No matter what you sell or who you sell to, social media advertising can help you spread your brand and get more leads. There is a significant chance that your target audience is on one or more social networks and that they are often there. It’s time to reach them!
In this article, we will focus on the preparatory and strategic piece of advertising on social media. Put up your plan first and we’ll take the practical pieces later!
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Google Ads (Adwords)
Google Ads and advertising on Facebook or Instagram, for example, are structured in different ways and complement each other rather than compete. An integral part of maximizing your digital marketing effectiveness is understanding the role of comprehensive online marketing strategies, which encompass search engine optimization along with social media. This broader view helps in creating a synergistic effect, enhancing the overall impact of your marketing efforts. With a smart strategy, you can use the various platforms to get the best possible results from your digital marketing.
Why should you advertise on Social Media?
In addition to the large potential audience, social media offers extremely flexible advertising opportunities. No matter what kind of ad you want to create, it is most likely possible. Combined with a very precise target group adaptation, it becomes a difficult method for digital marketing.
Let’s paint a scenario that certainly feels familiar: You have a relatively good number of followers on Facebook, for example. But even when you publish posts that are well-worked and adapted for your audience, you get no response. It’s almost like no one has seen it. But that would generate a lot of customers, was it supposed to?
For some reason, people think it works a bit like this on social media: creating content, posting on social media, and magically, you get countless of customers. But the fact is that your posts were probably never seen by your current or potential followers (ie: customers). Tough situation!
Why is your content not seen on social media?
Facebook (and other networks) prioritize posts from friends and family, while other posts are put away and not prioritized. If the post is also perceived as unengaging, the result will be even worse, especially if the user has not shown interest in you before.
To succeed in this landscape, you need to get people to interact with the post quickly for it to get a further boost by the algorithms. The issue is that since the posts do not tend to be prioritized from start, it can be difficult to get traction.
The solution? Sponsor your posts to increase your reach!
You can pay for your posts to appear more – both with your own followers but also with those who have not yet found you. It will be a type of advertisement, but if you are smart with your wording it does not feel quite as intrusive but is more experienced as a natural part of the personal flow. Many are tired of over-selling ads today, but if executed effectively, you can build trust and a better image of your business.
By combining this with smart re-marketing/retargeting against those who have already interacted with you before, you increase the chances of you actually reaching that desired conversion.
But don’t sponsor all posts now. Pick out the ones that have already gone well, or the ones with content that is extra important for you to reach out with. Also, do not promote to a bunch of random users – make sure that the target group adapts properly so that hopefully it provides qualitative interactions.
Which social media platforms should you use?
Today it is possible to advertise on most social networks – but that does not mean that you should actually advertise everywhere. Choose the ones that best suit your brand and target audience the best.
For example, the younger age group likes Instagram and Snapchat over Facebook, and Linkedin is usually best suited for B2B or when looking for staff. Don’t have your audience yet? Time to fix it now! Create a detailed customer persona for your typical customer – it will help you in many situations. Also take a look at your current statistics, which channel works best today? Start where you already have a good base.
Some questions you should ask yourself when deciding which platforms to advertise on:
- Does this platform work well for me today?
- Does the typical user agree with my target audience?
- How is our competition here?
- Can I do the type of ad I am looking for?
Lay the groundwork for advertising in social media with a well thought out strategy.
That said, don’t start wasting advertising money blindly now. Set up a strategic plan for your advertising in social media and adapt it to the current platform. Advertising on Facebook is not the same as advertising on Snapchat or LinkedIn, each platform has its own possibilities (and limitations).
Things to keep in mind when posting your advertising strategy.
Define your target audience. Your ads are just as effective as you define which ones to show. Age, location, professional role, and interests are all characteristics you need to keep track of.
Choose the right platform. Find out which networks your target group uses.
Determine your final goal. Should you showcase products or a specific offer? Promote an event? Want to encourage app downloads? Maybe pure branding of your content? The type of ads you want to do will depend on what you want to achieve.
Determine a budget. What does advertising cost per day? If you haven’t run advertising on social media before, it’s wise to start small and expand as well.
What should your advertising look like? Look back at the answers to previous points and start from there in designing your ads.
When to advertise? Make sure you advertise at the right times – based on both your own statistics and for example holidays and events.
How to measure results
Before you start advertising on social media, you must not forget to prepare with the proper measurement of the traffic at the final destination.
Otherwise, you will see people clicking on your ads (and costing you money), but you do not know what it actually leads to. Let’s fix the set of your tracking if it feels difficult! If statistics are not really your thing, we will keep an eye on them for you and analyze your results so that your campaigns are as good as they can be.
