[FAQ]

I’m hoping someone can clear this up for me. I’ve been using the ‘Boost Post’ button on some of my Instagram posts and it seems to work okay – gets me a bit more engagement and a few follows. But I keep hearing that for ‘real’ advertising, I should be using the full Ads Manager.

It looks pretty intimidating, to be honest. I’m just a small business owner, not a marketing guru. Can anyone give me the simple version? When is just boosting a post from the app good enough, and what are the specific situations where I’d be better off trying to learn the proper Ads Manager? Cheers.

[Jeff Bullas]

That’s the fundamental question for anyone starting out with paid promotion on Instagram.

The Simple Rule: Use the ‘Boost Post’ button for quick visibility and engagement on your existing content, but use Ads Manager when you have a specific business goal like generating sales or leads.

The choice depends entirely on what you want your audience to do after seeing your image or video content.

Boosting a post is essentially paying to show one of your existing image posts or video Reels to more people. It is the perfect tool when your only goal is simple engagement, like getting more likes and followers, or sending some basic traffic to your website. Think of it as a megaphone for your existing content. Ads Manager, on the other hand, is the professional control panel. You must use it when you need to achieve a specific business outcome, such as running a video ad campaign to sell a product, tracking conversions, or creating a lead generation form. It also gives you far more powerful targeting options, like showing your ads to people who have already visited your website, which is something boosting cannot do.

Cheers,

Jeff

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