Social Media Advertising
Sharpen up your social media strategy by investing in paid ads, targeting customers by demographic, purchase history or online behaviour.
The rise of social media can only be described as awe-inspiring and, with more and more people using these channels to talk to their friends, share every aspect of their lives and interact with brands more than ever before, this presents marketers with a potentially lucrative space in which to promote their products and services.
Building on organic advertising
Many of us are more than switched on to how these platforms can be used to raise awareness of our brands as well as fostering engagement, driving traffic to our websites and increasing sales. But this is something that cannot usually be achieved via organic advertising alone. With social media advertising, you’ll be given a wider net with which to capture your prospective clients and significantly bolster the speed at which your brand can grow. The result? Better brand recognition, closer relationships with your audience and, crucially, more money.
How to invest
In a similar way to other forms of marketing, the cost of investing in social media advertising can vary greatly. Yet, the payment models that these platforms offer should be largely familiar to those who have carried out paid ad campaigns on sites such as Google. Among the most popular types of these ads are: Cost Per Click (CPC), Cost Per Video View and Cost Per Impression, with the charges of each determined by how frequently they are viewed or engaged with by social media users.
The benefit here is that marketers can control how much is spent on each ad campaign, allowing for a potentially impressive ROI if these ads prove successful. The payment amount is usually set via a form of online auction, meaning that you will rarely pay the same amount twice. It goes without saying that the more you invest, the more likely you are to achieve your goals.
A greater chance of success
While we all do our best to target our audiences with the organic content that we create on these channels, it can be disheartening when these posts receive very little engagement or interaction. Paid social media ads will give you a greater chance of success due to their ability to target your intended customers on a much deeper level. Once you have identified who you want to target and which networks these people use most frequently, many social ads will allow you to push your ad to a specific demographic or those in a set location. Some are even intelligent enough to ensure that your ads are served to people based on their recent online activity, purchasing history or hobbies and interests. This will get your message out to those who are more likely to benefit from your products and services. The content that you place within these ads should, of course, be inspired by those organic posts that have garnered the greatest amount of measurable success on your platforms previously. And, if you’re unsure about which style or theme of content to go with, there are even options to test out two ads at once (A/B testing) to see which one performs better.
Types of Ad
In the world of social media, there are many different platforms vying for attention. And in terms of which ones you can best turn to advantage with regards to paid ads, there are three that stand out from the crowd: Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Facebook is notable for both its ability to target audiences at a micro-level and the depth of its ad formats. With an offering that encompasses a broad range of photo-based ads, including slideshow and carousel adverts, and video ad options, chances of increasing engagement, website traffic and sales are improved. Research suggests that those who use social media are more likely to be drawn to colourful, eye-catching images and the stats for video – with 95% of people said to be more likely to retain a message when this is displayed in motion-picture form – speak for themselves.
As it’s owned by Facebook, the ad offerings of Instagram are very similar to that of its parent company. Yet, as Instagram is the network that’s most associated with stand-out imagery, it really pays to invest in its wide range of visual advertising options. Here, you’ll find ad choices in the form of photo ads, carousel ads and story ads, the latter of which particularly useful when promoting a flash sale or exclusive offer.
Whilst Facebook and Instagram are used by a diverse range of people, those on LinkedIn are a much easier audience to categorise. This is why LinkedIn’s ad options are tailor-made for those specialising in recruitment, networking and all other areas of business. Sponsored Content and Text Ads allow your messages to appear in the feeds of those you are targeting and Sponsored InMail can see your ad sent directly to the LinkedIn inbox of the people you wish to develop a relationship with. As LinkedIn is more of a formal platform, there is less of an emphasis on imagery here, with words seeming to carry the most weight in these forms of promotion.
Truly social
At Truly, our knowledge of all things social is completely unparalleled and we can’t wait to work with you to achieve your goals and objectives in the engaging world of social media advertising. We offer a range of paid social media campaigns to suit a broad range of budgets and will always go the extra mile to make sure that you’re living up to your marketing potential. To find out more, get in touch with us today.
