Boosted Post vs Promoted Posts Round 2. The results are in.

Posted on by Marie Page

[New updated post: experiment updated in 2018. Click through to the new post here]

Boosted Post vs Promoted Post

We carried out a small scale experiment on whether it was better to boost a post, promote a post or create an ad back in April and promised to carry on with the investigation. At that point it did indeed seem as if advertisers would achieve better results by boosting than either of the other options. But is this still the case and can we replicate those favourable results for boosting in another experiment?

Using a different Page, this time Musicademy’s Facebook Page we took a popular Link Post and simplified the experiment.

This time we took the original organic post and split $20 of ad money equally between boosting it as a post, and promoting it (from within Power Editor – you could also do this from within the Ads Manager).

The audience was identical (restricted to a subset of fans only) and both ads began and finished at the same time.

Boost vs Promote boosting post

Boost vs Promote targeting
An identical audience was selected for each ad. Men aged 25-60 living in the UK, US or Canada.

The results stand for themselves. The Boosted Post equals or outperforms the Promoted Post on every metric.

Boosted vs Promoted Post results

I’m happy that the Frequency is lower with the highest performing option. Frankly I’d rather have the post be seen by more people than multiple times by the same person.

Experiment results: Boosted vs Promoted Facebook Posts. Which is best?

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For more detailed information on using Facebook ads, targeting on Facebook and many other aspects of advanced Facebook marketing, simply click through our blog archive.

 

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Marie Page

About Marie Page

Marie Page is one of the UK’s leading Facebook marketing experts. She is a founding partner of digital marketing consultancy The Digiterati and the Digiterati Academy e-learning portal for marketers and entrepreneurs. Her award-winning Master's Dissertation was the culmination of three years' academic research into Facebook that resulted in a book (and companion online course) 'Winning at Facebook Marketing with Zero Budget' that became an Amazon bestseller. Marie's work on the Facebook News Feed algorithm was featured in The Huffington Post. A recognised thought leader on social media, Marie is often approached by journalists for comment in articles such as this Telegraph article. She was also interviewed for ITV's Tonight show on Facebook privacy issues in relation to advertising. Marie is a regular guest on digital marketing blogs and podcasts including Social Media Examiner and Smart Insights. In 2018 she is speaking at Brighton SEO, Europe's biggest search and marketing conference. Marie is also author of two Smart Insights books: 'Smarter Guide to Facebook Marketing', now in its fourth edition, and 'Facebook Ads Guide', both edited by Dr Dave Chaffey. Marie is also a part time yoga teacher.

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