In talking to some entrepreneurial friends, I realized that most of them who have run Facebook Ads have done so by clicking the ‘Boost Post’ button found under almost every Facebook post.

And every time I’ve heard that, my reaction has been, “Nooooo! Stop doing that!”

I know it sounds harsh but here’s why:

By clicking the Boost Post button, you are missing out on so many features that makes Facebook Ads that best platform for running ads.

And want to hear something kinda crazy?
Even Facebook has said “Don’t ever boost a post.”

That was a direct quote by one of the Facebook Ad reps during the Facebook Ads bootcamp I attended at the Facebook offices in Texas last month. She said that Facebook is actually trying to move people away from boosting posts.

And with good reason. There are millions of audience targeting options, but when you boost a post you are very limited. Let’s start with what it looks like once you click Boost Post.

It gives you 3 options for targeting. Okay, let’s break this down.

1. People who like your page

This can be a great way to target if your page is large enough. In fact there are times when I will only target my page in an ad. However, if you have less than 1,000 fans, this option won’t work for you. And honestly, I feel like if you have less than 10,000 fans, this is not the best choice.

2. People who like your page and their friends.

This sounds great, but it’s really not. Let’s say you’re a network marketer interested in growing your business on Facebook. I want to target you in an ad, but what about your Facebook friends? Sure, some of them may also be network marketers, but are most of them? Probably not. Which means if I choose this option, I’m pretty much wasting money on an audience that is not my ideal audience.

3. People you choose through targeting.

This one also sounds great, but when you go to create an audience, the options are severely lacking. It lets me select interests. But where are the demographics, the behaviors, the ability to do and, or, but not targeting that I love so much?! It’s not an option under Boost Post. (For more on the and, or, but not targeting, check out this blog post.)

So what do you instead?

You create your ads in Ads Manager.

To get there, select Ads Manager from your home screen on the left-hand side. If it’s not there, go to www.facebook.com/ads/manage.

Once you’re inside Ads Manager, you have a bunch of options, for the moment, select “Create Ad.”

Facebook puts ads into 3 sections – campaigns, ad set, and ad. In the campaign section, you decide on the objective for your ad. In ad set, you decide the audience targeting and the budget. And in the ad section is where you put the graphics and copy. For this post, I’ll only be covering campaign and ad set.

Now, you’ve got lots of options for what type of ad you’d like to create. To figure that out, you need to know what your goal is in running a Facebook Ad.

Want more likes on your page? Select promote your page

Want more engagement on your Facebook business page? Select boost your posts

Want people to read your blog? Send people to your website

Want people to sign up for your email list? Increase conversions on your website

Want them to watch your video to brand yourself? Get video views

Please Note: Facebook’s algorithm is brilliant. Seriously. It knows who scrolls past ads, who engages (likes, comments, clicks, and shares), who clicks, who watches videos, and who converts. When you select an objective, Facebook will serve your ad to the people in your target audience most likely to take the action you asked them to take. Like I said, brilliant, right?

Once you’ve selected your type of ad (in this case, I’m still choosing a boosted post to get more engagement), let’s look at targeting.

Similar to clicking Boost Post, you can set a location, age, and gender. But where it gets really fun is the detailed targeting.

There are SO MANY options inside demographics, interests, and behaviors. I suggest you play in the here to find options that will work best for you.

Hint: anytime you see an arrow, it means there are more options to open when you click on the arrow.

Now here’s the big reason the ads manager is far superior to clicking Boost Post. This is what I call and, or, but not targeting. For example, in this case, I’m telling Facebook I want my audience to be interested in direct selling OR Direct Selling Association OR Direct Selling News OR MLM OR MLM Leads AND they have to also be Facebook Page Admins, BUT NOT if they make less than $50,000 a year.

Definitely a much more targeted audience then friends of my fans or targeting a couple interests, right?

So, next time you want to boost a post, please, please, please choose more detailed targeting and save yourself money by choosing to go to the ads manager instead.

Now, I know all of this can be incredibly confusing. You have lots of options when creating an ad inside Ads Manager, which means lots of ways to mess this up.

If this is all overwhelming and you’d like a little more guidance, then I invite you to check out my Facebook Ads 101 mini-course, where I walk you through step-by-step how to create like ads, boosted posts, and clicks to the website/clicks for conversions.