Meta Ads, Continued

There are really two ways you can advertise with Meta: boosting a post and going through the Ads Manager. This gets to be a little confusing because boosting a post on the Meta website is called Ads, but it essentially does the same as if you went directly through your business instagram account or Facebook page post and clicked on "Boost Post." But what is the difference?

Boosting a Post in Meta

Boosting a post means you choose a post or image already existing in your account or page and you boost it to reach a broader audience. It's a simple way to increase your visibility, likes, shares, comments (engagement, really), and overall reach more people who might relate to your content. However, boosting a post has limited advertising objectives and you have no control over ad placement and creative options [1]. 

I decided to try boosting one of nuCaffeine's best performing reels in terms of playbacks. Boosting a post from your timeline or profile is very straightforward. All you have to do is select "Boost post." Then just follow the simple steps to complete the process. 

The next step is to choose your audience. You have the option to let the Meta algorithm automatically choose the right audience for you, or you can customize your target market. By going the custom route, you have control over the location, interests, and the age and gender of users to be shown your boosted post. I created a custom target audience that fits the profile of users who enjoy nuCaffeine products and saved it for future uses.

The last thing before running a boosted post is to set the budget. To stay within my own personal budget for this class, I allocated $30 to this boosted campaign, meaning I'd spend a total of $5 daily for 6 days to compare my results.

After the boosted campaign was finished, I went back to look at the statistics to determine whether or not this experiment was a success. As you can see in the image below, the boosted post performed almost 3000 times better in terms of plays as opposed to the non-boosted, same reel on Facebook. We also saw an increased number of visitors to our profile as well as link clicks.

Using the Ads Manager in Meta

Unlike boosting a post, creating an ad through the Ads Manager gives you a wider array of goals to choose from. One thing to note is that if you choose "Sales" as your goal through the Ads Manager, the sales are linked to your Meta Catalog store. For sales outside of Meta, you are better off directing traffic to your website.

Another difference is that you cannot use an already published image or video for your campaign, unless you re-upload it through Ads Manager. But unlike boosting a post, you can specify exactly what you want your ad to say. From the headline, to the description and the CTA, everything is customizable through Ads Manager.

Other noteworthy features of Ads Manager and Meta is the ability to link your campaigns to your Pixel account. Pixel is a well-known digital marketing tool that allows you to track driving traffic and conversions on your campaigns [2]. Pixel is not available as an add-on to your boosted posts. Lastly, you can also customize how you review your campaigns. Customized reports are not only available for campaigns set up through Ads Manager, but you must be on the Meta website or mobile app to access this. 

References:

[1] Boosted Posts vs. Paid Ads: Key Differences and When to Use Each

[2] What Is A Tracking Pixel—Explained In 800 Words Or Less