If you run a shop in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), you have probably seen the Boost button under your posts. Two questions usually follow: what should it cost, and is Ads Manager any different?
There is no price list here, because there is no fixed price. The cost is set by an auction, and you can learn what moves it.
Is boosting a post the same as running a Meta ad?
Yes and no. Meta's help page on the difference between boosted posts and Meta ads describes a boosted post as an ad made from something already on your Facebook Page or Instagram account, and the simplest way to put it in front of more people. It still counts as an ad. What you give up is control: Meta says boosted posts don't have as many customisation and detailed targeting options as a full Meta ad.
Going by Meta's help pages:
| Boost from your Page | Campaign in Ads Manager | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts from | A post, story or reel already on your page | A new ad, or a post already on your page |
| Goals | More messages, more engagement, more website visitors and similar | Six objectives: Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App promotion and Sales |
| Targeting | Interests, age and gender | Detailed targeting, overlapping audiences, lookalike audiences and more |
| Where it shows | Facebook Feed, with Instagram as an option | Adds Messenger, Instagram Stories, WhatsApp Status and more, plus formats like carousel ads |
| Budget | A budget and a duration | A daily or lifetime budget, with the option to put more behind the days you expect peak demand |
When is a boost enough, and when do you need Ads Manager?
Meta's own advice is that boosting is a good way to get engagement on your page or build awareness, and that more advanced ad types belong in Ads Manager or Meta Business Suite.
A boost is enough when the post is already doing well and a reaction or a comment is a fine outcome. Ads Manager earns its place when:
- you want an objective a boost does not offer, such as Leads, which collects enquiries through messages, phone calls or sign-ups
- you need targeting a boost does not have: Meta says some detailed targeting features are only available in Ads Manager
- the budget should rise around grant pay dates and drop after
- you want to test two versions and keep the one that brings enquiries
If you would rather hand that work over, our page on Meta ads in Gqeberha sets out how we run it.
How much do Facebook and Instagram ads cost in South Africa?
There is no fixed price. A cost per click quoted before anyone has seen your page, your area and your offer is a guess.
What you control is the budget, set in Ads Manager as a daily or lifetime budget. Meta's help page about budgets explains the difference:
- Daily budget. An average, not a hard cap. Meta may spend up to 75% over it on some days and less on others, but across a calendar week, Sunday to Saturday, not more than seven times the daily budget.
- Lifetime budget. A hard cap for the whole run of the campaign.
Inside that budget, the auction decides what each result costs. Meta's pricing overview lists what feeds into it: ad quality, the bid strategy, the performance goal, the type of budget and the objective.
How much do 1,000 clicks cost on Facebook?
There is no set price for clicks either. Meta reports CPM, the cost per 1,000 impressions, and a cost per result. For a shop, a click that never becomes a message, a call or a visit is not a result. Meta also warns that CPM may not be a good guide when an ad is set up for a result such as conversions. Judge an ad by the cost of what you actually wanted.
How much does it cost to boost a post?
No fixed price either. You pick the budget and the duration, and the boost goes into the same auction as every other ad.
What sets the price?
The auction
Every time there is a chance to show someone an ad, Meta runs an auction. Its help page about ad auctions says the ads whose target audience includes that person compete, and the one with the highest total value wins. That comes from three things:
- The bid: how much the advertiser puts on the result.
- The estimated action rate: how likely this person is to do what the ad asks.
- Ad quality: judged partly from people's feedback, such as hiding the ad, and from signs of low quality like withholding information, sensationalised language and engagement bait.
Meta says an ad that is more relevant to a person can win against ads with higher bids.
Who else wants the same people
Only ads aimed at the person being shown an ad compete for that space. When many businesses aim at the same people on the same days, more ads compete for each slot.
In local retail those days are easy to predict. Grant pay dates, month-end and public holidays decide when people shop, so expect more shops to want the same screens on those days. The festive season works the same way. Plan for it: have the ad built and approved before the busy days, not on the morning of.
How big your audience is
Meta's pricing overview says ad sets with an audience of at least 2 million often see better performance, because the auction has more chances to find people likely to respond. A shop serving a handful of suburbs should not chase that: most of a wider audience will never come to your door. Meta also advises a budget that can run for at least seven days, so the system can learn who responds. A one-day burst on pay day gives it little to learn from.
How good the ad is
Because ad quality is part of the auction, the ad itself is part of the cost. Say what the special is, where and until when. Use your own photos, because people recognise the place, and leave out the bait: Meta says clickbait and engagement bait do not improve ad performance.
How long does Meta take to approve an ad?
Every ad, including a boosted post, is checked against Meta's Advertising Standards before it runs. Meta's help page about ads in review says review starts on its own when you create or edit an ad, and most ads are reviewed within 24 hours, though some take longer. An ad can be reviewed again after it goes live.
Two practical points:
- Schedule ahead. An ad submitted with a future start date goes through review but only starts running on that date. Build the grant-week ad days before.
- Change the right thing. Changing the images, text, links or video of a running ad starts a new review. Changing the budget, bid or schedule does not. To put more behind an ad on a busy day, raise the budget rather than swap the picture.
That is also why we never promise a start date. Meta reviews every ad on its own clock.
Special ad categories: job adverts and loans
Ads about financial products or services, employment, housing, or social issues, elections or politics need a Special Ad Category declared when you create the campaign, and the boost form has the same switch. Meta notes this may limit your audience options. For a shop, the usual case is a "we're hiring" post: that is an employment ad.
How do you aim an ad at Nelson Mandela Bay and not the whole province?
Meta's help page about location targeting says you can reach people who live in, have recently spent time in, or go often to a country, region or city. You can also exclude places, and exclusions look at where someone is now as well as where they live.
Ads Manager can also reach people within a set radius of a store. Meta calls it store set location targeting: you add your store locations in Ads Manager first, then use the Awareness objective, and the radius is sized from population density or fixed by you.
Meta says its location signals are not perfectly accurate, so some messages may come from outside your area.
In practice, start from where your customers already come from: suburb names turn up in your messages and at the till. Only run across the whole Bay when the offer is worth the drive. We only advertise where we work: Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), Kariega and Despatch.
What counts as a result for a local shop?
Likes do not pay the rent. A result is a step towards your till: a message asking whether you have something in stock, a call, someone asking for directions.
Meta's objectives can aim at exactly that. Engagement can find people more likely to send a message. Leads collects leads through messages, phone calls or sign-ups. Ads that click to WhatsApp open a WhatsApp conversation with your business. You don't need a website: a Meta ad can open a chat, ring your phone or send people to your page.
An ad only works if the page answers, so ads run next to the posts and the replies, not instead of them.
Before you boost or run an ad
- One job. A message, a call or a visit. Write it down first.
- The area. The suburbs your customers come from.
- The dates. Submit the ad days before grant pay dates, month-end or a public holiday.
- The post. Your own photo, the special, where and until when. No bait.
- The budget. Daily or lifetime, set in Ads Manager, enough to run at least seven days.
- The category. Job adverts, loans and anything financial go under the right Special Ad Category.
- The inbox. Someone answers what the ad brings in.
- The count. A way to tell a message from the ad apart from a like.