage. You can also select when you want people to see your ad by making it viewable in one day or over a period of days. This Facebook marketing option gives you further control over your budget and the impact it makes. This is a convenient way to have more people see your post as you can even click the button and set the filters from your smartphone.

Promoted Posts

Promote posts that you have created and link back to your website or encourage people to sign up for your newsletter or contest. These posts should be tied to an action item that can deliver value for your company. You will get a better response rate if your post also includes an image.

Promoting a post gives you the most administrative control by allowing you to set additional filters and bid on your ad buy. You can pay per click or set a budget per day. This is more in line with traditional paid placement marketing.

If you are running a Facebook marketing campaign consider what you are trying to accomplish and whether boosting or promoting a post will give you the best options for reaching your goals. You may also want to run a test and compare the response rates and cost by using both options.