Boost a post or use Ads Manager? How to choose for your business

The short answer: boost a good post, build in Ads Manager when you need control

Boosting is the quickest way to put money behind a post that's already on your Facebook Page or Instagram profile. It's a real ad, and for a simple job, such as getting more messages from a post that people already like, it can be enough.

Ads Manager is the better choice when you need to control the details: an ad that isn't a Page post, a test of two versions, a website enquiry form you measure with the Meta pixel, an account spending limit, or creative you might need to change later. Meta's own advice is to start with ads from your Page if you're new, and to move to Ads Manager "if you want more options for your advertising goals, creative choices, placements, targeting and more."

Whichever you use, two habits matter more than the button. Choose the goal by what you'll actually count as a result, and don't pay for boosts in the Facebook app on an iPhone or iPad, where Apple adds a 30% service fee.

What a boost actually is

Meta describes boosted posts as "ads you create from existing posts on your Facebook Page." That's the key difference from Ads Manager, where you can build new ad creative that has never been published on your Page. The boost uses the text, images or video from the post as they are.

When you boost from your Page, Meta asks you to fill in a short set of choices. Depending on the post, not every field appears:

Facebook Pages also have a separate Promote button. Meta says that while boosting "can help drive engagement such as like and comments", Promote builds an ad around a business goal, such as getting leads, and suggests the creative and audience from your Page. It's still a simplified tool, not Ads Manager.

• Goal: the result you want, chosen by you or left to Facebook to pick from your settings.
• Audience: an Advantage+ recommended audience or one you define by specific traits.
• Duration and daily budget: a suggested time frame or your own end date, and a recommended or custom daily budget.
• Placements: where the ad can appear.
• Advantage+ creative: if you turn it on, Facebook automatically shows different variations of your creative.
• Special Ad Category: Meta says to turn this on if your ad is about financial products or services, employment, housing, social issues, elections or politics.

Pick the goal by what you'll count

The goal decides what Meta tries to get you, and what the results screen calls a success. Meta's list of metrics for boosted posts shows how far apart those can be from an actual enquiry, so read it before you choose.

Two of the goals, post engagement and video views, are only offered for boosts. Meta notes they aren't available for new ads created from your Page. If you're a service business that needs enquiries, a big engagement number on its own doesn't tell you much. Whatever goal you choose, record how each enquiry reached you and what happened to it, so you can compare the boost's results with real customers rather than with likes.

Here's what Meta counts for the goals a service business is most likely to use:

• Get more messages: "Messaging conversations started", which Meta counts when someone starts messaging your business after at least seven days of inactivity. Meta labels this metric as in development.
• Get more calls: link clicks, which for call ads means clicks on the Call Now button. A tap isn't a connected call, so count the calls you actually answer.
• Get more website visitors: link clicks, not enquiries. Your website still has to turn the visit into a form or a call.
• Get more leads: leads from Meta's forms and Messenger, plus leads on your website if they're tracked by one of your connected Meta business tools.
• Get more post engagements: "The total number of actions that people take involving your ads", such as reactions, comments and shares.

Keep readingTrack where each enquiry came from

What you can and can't change after you publish

This is where boosting catches people out. Meta says you "can't edit text, image(s) and video once your ad has been reviewed and published." If you spot a typo or an out-of-date price, the fix is to create a new post and boost that instead.

On a boost that's running, you can change the audience, end date, budget and payment method from your Page's Ad Centre. Meta notes you can't edit a boosted ad from the Facebook app on an iPhone or other iOS device, so use facebook.com in a browser.

Ads Manager gives you more editing room, but edits have a cost there too. Meta warns that once you change a published campaign, "the new version replaces the old one", with no way to reverse it or to separate the results from before and after. Editing some details can also send the ad back into review or restart its learning phase, so make changes on purpose rather than daily.

Keep readingSee which edits restart the learning phase

Don't boost from the Facebook app on an iPhone

Since February 2024, boosting in the Facebook iOS app on an iPhone or iPad means paying through the Apple App Store. Meta says an Apple service fee of 30% of your total ad payment, before taxes and local fees, may apply, and that the fee is "retained by Apple, not Facebook or Meta."

Meta's own advice is to boost on facebook.com instead, from a computer or a phone's web browser, which it says "has the same features as boosting from the app." You can also boost from Meta Business Suite or create the ad in Ads Manager, or add funds to your ad account's prepaid balance on facebook.com and use those in the app. Meta says the ad is delivered the same way whichever of these you use.

In most regions, Instagram has a similar fee in its iOS app when you add available funds there, and Meta says boosting a reel in that app requires available funds. Its advice is the same: boost on instagram.com to avoid the fee.

As a hypothetical example, a business that boosts A$200 of posts a month from the iPhone app could see about A$60 of it go to Apple, based on Meta's 30% figure. Doing the same boosts in a browser avoids that, with no change to how the ads are delivered.

Signs you need Ads Manager instead

Ads Manager isn't only for agencies. Meta says it's "designed for advertisers of any experience level" and gives you access to all of its ad features, including custom audiences, creating the Meta pixel, testing and all placements. In Ads Manager you also set the three things a boost's goal chooses for you behind the scenes: the campaign objective, the conversion location, such as your website or a messaging app, and the performance goal Meta optimises for.

Budgets work differently there too, and it's worth knowing before you set one. Meta says a daily budget in Ads Manager is an average, not a hard cap: it may spend up to 75% over on some days and less on others, but no more than seven times the daily budget across a week. A lifetime budget is a hard cap on the total. Ads Manager also lets you set an account spending limit and see your billing history.

It's time to move to Ads Manager when one or more of these is true:

• You want an ad that isn't a post on your Page, or a version written for people who don't know you yet.
• You want to test two messages, images or destinations against each other.
• Your enquiries happen on your website, and you need to optimise and report on the form or booking rather than on clicks.
• You want to build a custom audience, such as people who've already been in touch with you.
• You want an account spending limit, or the option to duplicate a campaign that worked.
• You expect to change the wording or creative while the ad is running.

Keep readingPlan a Meta budget around the work you can take on

When the Boost button isn't there

Not every post can be boosted, and the reasons aren't obvious from the post itself. If the button is missing, the post may be one of the types Meta excludes. The fix is usually a new, simpler post with one strong image or video and a clear caption, or an ad built in Ads Manager using a carousel if you need several images. Meta's list includes:

• Posts you've shared from someone else, and post drafts that haven't been published.
• Albums, and posts with too many images or a mix of images and videos.
• Reels with copyrighted music, GIFs, interactive stickers or face and camera effects, remixed reels and reels posted to a group.
• Profile pictures and posts with app install buttons.
• Live videos, unless your Page is verified.

Worked example: a dog groomer decides

This is a hypothetical business and the figures are invented to show the decision, not a result anyone should expect. Picture a dog groomer in Geelong whose before-and-after photo of a shaggy cavoodle has drawn plenty of comments. The owner wants more booking enquiries for the next fortnight.

That's a fair job for a boost. The owner boosts the post on facebook.com, not in the iPhone app, chooses the Get more messages goal, keeps the audience to the area the salon serves and sets an end date two weeks out. Before it starts, they agree to note in their booking diary which new bookings came from a Facebook message.

A month later they want to run a winter coat offer, test two photos and send people to an online booking form. Now Ads Manager makes more sense: a Leads campaign with the website as the conversion location, the pixel recording form submissions, two ads to compare and a lifetime budget as a hard cap. If the offer changes partway through, they can edit the ad rather than starting again, knowing Meta may review it again.

Keep readingChoose between an instant form and a landing page

A quick checklist before you spend

Run through this before you boost a post or set up a campaign:

• Write down the result you'll count, such as messages that became bookings or calls you answered.
• Choose the goal that matches it, not the one with the biggest number on the results screen.
• Turn on Special Ad Category if the ad is about finance, employment, housing, social issues or politics.
• Check the post's text, price and offer now, because you can't edit them once the boost is approved.
• Boost on facebook.com, instagram.com or Meta Business Suite, not in the iOS app.
• Set an end date and a total you're comfortable with, and check the payment settings.
• Move to Ads Manager when you need new creative, testing, website conversion tracking or tighter spending control.