Should you advertise or boost a facebook post?

I'm often asked about facebook advertising and boosting posts. Is it worth it? 

Interestingly, the question is often posed by businesses with limited engagement and followers, probably thinking it's a shortcut to growing a little faster.

Does it work? 

First of all. let's look at the different between the two:

Facebook ads are a way to create an online ad which targets a very specific group of people, determined by who they are, where they are, or what they're interested in. To use these, you need to have a clear idea of who you want to target, be ready to pay ££ and have the patience to set them up. It's not complicated but isn't as easy or cheap as boosting a post. You'll need to create an ad from scratch. 

Boosting a post effectively gives an existing post on your page a little... boost... a little more promotion so you can increase the number of people who see that post. Boosting a post is cheap and easy to do. The downside is that you'll have less control over your targets - it's more a case of you multiplying the existing people who will see the post. 

So which is best? 

That's perhaps the wrong question because:

1) you can actually grow your facebook reach and engagement without paying a penny (I grew one account from 3000 followers to 21000 followers over just over a year, and some posts reach over a million people - I've never paid anything)

2) If you don't know exactly who you're targeting and how to target them, you'll waste your money on both options

3) If you don't know how to create a really good ad or a good post, you'll waste your money on both options

You probably didn't want that answer? Here's another that might help more!

If you're not sure which to do and want to experiment, start by boosting a post - it's cheaper and easier. But beware - 

Don't boost a post just after you've created it.

Write a post and see how it does over a few hours.

If it doesn't do very well, then you'd be wasting your money because you'd be boosting an ineffective post. 

If you have a post that does quite well without paying anything, you could try boosting it to see if it gains even more traction. 

Or you could just repeat it at another time... Or write some similar posts more frequently...

The best way to grow your audience and impact on facebook is to create posts that are engaging, intriguing and relevant to your target audience - then they won't cost you anything...