Instagram Boosted Posts for small businesses - pros and cons
Nowadays we all spend (a lot of) time scrolling on the feed or watching stories on Instagram. As a small business owner the time comes when one feels ready to give Instagram not only time but also some money. (Are you really ready to start advertising? This is a topic we will address on another occasion).
Facebook has made it easy peasy and we really mean easy peasy for any Instagram user to start spending. With a credit card and some confidence in the content you have been creating for your business, in a few clicks your boosted post is up and running. This is great! But wait - is it the best move for the objective you are trying to reach? By the way, what are you trying to achieve actually? The answer to this question should guide where you put your time and money.
Some important “disclaimer” notes before you dive into the article:
We do heart the Boost Post functionality. The objective of this post is to explore how, if and when Instagram boosted posts are a good fit for the business objective you have in mind (and the importance of having a goal in mind to begin with). We will also be covering the differences between Instagram Boosted Posts and Instagram Ads and look into the pros and cons of each. If you read through till the end you should feel better equipped to choose when to run boosted posts and when to go for ads.
In full transparency we already had a good share of running, planning, budgeting and optimizing social media advertising campaigns and this post is not meant to encourage you to run your Instagram ads or advertising in general via Journee. We would actually prefer to teach you how to do it or to help you find a partner in case you want to outsource the activity.
Both Instagram Boosted Posts and Instagram Ads are actually ads or advertising activities as they both require a financial investment (a budget) in order to run.
We focused on boosting posts on Instagram only and did not cover in detail the similar option available to boost Facebook posts. Also this is not an ode to Instagram Ads, it is our perspective, drawing on our experience, over these two advertising options.
The content is relevant for early 2022, the options and features tend to change constantly.
So, what do we find cool about Instagram Boosted Posts and for which objectives can they be the answer for your business or at least the first step in trying out social media advertising?
A. They are extremely easy to set up and kick off and in a constantly evolving digital landscape with new skills to develop and stay on top of, all the while running a business and “chasing time” in general, Instagram Boosted Posts surely stand out as a quick and easy advertising option. They are indeed the simplest way to advertise on Instagram. As long as the content you are about to sponsor is not meant for a customized audience, that requires crossing several interests and behaviors - well yes, boosted posts are a good first step towards getting more exposure for your content.
B. If your objective is to get users to visit your profile, then boosted posts are the format that allows you to measure this metric specifically (profile visits from boosted posts) and to have the corresponding call-to-action on your sponsored content. Most businesses nowadays have websites or apps and they want to drive traffic from social to their own properties but if your focus is on the Instagram account instead and you value more (or also) value getting love and attention for the Instagram account (profile visits, direct messages, likes on the public posts, views on your video content, hopefully growing followers community), then boosted posts (choosing objective More profile visits / messages) should work just fine.
If (A) or (B) ticks the box for you, all in all, boosted posts can actually be your best friend. If not, you might be going for them only or mostly because of their simplicity and apparent “handiness”.
If your objective is to drive a specific kind of users to your website or eShop and to get them to do something on your website - book an appointment, purchase a product or service, “consume” more of the content you have available, download an app, subscribe to your newsletter, then the focus (time and money) should be put on setting up, testing and running Instagram ads while not excluding Boosted Posts, should the budget allow for both, of course.
Those of you running boosted posts for a while will say Hey! You can also pick the “get more website visits” under the boosted posts set-up. Yes you do - so let’s go back to point A above : is the audience you are trying to reach rather generic (need to filter only by location, age, one interest or another)?. If yes, then you boost. If your services are relevant for audiences characterized by more complex filtering and profiling, then Instagram ads are the better bet for you.
To explain better the differences between Instagram Boosted Posts and Instagram Ads let’s look at a few relevant comparison criteria.
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How easy was the flow designed to feel?
Instagram Boosted Posts are easy peasy to set up and run while Instagram ads can be complex, especially at first sight.
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What should you get back and how can you measure the success of the money you spend?
Instagram Boosted Posts are limited to a choice of 3 goals (Profile Views, Messages, Website Traffic) while in the Ads Manager interface, where Instagram Ads are set up one has 11 to choose from, categorized into 3 main categories (awareness, consideration, conversion).
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How many filters can you apply to cherry pick the users who will be exposed to your sponsored content?
Boosted Posts offer few, superficial-ish targeting options, even when you create your audiences manually avoiding the automatic proposal made by the system. On the other hand, Instagram Ads bring detailed & diverse targeting options and filters, including demographics, interests and behaviors on top of age, gender, location, device or language - plus the possibility to cross them for an advanced audience customizations.
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Where on Instagram will your sponsored content show?
Running Boosted Posts come with automatic placements while precise manual selection (e.g show only in the feeds or only in the stories or even only in the feeds of the users using an iPhone 13 - the choice is yours!) is possible in the Ads Manager interface.
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Do you need to be familiar with additional Facebook/Instagram interfaces/tools?
Everything is done straight from the Instagram mobile app interface for boosting posts, quick and easy from your mobile. Setting up an Ads Manager account and working in a new interface is required to run Instagram Ads.
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Are the image and the text optimized for every user experience, every device or advertising placement?
The system uses your image and caption as it finds best (tweaks image size, image format, text length) for the automatic placements implied when boosting a posts. Instagram ads bring a high degree of control because the placements can be selected manually and so can the ad be optimized to look neat across all the placements chosen.
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How often do you sponsor content and how much do you spend every time?
The answer is relevant to choose boosted posts or ads depending also what you want to get back from the money invested) Boosted posts are good for boosting occasionally content that performs well on organic or that you wish to push a little extra. For a medium and longer term strategy, one that looks at building, targeting and testing custom audiences and that intends not only to target specific users but also to exclude specific audiences, Instagram ads brings the flexibility and audience creation capabilities required.
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Does it matter how much you have available to spend?
Both Boosted posts and Ads require a budget and there are hardly any minimum spending entry barriers nowadays. The size of the budget shouldn’t drive the choice between these two options, while of course the point above on short term occasional campaign flights over a medium long terms strategy does apply. What should drive the choice is the objective you are trying to hit and the size of the audience you are trying to reach. And here is where the need to apply more targeting filters, to make sure that your content is shown to relevant audiences and the necessity to optimize for and measure website conversions, will be bound by the limits of a boosted post.
Now let’s take some examples.
(1) You are a hairdresser or a nail salon in Bern, Switzerland.
You want to promote your (newly opened) business locally, with a focus on the female clientele. Your website is still work in progress or you do not have one. Your objective is simple: get the locals to know about your salon opening. Boosted posts can be a good option because your target audience is quite generic and easy to filter on and you can measure the campaign success by the number of new users visiting your Instagram profile.
(2) You want to promote your restaurant via a special opening on a Monday (usually you and many other restaurants are closed on this day). But in 2022 Valentines falls on a Monday and you are open and serving romantic dinners.
This can be relevant for virtually any Zug (and surroundings) resident (maybe with an 18+ filter) so similar to the example above boosted posts can be a good first step till you evolve your goals and want to optimize your budget for getting restaurant bookings via your website.
(3) You offer private German classes for children (5 to 12 years old) and wish to target English speaking expat families with kids of relevant age. Your advertising campaign objective is to collect contact info from those potentially interested. You are hosting an online info session to explain your teaching method, pricing and availability and pushing for sign ups to this free session is going to be your mechanism to get leads.
In order to create the most relevant target you need to filter as follows: location Switzerland, behaviors Expat AND Parents of pre-school and school age children plus a Language filter for English. You want full control over where your ads are shown and how they look and you want to be able to see campaign insights that allow you to adjust the targeting in order to optimize the cost per lead. For all this to be possible, you have to head to Ads Manager and set up an Instagram Ads campaign.
Long story short, Boosted Posts are the simplest form on Instagram advertising but the targeting and overall customization options are also quite simplistic. In certain occasions they can still be a good fit for your business but in many cases tapping into the more generous world of Instagram and gaining more control over how your budget is spent is better for your business goals.
All sounds great for Instagram Ads so far but let’s look objectively also at the challenges they bring.
The promise of more accurate targeting and higher control over how money is spent comes with a higher complexity in setting up an Instagram Ads campaign. If you are an advertising novice, a first look at the Ads Manager interface might scare you right back into a boosted post. So yes, getting a quick intro to the interface from a connoisseur or investing time in reading through the help center or watching tutorials can surely help at first.
Once the campaign is up, a whole new set of metrics and KPIs are uncovered and they can also sound “unfriendly” at first. Understanding them and getting a grasp over what they tell you and how you should react to optimize your campaign is another step that one must feel ready for.
So running Instagram Ads comes with an additional “price” to pay for all the fancy options it opens the door to. This can be simply your time, the one that needs to be invested in familiarizing yourself with Ads Manager and/or fees to get guidance and training or to outsource the activity completely. Generally if your strategy is a medium or long term one, the extra “cost” implied by running Instagram ads can be offset.
Still wondering what makes more sense for you and your business goals? Reach out and give us a bit more details on your business context!
About Journee - Digital at Ease
Founded by two digital marketing professionals with extensive international experience, Journee GmbH is a female owned digital marketing and technology boutique consultancy.
We aim to make a big difference for the small: small business owners and solopreneurs looking to start and advance on their business digital journey.
Our combined expertise covers digital marketing, digital analytics, advertising, marketing technology as well as overall digital strategy support and mentorship.