Clicking on the blue Boost button located in the bottom corner of published Facebook Business Page posts is a fast way to advertise that newly-published content. Up until recently, the differences between advertising using the Boost button and creating an ad inside Ads Manager, were vast. Yes, creating ads inside Ads Manager still provides you with an optimal advertiser’s experience, but Facebook has finally improved the usefulness of Boosts and eliminated some of the negatives associated with using it. Let’s take a look at the improvements Facebook made to its Boost feature.

Facebook Boost Improvements

Note: I’ve previously written about the differences between Facebook ad campaigns and Boosts. For additional background, I recommend reading that post.

1. You can change the objective of your boost, and have a(n almost) full range of choices. Simply click on the grey Change button to make a different selection. Keep in mind that importance of selecting a goal (also called the marketing objective) that matches the type of action you want a user to take on your ad. If you don’t align those two things, you likely will see lackluster results from any ad or boost you do.
2. You can create a Welcome message for Boosts that you select “Message” as the goal. You can save these Welcome messages for future use and edit an existing message for future Boosts.
3. You can select a Special Ads Category if needed, and then adjust targeting based on that category. Ads placed about housing, employment, credit, and social, political, and election causes all need to be marked as a Special Ads category ad. To read more about them, you can visit our Special Ads Category post and our Getting Verified to Run Election Ads post.

Facebook Boost Improvements: What to be Careful of

One thing to be cautious of when you use the new Boost interface is that you need to select the correct Facebook ad account from a drop down menu in the top right corner (seen in the first screenshot in this post). By default, it will be set at your personal ads account. But if you are running Facebook ads for a client, make sure to switch ad accounts before submitting your boost for review.

Also, while you have the option to turn off Instagram and Messenger in the Placements section, you can’t adjust the sub-placements that fall under each platform. Meaning, for example, if you select only Facebook as the Placement for your Boost, your Boost will be placed in the Facebook News Feed as well as the other Facebook type Placements like Marketplace, Right hand column, etc.

Other than that, other Boost functionality still exists but it may be found in a different spot than it was before. For example, placements and the Facebook pixel are at the bottom of the Boost interface.

Although using Ads Manager is still preferred and for many reasons, it’s nice to see improvements made to the usefulness of the Boost button.