Ads Manager over Boost Post

By now we’re all aware of how necessary it is for brands to have a presence on social media. And, while it’s still possible to have an organic presence, we’re also painfully aware of how organic reach on platforms like Facebook and Instagram has diminished over the years. If you’re investing any sort of time into creating assets for these platforms, putting money behind them to make sure they’re seen is almost unavoidable.

Like many, my first experience with Facebook advertising was the good ole’ Boost Post option. Clicking the blue button on a post was easy to do and didn’t take a lot of time. The result was usually more reach and an increase to the number of likes on the post. This seemed like a fine solution to the organic reach problem… until I learned to harness the power of Ads Manager.

The capabilities in Ads Manager are just, well, better. Even with the upgrades to boosting that have been made over the last couple of years, Ads Manager remains superior. With Ads Manager, you’re getting more control over who sees your content, as well as where that content shows up. While there’s certainly a learning curve to the system, it’s worth the headache you sometimes go through to create a campaign around your creative that gives it the best shot at achieving your intended KPI results.

Here are three ways in particular that Ads Manager goes the extra mile for helping you customize your ad.

Placements

There are many. And while boosting lets you choose whether you want to show up on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or all three, the buck stops there. With Ads Manager, you get to dictate the placements within these platforms so you know your money is going towards, say, the newsfeed vs. the right column.

Targeting

Again, boosting has gotten better. You are no longer stuck with just targeting your followers and their friends. But even with the addition of custom audiences, you are stuck targeting just one audience at a time. With Ads Manager, you can easily test different audiences against each other simultaneously.

Ad Types

With boosting, you’re limited to the posts you make on your timeline. With Ads Manager, your options expand. Aside from single image or video ads, you can create carousels with multiple images/videos, as well as collection ads that allow you to create a full screen mobile experience. On top of these options, you can elect for standard enhancements (like brightening up your photo) to be auto-applied to your ad. It’s also worth mentioning that you can create ads for existing posts, so your timeline content is still fair game.

Ultimately, Facebook (sorry, Meta) is pay-to-play for businesses. Understanding the ins and outs of Ads Manager, or working with someone who does, is a necessity in the social media ad space. While boosting posts may be giving you results, it’s best to give yourself the gift of comparison, and see how those results stack up against a test in Ads Manager. Isn’t having the ability to test nearly all aspects of our campaigns the beauty of digital advertising, after all?