Advertising on Social Media

Recap

In the last post we discussed how to include our audience in the conversation to expand our user engagement. Now we are going to discuss the benefits of paid advertising on social media.


What is social media paid advertising?

Social media advertising is a way to target audiences on specific networks through demographic information so targeted consumers can see your brand in their feeds. And it works really well when done right. But pushing paid content in front of random social media users isn’t going to immediately work or perform well at all. You have to be strategic with your ad spend, content selection, targeting frequency and audience demographics.


Why should I pay to advertise, aren't hashtags enough to expand my reach?

You can definitely generate interest and expand your audience organically, such as using hashtags. However, with so much content going up it's impossible for all of your content to be seen by the majority of people. In fact, every single minute there are literally millions of posts being created on Facebook, and hundreds of thousands of tweets and Instagram posts.


The statistics range but on average less than 50% of your organic (non-paid) posts are actually being seen by your audience. This is why it's so important to follow the instructions in the last few parts of this series, but if you really want your brand to have a place on social media you will need to utilize promoted listings and ads.


So should every post be promoted?

No. Just like with hashtags, it's a very useful tool but you need to be smart about when you utilize it. Studies have shown that as many as 46% of users will unfollow brands posting promotional messages too frequently.


Don't get carried away.

Remember, your goal with ads is the same as it is with your normal posts - we aren't trying to sell people right from the ad. We want to get in front of a lot of people and create awareness about who we are and what we do. If done properly you will gain a bunch of new followers and then next month, after providing a ton of value through engaging organic and paid content, they will be more receptive when you ask them to book a photography session or sign up for your wine tasting.

Focus on providing value first and then build up to the ask.

Platform Breakdown.

To make your process a little easier, let’s take a quick look at each major social network and see what type of content and ad play works best:


Facebook: The plethora of Facebook ad formats make it perfect for business-to-consumer campaigns. But its ability to make scaleable audiences is also great for B2B. These formats are ideal for getting deeper into your audience and uncovering potential customers through awareness and social reach.


Instagram: Increasing web traffic sales and driving awareness is ideal for Instagram ads. Highly-visual content gets users to engage with the content and show off products in the best light for high B2C conversions.


Twitter: Twitter’s various advertising options let brands work on getting new followers for a product launch or simply starting a new social channel. Twitter ads help grow awareness and drive clicks to your website.


LinkedIn: With a very specific demographic, LinkedIn is more ideal for business-to-business interactions. Your LinkedIn campaigns help gain visibility, generate leads, and boost traffic to your web pages through thought-leadership content.


Snapchat: This B2C platform works best for pure engagement metrics, especially for younger audiences. Its sponsored filters and lenses are built to get users to engage, have fun and promote the product. Visibility and awareness are high markers for Snapchat ads.


Up Next.

Patience. We've gotten our content down, hashtags are helping the organic posts reach more people, we're engaging and interacting with our audience, and now we're going to bring more people in with our paid ads - I bet your friends and colleagues have asked you as least once or twice how you're growing so fast suddenly. In the final part of this series we discuss the most difficult, and perhaps most important part of social media marketing.

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