What’s the Difference?
If you’ve only ever used Facebook with a personal account, things can quickly get confusing as you try to navigate Facebook ads and posts on your business page. Once you’ve set up your page and added all the details about your business, it’s time to consider your social media marketing strategy.
But, first things first — you need to understand the difference between organic posts, boosted posts, and paid ads.
Facebook Posts vs Facebook Ads
Both organic posts and ads are beneficial tools for your social media marketing strategy. However, they are two different tools. It’s important to know the differences between a post and an ad such as their respective intent, audience, cost, and format.
Intent: The intention of organic posts is to communicate with your audience and maintain relationships with your customers. For ads, you must specify a specific campaign objective or action you want people to take when they see your ad.
Audience: With ads, you define the audience you want to reach using demographics or location. Organic posts are seen by people who already like or follow your business page, or their friends if your post has been shared.
Cost: Organic posts are always free. You can “boost” a post, but then it technically becomes an ad.
Format: Organic posts for your business page will look similar to the posts you create for your personal page. Facebook ads can be formatted as images, carousels, and videos. Ads will include a call to action button with a link. Additionally, ads will be designated as “sponsored” in the News Feed.
Your Audience for Facebook Posts
Your Facebook business page is similar to a personal page in several ways. Just like you would write posts for your friends to see, you can write posts on your business page for your customers to see. Posts on your business page are always visible for the public to see if they search for your page. For your customers to see your posts in their News Feed, like they would see a friend’s posts, they need to like or follow your page.
You can encourage your customers to like or follow your business page, but it’s important that they see the value in doing so. Your business page is a great way to keep your customers informed and stay connected with them. When customers visit your page, they should be able to find recent and meaningful content.
Create a Facebook Organic Post
You can write an organic post directly from your Facebook business page. If you are logged into your account, click “Pages” in the left menu to get to your business page. After navigating to your business page, there should be a box near the top to “write something.” This is where you write and publish a post, similar to how you would on a personal Facebook page.
Unlike your personal page, your Facebook business page allows you to schedule posts for later dates. If you want to schedule a post for a later time, you can write the post in the same place. Just choose the option to “schedule for later” instead of publishing the post right away.
- From your News Feed, click Pages in the left menu to find your business page
- On your Facebook business page, write a post
- Publish your post immediately or schedule for later
Tips for Your Facebook Organic Posts
Organic posts are an important part of your marketing strategy. And the best part is, they are free to use. We advise applying these best practices to your organic posting strategy.
Post content regularly. If your audience sees new and regular posts, they can see that your business is active, legitimate and that you care about them as customers. Old posts or very few posts suggest that your business isn’t active anymore or that you are not invested in your customers.
Post meaningful content. The more relatable your content is, the more you can connect with your audience. Make sure to post content that resonates with people. When potential customers relate to what you post, they are more likely to follow your page, trust your business, and eventually become customers.
Post engaging content. When you post content that draws interaction from your audience, your page is more likely to reach more of your audience and people outside that audience. A relevant, timely organic post that gets natural engagement from your audience can go a long way toward increasing your brand awareness.
What is a Facebook Boosted Post?
A boosted post is a post you’ve already made on your page that you apply money to in order to reach a designated audience. Boosted posts are the simplest type of Facebook ads because they have fewer customization features and you do not need Ads Manager to create them.
Boosted posts are technically ads because you pay money to share them with a larger audience than just your page followers. Sometimes Facebook will suggest you boost an organic post that is performing well. In order to boost a post, you’ll need to define a target audience, set a max budget, and specify how long you want to run the ad.
What is a Facebook Ad?
Facebook ads for your business are created in Ads Manager. Unlike free organic posts, ad content is paid content that is designed to help you reach specific business goals and target audiences. You can choose multiple formats for your ad:
- Static image ads
- Carousel ads
- Video ads
Because Facebook and Instagram share the same parent company, Ads Manager is also the hub for Instagram ads and their various formats. The shared Ads Manager makes it easy to share the same ad content on both Facebook and Instagram.
Create a Facebook Ad
- From the main table in Ads Manager, select Create to Create a Campaign
- Select the basic settings for your new campaign (your goals), ad set (your audience), and ad (your format)
- Select Continue to reach the editing pane
- Choose a campaign objective, audience, placement, and ad format
- Publish your ad or save it as a draft
Set Objectives for Your Facebook Ads
Before you start spending money on Facebook ads, it’s important that you define what your business goals are. This will help you determine what action you want people to take when they see your ad. You specify this when you choose a campaign objective.
There are several types of campaign objectives to help you generate interest (awareness), nudge people to seek more info (consideration), and encourage potential customers to buy (conversion). Some examples include:
Brand Awareness: Increase people’s awareness of your business
Reach: Show your ad to as many people as possible in your target audience
Traffic: Send people from Facebook to your website or another destination
Engagement: Reach people most likely to engage with your post
App Installs: Send people to the app store to download your business’s app
Video Views: Share videos of your business with people most likely to watch it
Lead Generation: Collect info from people interested in your product so you can follow up with them
Conversions: Encourage people to take a specific action on your website, like adding items to a cart or calling your business
For the most up-to-date info about ads, you can visit Facebook’s Business Help Center. Or, get advice from one of the Facebook ad pros on our team.
How We Help With Facebook Ads
Just like you are an expert at your business, our Best Websites team is made up of digital experts. We’ll help you navigate Facebook ads with a manageable budget and realistic campaign objectives. Request a chat with a member of our team for more details.
