How to Use Paid Advertising to Fuel your Social Media Marketing Campaigns
Wouldn’t it be great if you could focus your advertising on people who fit a specific profile and are more likely to become your customer? Social media sites can do these and even more!
There are over two billion active users on Facebook, one billion on Instagram, and 365 million on Twitter worldwide every month.
In the U.S. alone, 77% of the population has a social media account of some kind. Whether it’s to chat with friends, stay connected to people across the globe, or for business and networking purposes, consumers are on social media for a multitude of reasons — and marketers know it.
Due to the sheer number of active users on these platforms, marketers are quickly learning about the importance of targeting their customers through social media. Investments in social media advertising across the world are projected to grow to about 48 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2021 (Kristen, 2019).
What is Paid Advertising?
One of the ways to market your products and services on the internet is through paid advertising. Pay-per-click, sponsored ads, and Cost-per-click all refer to paid online advertising and mean the same thing.
When using search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo, the first few links at the top of the result page are usually paid ads. High-traffic websites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all also display paid ads.
One major advantage of paid advertising is audience targeting. Targeting a specific audience, demographics, locations, interest, and devices increase your chance of reaching the right prospect.
Ads can be set up to display at specific times of day, specific days of the week.
How Do I Get Started With Paid Advertising On Social Media?
With our attention being redirected to smaller screens, brands and businesses are turning to create social media-only campaigns.
According to social media marketers, more than 90% of marketers have stated that social media marketing campaigns have increased brand awareness rapidly. Many of which are done through the use of paid advertising.
The first thing you should do before marketing on any social media platform is to perform a BUSINESS AUDIT. Generally, it gives you an insight into what you are doing and what your competition is doing. It will also inform you about what your competition is doing that might as well work for you.
Not every platform would work for every business. For example, Twitter works best for public figures, politicians, and local people with a large presence or large brands. With local businesses, Twitter may not be the best option.
Most local businesses would prefer to focus on Facebook and Instagram. You have to determine which platform you want to put some effort into.
Social media ads allow you to target audiences that may not have seen your post otherwise while also increasing brand awareness and product awareness. In addition, paid social is a great driver of micro-conversions, whether they be for trials, free samples, or just funneling additional traffic to your website (Bluecorona).
There are specific ads within each platform that help to meet specific goals. These platforms share similar characteristics like:
• Build brand awareness
• Direct traffic to your website
• Lead generation
• Increase conversions
• Increase engagement with your page or posts
Types of Social Media Advertising Platforms
Different platforms within the social media space can help you reach your marketing goals. Each one is unique, has a different audience, and serves different purposes.
• Facebook advertising: Facebook accounts for one in every six minutes spent online. Facebook allows you to target your audience based on interest, demographics, and geography. Facebook payment is determined by the pay-per-click method or pay-per-mile (cost per 1000 impressions).
• YouTube advertising: YouTube may not be considered technically social but it kinda is and also solves a lot of online marketing problems. YouTube reaches more 18–34 and 18–49 year-olds than any cable network in the US. Videos account for a larger percentage of global internet traffic and setting up an ad on YouTube is as simple as connecting to your Google Account.
• LinkedIn advertising: Social media plays an important role in B2B relationships; 64 percent of brands follow other businesses on social media. LinkedIn Ads allow you to engage with these B2B customers. There are two paying options in LinkedIn Ads — cost per click or cost per mille (cost per 1,000 impressions).
• Twitter advertising: Twitter allows you to choose the objective of your campaign, including tweet engagements (retweets, favorites, replies), website clicks, app installs or engagements, followers, or even leads, and it only charges you when your specified action occurs. Additionally, Twitter allows a maximum daily budget and maximum cost per action.
What social media channel should you consider for marketing?
Social media paid Ads account for a lot of conversions, but you could as well waste your money if you do not choose the right platform to advertise on. Making an initial Business audit is very crucial to the success of your marketing campaign as stated earlier. The insights you get about your target audience will foster the success of your marketing campaign through paid ads.
If you are a small business owner, I suggest you employ the services of a social media marketer to minimize loss.
