Social Media Advertising – How To Make The Best Of It
There are many ways to market your brand but one of the most consistent methods is social media advertising. With this marketing strategy, more people can be reached than traditional marketing could even dream of. It can be a lot more affordable as well.
This more modern marketing makes use of social networks to learn more about target audiences. The gathered information is incorporated into marketing strategies that yield better results than traditional advertising.Â
Social Media Advertising vs Traditional Advertising
You may wonder what makes social media advertising so popular and why it is considered the best option. As mentioned, it is much more affordable in most cases. Sure, you can spend thousands on both marketing strategies. But social media-oriented marketing will be more satisfying.
Measuring the effectiveness of social media advertising is easier. You can determine how many people clicked on your ads and which of your web pages were visited. It is possible to find out how many posts were shared. In comparison, you can’t tell how many people saw your ad in a magazine or newspaper.
Fixing mistakes is also easier than it is with traditional advertising. You can’t fix a spelling mistake or error on ads that were already printed. In addition, social media offers a great chance for brands to engage with customers. The same can’t be said of the traditional way of doing things.
Social Media Marketing vs. Social Media Advertising
There is a small difference between the two very similar-sounding terms. Social media marketing involves any action taken that you do not pay for. Advertising, on the other hand, is actions that are paid for.
Benefits of Social Media Advertising
As already stated, there are many reasons to invest in social media advertising. One thing that stands out is that there is no limit to this marketing strategy. You can grow your fanbase, brand loyalty and sales.
You can make user-generated content part of your content. This is a superb way to boost sales. You will also show customers and users that you appreciate their support, improving your relationship with the public.
A/B testing (a way to see if one advertising method works better than another) can be done quickly. You can use analytics to determine what works and what doesn’t in a more efficient manner.
You can save a lot of money because new and established customers are constantly targeted. Also, you can use tools such as schedulers to improve your chances of success even more. SocialPlanner is a great example. With this tool, you can find rich content and schedule it to be shared at peak times. It also helps you manage your strategies effortlessly.
Note: Before you decide which platform to use, it is suggested that you do extensive research. Determine the demographic for your target audience and find out where they are most active. There’s no point in advertising on platforms that won’t reach your potential customers.
As one of the most popular social media platforms, Facebook knows that marketers want to use it to reach customers. They have many ways to do this. The best-known is Facebook Ads.
With Facebook Ads, you can substantially increase your brand reach and awareness. Driving traffic and increasing engagement is another benefit of Facebook’s ads. It is a popular platform and users tend to trust advertisers on its site. Facebook is a great platform to kick off your social media advertising campaign.
You also get photo ads that come with text of 125 characters and a headline and link description. It is also possible to add a call-to-action button such as ‘Send Message’ and ‘Shop Now’. Either create a photo ad in the Facebook Business Manager or promote one of your posts that have a photo.
Video ads are a great tool that makes use of videos that can draw in new customers. Remember to make your visuals compelling and interesting. It is suggested that you have a short video – these get the best completion rates. You can also use the full-screen format Stories ads. Photos and videos are displayed for a few seconds but you can’t select the ads on their own. They are included as a possible placement when you have selected Automatic Placements. These only last one day so are great for in-the-moment marketing.
Carousel ads include up to 10 images or videos that each have their own link. They are great for showing off the different features of products or to explain services. There are many more benefits to advertising on Facebook. Check out our guide for more information.
Social media marketing with Twitter ads will help you encourage people to visit your website. You’ll be able to engage more and better as well as promote awareness of your brand.Â
Twitter helps your marketing reach by automatically promoting your tweets. They will be aimed at your audience (which you specify).
Also, Twitter will promote your account and help expose you to new users. According to the platform, if your account is promoted, you reach about 30,000 new people a month and can gain about 30 new followers. The ad campaigns from this popular platform will also increase your brand reach even more.
Not everyone knows this, but Facebook owns Instagram. With that said, it does not come as a surprise that the same advertising methods of Facebook are available on Instagram. Instagram is a great platform if you’re trying to reach the younger generation.
You get photo and video ads that are regularly used on Instagram and offer a good way to show off interesting visuals. You can also add a call-to-action button to these videos or photos.
Carousel ads give users the ability to scroll through the different images that you use. Make sure that your visuals form part of a theme and have a similar feel. Unless you’re going for a specific approach, your images should flow into each other.
Instagram‘s Collection ads feature a cover video or image and several shots of products. These offer an Instant Experience when clicked on. Instagram Stories ads are short when in video form and are shown in between people’s stories. Make sure your ads are engaging and creative. You don’t want users to be annoyed or bored with your ads.
When you use Pinterest ads, you can build brand awareness, drive traffic and app installations and encourage engagement. This platform is used more by females so keep that in mind.
Pinterest is used to save ideas and is a great platform for shopping. Ads on Pinterest are called Promoted Pins and they look just like normal pins. You can reach a very wide audience with this advertising.
With the Pinterest Ads Manager, you can more easily achieve your goals by using features that suit you. You should be creative to get the most attention, as is the case with most social media advertising. The Promote Button can turn a Pin into an add. This way, you can use your best-performing Pins to create ads.
With LinkedIn’s advertising, you can boost website visits, encourage video views and create more brand awareness. You can also increase engagement and collect leads more efficiently.
As you may know, LinkedIn is a more professional and business-orientated space. This means the audience you’re targeting is a bit limited, but this could be just what you want. If you want to appear in the news feed on LinkedIn, you can make use of the Sponsored Content ad option. This will get your content in front of a larger audience.
In general, keep your headlines under 150 characters as that will lead to better engagement. Your images should be nice and large too. The recommended size is 1200 x 627 pixels. With the Sponsored InMail feature, you can target audiences in the same way that email marketing works. Your content will only go to active users’ inboxes so there’s no risk of it lying in stale account inboxes.  Keep your text to under 500 characters and add call-to-action buttons for the best results.
Finally, LinkedIn has Text Ads which are small and appear at the top right of the news feed. These only show up on the desktop version. You can add a thumbnail image to the text ads, as long as they are only 50 x 50 pixels.
YouTube
As a video-sharing platform, advertising on YouTube is closer to advertising on television than any of the other options. That does not mean it is not a good place for social media advertising. You can reach a wide audience and create more brand awareness with YouTube ads.
Note that because Google owns YouTube you need to have a Google AdWords account to make ads. The video ads come in a few different forms. You can use TrueView Ads which play before, during or after other videos. These videos can also be shown in other Google networks. Viewers can skip the ads after five seconds. For the most part, it is suggested that your ads are 30 seconds or less and that you make the most of the first five seconds.
These non-stoppable ads on YouTube are at the start or middle of videos that are 10 minutes or longer. As the name suggests, they cannot be skipped and are max 20 seconds long. Make sure the ad is interesting because not skipping doesn’t mean people will actually watch.
Youtube also offers bumper ads as part of their social media advertising features. They can’t be skipped either and are at the most six seconds long. These go at the end of YouTube videos.
Snapchat
With Snapchat, you can reach a big audience and grow your brand awareness. Advertising on the platform can boost your engagement and drive traffic. Also, it’s possible to encourage app installations.
Snapchat is very popular with younger users between 18 and 24 years, and most of them are female. You can use Snap ads that start with an image or video that is about 10 seconds long. They are in vertical format and fullscreen. You can include attachments for landing pages and app installs.
With Story ads, your add will be a branded title in Snapchat users’ Discover feed. Your tile will lead to a collection of Snaps (between 3 and 20) and can be a visual treat. Here, you can give people a good look at your offers and products. It is also possible to add call-to-action buttons.
Collection ads are, as the name suggests, a collection of four thumbnails in one ad that shows off products. Every image will lead to its own URL. Keep things simple if you’re going to use this option. You can also use filters on your Snaps to enhance their quality.
How To Nail Social Media Advertising
Now that you know how the most popular platforms make social media advertising easy, let’s briefly explore the ‘how’ of this marketing strategy.
Target Audience
If you don’t have a clear picture of the people you want to reach, your ads will be a waste of time and money. Do research about the target market and audience of your brand. This way, you’ll get the max advantage out of your ads. You don’t want to run ads on Facebook if your audience doesn’t spend a lot of time on the platform. One of the biggest attractions of social media advertising is the ability to reach exactly who you want to. Make use of the opportunities you have.
Remember Mobile Users
Most people access their social media networks on their mobiles. Keep this in mind when you design your ads. Unless your ads are specifically for desktop, you need to make the images and videos mobile-friendly.Â
Know Your Objectives
When it comes to social media advertising, a campaign without a clear objective is a total waste. Make sure you know who you want to reach, what you want to show them etc. Not having objectives will make it difficult for you to achieve good marketing results.
Conclusion
Social media advertising is a really great way to promote your brand, grow awareness and loyalty and increase sales. As long as you approach it correctly, that is. With the guidance of this article, you should be on the right track. Do yourself a favour and look at what your competition is doing. Don’t copy them, but learn from what they do. Most importantly, be creative. Entertain your audience and they’ll support you.
