Both boosted posts and ads on LinkedIn serve the purpose of increasing engagement and reach for your content. However, while they share some similarities, there are some key differences between boosted posts and LinkedIn ads that are important to understand.
In short, boosted posts allow you to pay to increase the reach of an existing post, while LinkedIn ads allow you to create new sponsored content and precisely target it to your ideal audience. Boosted posts are an easy way to get more visibility for your organic content, while ads provide more options for customization, targeting, and analytics.
What are Boosted Posts on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn’s Boosted Post option allows you to pay to increase the reach and visibility of your existing posts. When you boost a post, it will be shown to a wider audience beyond your existing followers and connections on LinkedIn.
Some key things to know about LinkedIn Boosted Posts:
- You can boost any post on your Company or Showcase page. This includes native posts with text, images or video, as well as links you’ve shared.
- Boosting results in your post being shown to more people in the LinkedIn feed and search results.
- You can choose your budget and duration for the boosted post campaign. Campaigns can last up to 30 days.
- Boosted posts are only shown to your target audience – those who are most likely to be interested based on LinkedIn’s algorithm.
In summary, the main benefit of boosting a post is increased reach and visibility. It allows your existing posts to be discovered by more of your target audience on LinkedIn.
What are LinkedIn Ads?
LinkedIn Ads allow you to create sponsored content and target it precisely to your ideal audience based on location, demographics, interests, and more. With ads, you have more customization options compared to boosted posts.
Some key things to know about LinkedIn ads:
- You can create a range of different ad formats including text, image, video, carousel, message and dynamic ads.
- Ads allow for very precise targeting based on job title, company, skills, groups, and other filters.
- Detailed targeting, budgeting, and scheduling options to control when and how your ads are delivered.
- Robust analytics and reporting on ad performance and audience engagement.
- Ads are always new sponsored posts, not re-promoting existing content.
In summary, LinkedIn ads provide much more customization and targeting compared to boosted posts. The tradeoff is that ads require more time and effort to manage.
Key Differences Between Boosted Posts and LinkedIn Ads
While both can help increase your reach and engagement on LinkedIn, here are some key differences between boosted posts and LinkedIn ads:
Boosted Posts | LinkedIn Ads |
---|---|
Repromote existing posts | Create new sponsored posts |
Limited targeting options | Precise targeting capabilities |
Easy set-up | More robust options and settings |
Lower costs | Higher minimum budget |
Less analytics and optimization | Advanced analytics and optimization |
As you can see, boosted posts provide a quick and easy way to increase engagement on your existing content, while ads allow you to create and target brand new promotional posts to reach your ideal audience.
When to Use Boosted Posts
Here are some of the best uses cases for LinkedIn’s Boosted Post option:
- Boosting relevant evergreen posts – This can breathe new life into older content that is still performing well.
- Boosting posts about events, offers or news- Time-sensitive posts can benefit from a boost to share the message more widely.
- Testing messaging or content – Boost a post to see how well it resonates before investing in a larger paid campaign.
- Reaching a broader audience – Boost your posts to extend beyond your existing followers and connections.
- Boosting engagement – Increase likes, comments, shares and clicks on your posts.
In general, boosted posts provide an easy way to give existing content more visibility with minimal effort or advertising expertise required.
When to Use LinkedIn Ads Instead
Here are some of the main reasons to invest in creating dedicated LinkedIn ads rather than simply boosting posts:
- Targeting a specific niche audience – LinkedIn ads allow you to target by job role, company, skills, and interests to reach your ideal customers.
- Promoting gated content – Send traffic directly to landing pages, gated assets, external sites and other conversion-focused destinations.
- Driving conversions – Maximize leads, sales, and other desired actions through advanced optimization and analytics.
- Awareness campaigns – Broad-based campaigns focused on brand visibility rather than a specific post.
- Remarketing – Engage past visitors to your website through LinkedIn’s pixel and tailored audiences.
The greater level of targeting, flexibility, and analytics make LinkedIn ads preferable when you want to run more sophisticated advertising campaigns.
Best Practices For Using Boosted Posts and Ads
If you decide to use both boosted posts and LinkedIn ads as part of your strategy, keep these best practices in mind:
- Analyze your goals and KPIs first – Are you primarily focused on reach? Engagement? Lead generation? Use that to determine your tactics.
- Test boosted posts before scaling up – Try boosting posts in a limited capacity before creating a full advertising campaign.
- Use ads for targeting and conversions – Take advantage of advanced targeting and optimization capabilities for ads.
- Use compelling creative – Both boosted posts and ads need great visuals and copy to succeed.
- Monitor performance – Track metrics and optimize your efforts over time, for both boosted and paid posts.
With the right expectations set, you can make the most of both options on LinkedIn. Start with small tests, analyze the results, and improve over time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to some common questions about LinkedIn boosted posts vs. ads:
Can you boost an existing ad post?
No, you cannot boost an existing LinkedIn ad post. Only organic, non-sponsored posts can be boosted. To increase the reach of an ad, you would simply allocate more budget to the existing campaign.
Do boosted posts appear in the LinkedIn feed?
Yes, boosted posts can appear in the main LinkedIn feed and search results just like organic content. They may also appear on your Company or Showcase pages.
Do boosted posts show as “Sponsored”?
No, boosted posts are not marked as “Sponsored.” They appear just like your regular posts, simply shown to more people due to the boost. LinkedIn ads are always marked as “Sponsored” when shown.
Can you create a boosted post campaign from desktop?
No, LinkedIn has limited creating boosted posts only to their mobile app. This is designed to encourage more posting from mobile. You can use the desktop to manage your ads campaigns.
Do boosted posts appear in LinkedIn ad reporting?
No, boosted posts and LinkedIn ad campaigns are tracked separately. You can find boosted post analytics under the “Boosted Posts” section, while ads are tracked under the “Campaign Manager”.
Conclusion
In summary, while boosted posts and ads on LinkedIn share some similarities, there are distinct use cases where one option makes more sense than the other. Boosted posts provide an easy starting point to test content and reach more people. LinkedIn ads enable robust targeting options and conversion tracking for specialized campaigns. With the right goals and audience in mind, both can be valuable tools as part of an overall LinkedIn marketing strategy.