Musicians ahoy, you probably know all about using Boosted Posts on Facebook to increase the reach of your posts and have probably used that feature. Fewer people have used Facebook ads so they might not be familiar with them or the difference between ads and a boosted post.

Allow me to explain so you can make a more informed choice with your future marketing budget.

Boosted Posts

Put simply, boosted posts set about delivering a post to your choice of the following audiences:

• Your followers
• Your followers & their friends
• An audience you define based on their age, location and interests.

It’s a simple tool and you can set up a promotion easily.

Facebook Adverts

Adverts are a little more in depth. You start off with a series of objectives. This objective could be to visit your website or to watch your latest Facebook video.

Once people have started undertaking your objective, Facebook will try and find people who are statistically similar to those initial respondents of your advert. It can then show it to people who ‘closely match’ those initial respondents.

You have to run the advert for a reasonable amount of time (ie a week) with a modest budget (£5 a day say) so that the advert can reach enough people so the algorithms can work their magic.

In addition you get more detailed targeted options (i.e. only show this person my advert if they like football AND the band Queen).

In summary, boosted posts are simpler to set up and are ideal for reaching your existing fans (and their friends). Adverts provide better functionality but need fine tuning, a better knowledge of the platform, and a good understanding of who your intended audience is.

Got any questions about this post or how you can better market yourself?

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