– Today, we're gonna break down, what's the difference between boosted posts and paid advertising here on The Journey. So, if you've managed a Facebook, Instagram, or even a Pinterest page for just a day. At some point in that day, you probably considered boosting or promoting a post. Social media is a huge part of consumers' lives today, whether it's keeping in touch with old friends from college, maybe even going on there to buy and purchase products as well as just doing some research. – I mean, obviously you want your brand's social media posts to be seen by as many people as possible. And more importantly, you want your posts to be seen by the right people. Influencers might make it look easy but mastering social media marketing is no easy feat. Many find it difficult to really know the differences between the terms that sounds similar. And even once you have that jargon down, mapping out the right strategy can be a delicate task. – But luckily we're here to help you decide by comparing the differences between boosting a post and advertising.
So here's a closer look at the difference between boosted posts and paid ads, so that way you can decide what's best for your ad campaign and your budget. So first off, what are boosted posts? You knew we'd get to this question pretty early on. Well, a promoted or boosted post is a social media post that you actually pay the platform to make it more visible, get more eyes on it, right? And to boost a post is to essentially promote it to a wider audience.
So, on Twitter and Instagram this is actually called promoted posts which basically means that you're boosting the post reach. And when you boost the post reach, it essentially is getting your post to be seen by more people. – And depending on the platform, you might be able to set any of the following variables, starting off with target audience. Decide which people you want your post to reach. You can target followers, people who have liked your page or friends of followers, which is a pretty cool option here.
You can also segment by age, gender, location, interests, or even create your own custom demographics. And then you can do location of focus, so you can choose where in the world you want people to see it. And if you have a promotion in a specific country you can target that location and people who have listed it as their home country. And if you target the right audience you could potentially maximize your return on investment or ROI and save precious marketing dollars.
– You also wanna consider a timeframe. So how long do you want the post to be promoted? Let's say that you have a sale, a specific sale that you want to draw as many people to. Well, once the sale has occurred, it doesn't need to be promoted anymore. Let's talk about budget. How much do you want to spend? Well, there is some good news here because you could spend as little as $2 a day and 872 people can see it. You could also go ahead and put 15 bucks towards your post and that could get you in front of 6,872 people. – The general idea behind boosted or promoted posts is that you can either grow the reach of a well-performing organic post or create an ad using a post without creating a whole marketing campaign around it. – So what are paid social ads? Well, in general, paid social ads are any form of advertising or marketing on social media platforms that you pay to have shown to a target audience.
Yes a target audience. You get to pick it. Now this includes, but is not limited to PPC ads, so that's pay-per-click, the name kinda gives it away. And then there's influencer marketing partnerships. I know I've had a few friends actually make a living off of this, believe it or not. There are social media display ads, and then also In-feed ads – Depending on the content that you're creating, paid social ads could have more of a call to action type of feel and be part of a larger overall campaign. And this can be anything from general awareness campaign to a campaign around an event like a holiday sale or upcoming live webinars that Emma loves to put on.
And the way these ads are displayed depends on the ad options you choose and the platform you're advertising on. For example, Twitter ads can be on a user's timeline or under the what's happening tab to the right of the feed, and LinkedIn offers an ad type that will send a private message to the users who fit a certain audience targeting profile. – So, what is the difference between promoted posts and paid social ads? Well, not to get confusing, but it's kinda like saying, all pizza is food, but not all food is pizza. What I mean by that is you may have noticed that technically, promoted posts could be considered paid social ads. One of the main differences between the two is that these paid ads were created to be ads like you would see in, I don't know, a newspaper, remember those (chuckles) whereas boosted posts are gonna show up organically. So you can be just cruising through your feed and it wouldn't even grab your attention, it's like, "Oh, someone paid for this to be here." It looks like it's just organically there.
– And that's kind of why some marketers like the promoted posts because they're more natural and subliminal-looking and then a paid social ad. Another difference is the options, with paid social ads, you have quite a few additional options that allow for more advanced customization. Again, depending on the platform, these might include where in the platform or related media the ad will be visible, the ability to optimize for more and broader goals for the action generated by the audience, more ad types, formatting options, additional graphics and ad features, and also what time of day that your ad is actually seen.
– You might wondering like, "Hey, how do I know which is right for me?" And it could be both. It's not always a matter of just picking one. And that's because each approach is going to have different outcomes, and it makes sense, hey, both might work here but what's important is to look at your business goals and determine what is the main factor here that you're trying to achieve, and then therefore, what would be ideal for you. Good reasons to boost a post include, informing followers maybe about updates or new features. So let's say like you opened a second location or you have a new product out. That's a great reason to boost a post.
Another would be to highlight any new content, maybe that's even a new blog post. Also to increase views for brand awareness and also promote one-time events, great opportunity to boost a post. – But on the other hand, good reasons to launch a paid social campaign are, you can inform a new audience of your product or services. You can drive sales by convincing leads to make a purchase again, very sales focused, compel the specific behavior stated in your call to action, whether that's to get the ebook or watch the video or shop now, and you can also just use it to significantly grow your audience. Luckily these platforms keep improving and simplifying their social media marketing tools, so it makes it a little bit easier for you to meet your business goals. – So while promoted social and paid social ads do share some similarities there, it's also important to know how they're different. What are the key differences between the two and what are the key differences that allow them to specialize in different areas? And knowing how to use them to the fullest potential is absolutely crucial for your business.
All right, that's a wrap. Hopefully this video has helped you to differentiate between the different circumstances where you would use maybe a boosted post or paid advertising. Be sure to like this video and comment below, which one are you using currently? – Yeah, and while you're there, make sure you subscribe to that channel and ring that bell, so you get these episodes first. This is The Journey. We'll see you next time..
