Use a boost if…
You want more people to see a post.
An event, an announcement or a popular post. Judge it by reach and reactions, not by sales.
Facebook & Instagram ads · Guide
Facebook ads
or boosting?
Which to use, and when.
A boosted post is the quick option: you pay to show a post you already published to more people. Ads Manager is Meta’s full tool, where you choose the campaign goal, audience, placements and creative, and track what happens after the click. If you want enquiries or sales rather than reach, use Ads Manager.
By Malta Digital · Published · Updated · 6 min read
The difference
Boosting or ads:
what is the difference?
When you boost a post, you take something already on your Facebook Page or Instagram profile and pay Meta to show it to more people. You choose from a short list of goals, a basic audience, a budget and how many days it runs. It takes a few minutes and you never leave the app.
Ads Manager is Meta’s full advertising tool. You build a campaign around one business objective, such as leads or sales. Then you decide who sees it, where it appears and which versions of the ad to test against each other.
Both use the same ad system and can appear on Facebook and Instagram. Both are paid, and both charge your card for the ad spend. The difference is how much control you have, and what Meta is told to look for.
A useful way to think about it: boosting is a shortcut with fewer settings. Ads Manager is the same engine with every setting available, including the ones that connect ads to real sales.
In short
- Boost: a post you already published, simple goals, fewer settings.
- Ads Manager: built around a business goal, with full targeting, testing and reporting.
- Both are paid ads on Meta’s system.
Neither option is free advertising. The question is what the money is set up to achieve.
When boosting is fine
When a boosted post
is good enough.
Boosting is not wrong. It suits small, simple jobs where the main aim is that more people see something.
- An event, opening or announcement you want people nearby to see this week.
- A post that is already doing well with your followers, shown to more people like them.
- A quick check on whether a photo or video gets a reaction before you put proper budget behind it.
- A very small budget, with no website or tracking in place yet.
If the goal is visibility, and you are happy to judge the result by reach and reactions, a boost does the job. Just do not expect it to behave like a sales campaign.
Where boosting falls short
Why boosts rarely
bring steady sales.
Many owners who say “we tried Facebook and it didn’t work” have been boosting posts. The platform is usually not the problem. A boost is simply not set up to find buyers.
The goal is often engagement
Many boosts are aimed at likes, comments or post engagement. Meta then finds people who like and comment, not people who buy. Likes alone do not tell you whether the spend is worthwhile.
Simpler audience options
You can choose locations, ages and interests, but you get fewer tools for building audiences from website visitors and customer lists, or for keeping existing customers out.
No real testing
A boost promotes one post. In Ads Manager you can run different images, videos, headlines and offers side by side, then put more budget behind the winners.
Weak tracking
Without the Meta Pixel or the Conversions API feeding a sales or leads objective, you cannot see which ad brought which enquiry or sale. You end up guessing.
When to use Ads Manager
When to move
to Ads Manager.
Move to Ads Manager when advertising has a business job to do: enquiries, bookings, calls or online sales. These are the four things that change.
01
Pick one objective
Choose leads, sales or traffic based on what you want people to do next. Not engagement.
02
Set up tracking
Install the Meta Pixel, the small piece of code that tells Meta who enquired or bought. Add the Conversions API where you can.
03
Build the audience
Start broad across Malta and Gozo, then use website visitors, customer lists and lookalike audiences once you have the data.
04
Test the creative
Run several images, videos and headlines. Keep what works and switch off the rest.
Ads Manager has many more settings, so it is also easier to waste money if you guess. That is the main reason businesses hand it to someone else.
Malta specifics
Why Malta’s small
market changes things.
Malta is a small market. That changes how both options behave, and it is worth planning for.
Audiences run out faster
With a narrow audience, the same people see your ad again and again. Fresh creative matters more here than in a large country.
Location settings matter
Decide whether you want people who live in Malta, people who are here right now, or both. A restaurant in Sliema chasing tourists needs different settings from a clinic serving residents.
Gozo is its own market
A Gozo business may want Gozo residents, visitors planning a trip, or people in Malta who come over for the weekend. Each needs its own audience and message.
English or Maltese
Most ads in Malta run in English. For some local services, Maltese copy is worth testing against it.
Your best posts
What to do with
your best posts.
Your organic posts are still useful, even if you stop boosting them. A post that gets a strong reaction tells you something about what your customers care about.
- Use the same photo, video or message as a starting point for a new ad in Ads Manager.
- Rewrite the caption around one clear offer and one next step: book, call, message or buy.
- Test it against two or three other versions, so the result is a comparison, not a guess.
In Ads Manager you can also run an existing post as an ad, keeping its likes and comments, while still choosing a sales or leads objective. That gives you the social proof of the post with the control of a proper campaign.
A simple way to decide
A simple way to decide.
Use Ads Manager if…
You want enquiries, bookings or sales.
You need one clear objective, tracking, creative testing and a budget you can measure against results.
Many businesses use both. They boost the occasional post for visibility and run proper campaigns in Ads Manager for sales. What matters is that the money meant to bring customers is not being spent on likes.
For context, these are results from campaigns we manage in Ads Manager, with a sales objective and tracking in place.
1 Jan – 28 May 2026
€95,470.88 in Meta ad spend. €573,222.05 in tracked sales.
Tracked in Meta Ads Manager.
2025
€217,048 in tracked sales. 9,384 website sales.
Tracked across the year in Meta Ads Manager.
1–9 June 2026
€6,523.92 in spend. €38,550.54 in tracked sales.
Nine days of campaigns, tracked in Meta Ads Manager.
Platform-attributed purchase value is not profit. These examples are not a guarantee of future results.
A few straight answers
What you might be wondering.
Is boosting a post the same as running a Facebook ad?
Both are paid ads on Meta’s system. Boosting promotes a post you already published, with fewer settings. Ads Manager gives you full control over the objective, audience, placements, testing and tracking.
Why do my boosted posts get likes but no sales?
Usually because the boost is aimed at engagement, so Meta shows it to people who like and comment. To find buyers, run a campaign with a sales or leads objective and working tracking.
Can a boosted post also show on Instagram?
Yes. If your Instagram account is connected to your Facebook Page, you can choose to show a boosted post on both.
How much should I spend on a boost?
There is no right number. Spend what you are comfortable treating as a test, and judge it by the result you wanted. If the goal is sales, the same money usually works harder in an Ads Manager campaign.
Do you manage boosted posts?
We focus on campaigns built in Ads Manager, because they can be tracked against enquiries and sales. We can tell you which of your posts are worth turning into ads.
Keep reading
Related guides.
Are Facebook ads worth it?
When Facebook and Instagram ads pay off, when to wait, and how to judge results honestly.
Facebook ads not working?
A practical checklist for ads that are not running, or running without results.
Meta Pixel and Conversions API explained
What the Pixel and the Conversions API do, why the Pixel alone misses sales, and how to check your setup.
A useful first step
Stop guessing
with boosts.
Show us what you have been running. We’ll tell you what we would change first. Initial review at no charge.