Getting Noticed on Social Media: The Power of Boosted Posts and Paid Advertising

As brands work to build awareness and engagement on social media, there’s often a question of spending money on advertisements and boosted posts is worth it. Our experience with clients has shown time and again that a well-designed social strategy that includes ads and boosted posts can improve brands’ return on the investment they make in content creation throughout maximized reach and a structured targeted approach. In fact, we think that in the current climate of oversaturated and highly populated social channels, a combination of paid and organic strategies is the ONLY way to go.

Why, when, and how to use boosted posts vs. paid advertising

Each social platform has its own unique ad formats and parameters for boosting posts. These specifications are constantly changing, so rather than go into detail here about what each platform currently offers, we recommend that you reach out to our team for an up-to-date overview of the options and a customized strategy based on your budget and goals. In general, a boosted post begins as an organic post (for example, a feed post, reel, or story on Instagram); the creator pays to boost the content after the fact. Ads, on the other hand, are uploaded separately and may not appear on the account’s main feed. Both ads and boosted posts can come in the form of images, videos, or text-based posts depending on the specifics of the platform.

For boosted posts, targeting can be used to increase the reach to current followers (i.e., to get the post seen by more of the people who already follow you) or to reach new potential followers (either a lookalike audience or a specific demographic). Because they start out as organic posts, boosted posts may fit more naturally into the flow of the user experience on the platform, meaning that users may not even realize the post is sponsored unless they look closely.

On many platforms, ads offer more customization options (for example, a specific list of business objectives to choose from, with targeted ad formats for each, and overall a wider range of post formats to choose from) relative to boosted posts. Some platforms offer features such as an email address collection form that can integrate seamlessly with your email marketing platform, saving you the step of having to download the addresses and import them. Ads may have a more formal appearance, potentially building credibility for your brand, but also with a potential downside of feeling less friendly and relatable to your potential customers.

Choosing the right platform

When designing a strategy for ads and boosted posts, brands should consider user behavior on each platform and how well that behavior aligns with the brand’s goals. For example, people primarily use Facebook to keep up with friends and family, but are more likely to follow brands and engage with them on Instagram. (Now that the two platforms are both part of one parent company, Meta, brands can design a strategy that combines the two platforms, using retargeting to “follow” interested users from one platform to the other.) People using LinkedIn are probably there to look for a job, recruit for a job, or otherwise connect about topics related to their professional life. People tend to browse X (formerly Twitter) for news and commentary; on Pinterest, they may be looking for recipes or design ideas.

Although YouTube ads run the risk of annoying the viewer (who must watch your ad before getting to the video they are trying to view), the upside is that you have a captive audience (at least for those few seconds before the option appears to click “skip ad”) and someone who is prepared to give their attention to a longer-form piece of content they intentionally clicked on (vs. just casually scrolling). Podcast ads are another option to reach listeners who have engaged with longer-form content and are highly invested in the listening experience and therefore likely to notice your ad. TikTok, meanwhile, consists of short-form content, and ads incorporate special interactive features such as pop-ups, stickers, and display cards.

In addition to user behavior, you should consider the demographics of users for each platform and compare those with your brand’s target audience. Your strategy might also include testing boosted or paid content on several different platforms, with a small budget for each, and then increasing the budget on the platforms that produce the best results. You can also engage in split testing within a single platform, comparing campaigns’ performance based on ad format, content, audience, and more.

Common mistakes to avoid

Brands can end up wasting money on ads and boosted posts if they fail to set clear objectives for their campaigns or if they are investing too much right off the bat. Throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks, without having a clear strategy for how your tactics align with your goals, is a recipe for failure. Although there is always room for trial and error, we try to lower the cost of “error” starting with minimal budget campaigns to test the waters. Whether using boosted posts, ads, or a combination of both, brands should make sure to allocate time and resources for reviewing analytics and audience insights, with a goal of learning from the campaign’s performance to refine future plans.

A strategy that combines solid organic reach (with consistent posting of high-quality content and regular engagement on the platform) with paid tactics (such as ads and boosted posts) can leverage the best features of each to allow your brand’s social presence to achieve maximum impact. Compared to organic reach alone, a strategy that involves ads or boosted posts can help your brand overcome the limits of the algorithm and reach goals for sales or audience growth faster. In addition, paid strategies allow for narrower demographic and geographic targeting than organic strategies such as hashtags. 

Social City would be happy to assist your brand with a strategy for paid social tactics that’s a perfect fit for your business goals.

Just send us an email to start the conversation!