Are You Ready for Social Media Advertising?

There’s just no escaping it; social media is a massive part of modern culture. With the growth of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn, and YouTube, among many others, came the growth of social media marketing. As time has gone on, social media users have begun to look to their favorite platforms to form their opinions on brands and products. Because of this, social media advertising is a massive part of ecommerce and digital marketing strategy. So, are social media adverts the right move for your business? Before we decide that, let’s cover the basics.

What’s the Difference Between Social Media Advertising and Social Media Marketing?

Although these two concepts appear very similar at first glance, they are not one and the same. Social media marketing refers to the overall strategy you deploy to utilize social media as a means to increase brand awareness and generate sales. Social media advertising is simply one piece of the overall social media marketing puzzle, in which you utilize paid advertising on social media platforms to hopefully create conversions and lead generation. While social media marketing involves creating high-quality content and focuses on user engagement, social media advertising focuses solely on a paid social media ad campaign aiming to get leads, conversions, and sales.

Benefits of Social Media Advertising

Social media ads are like your secret weapon for reaching exactly who you want. You can target specific groups based on their interests and behaviors, making your campaigns super effective. Plus, social media is all about being in the moment, so you can chat with potential customers right away, building up your brand love and customer loyalty. Keep tabs on how people are engaging with your content, tweak your strategy for the best results, and here’s the kicker – it’s often way cheaper than the old-school ads. Social media lets businesses whip up personalized and exciting content, making sure everyone knows your name, boosting customers, and growing your business overall.

How Does Social Media Advertising Work?

There’s no “one size fits all” approach to social media ads. While you may see a lot of common threads, no two businesses’ social media ad campaigns work quite the same way. Depending on the platform you select, the ad format you choose, your target audience, and many other factors, your advertising strategy can (and should) change. Because of this, it is important to know these campaign-altering factors before you jump in.

Differences Between Social Media Platforms

One thing to keep in mind when creating your social media strategy is that each platform is different. You can’t utilize the exact same strategy for Facebook ads as you did on Instagram ads. Each platform is unique in their user demographics, common content types, and even ad formats. Depending on your target audience and advertising strategy, some platforms may be perfect for you, while others may be best left alone, so think carefully about which social platforms you choose to run ads on.

For example, SnapChat and TikTok ads are best targeted towards Gen Z, as that is the main demographic found on that platform. So, if the specific audience you are targeting does not typically use TikTok, it’s not the best social media platform for you (unless you like throwing money away). Instead, Instagram ads or Facebook ads may be a better option in this case (assuming the audience is known to be on those platforms instead). Similarly, if you’re trying to launch a hiring campaign, LinkedIn ads should be your first stop.

Ad Type

The type of ad also plays a role in determining which platform is best. If you are using image ads, you may be better off with Instagram advertising or Facebook advertising. If you utilize video ads, you may be better off heading to YouTube or TikTok.

Site Functionality

Get the most out of your ads by taking full advantage of each site’s functionality. Have a super visual product? Show it off with a carousel ad on Facebook. Have great vertical video content? Let it stand out as a reel or Instagram story ad. You can even send a message straight to their inbox with Facebook messenger ads.

Metrics to Keep Your Eye On

In social media advertising, there are a number of different metrics you can use to understand the success of your ad campaign — and know if you need to make adjustments in order to achieve your business goals.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

Most digital advertising platforms operate on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model, meaning that you, the advertiser, are charged based on the number of clicks your ad receives. This model is what makes digital advertising cost-effective. Cost-Per-Click is the amount of money that you pay for each user that clicks on your ad. For example, if your CPC is $0.50, and your ad is clicked on ten times, you will be charged $5.00.

Impressions

Impressions are simply the number of views your ad receives. While this does not necessarily correlate to an increase in sales directly, the more people seeing your ad, the better. If you are seeing that your ad is receiving very few impressions relative to your expectations, you may take that as a sign to reconsider your strategy, better optimize your copy to suit that platform’s algorithm, or select a different social network altogether.

Conversions

Conversions are the actions that users take that achieve your goals. For example, if your goal was to make a certain number of sales, each sale made through your ad campaign would be a conversion.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR is the ratio of clicks to the number of impressions. For example, if a particular ad is seen on Facebook ten times, and is clicked on three times, then the CTR is 30%. Low CTR? Try a more enticing call to action.

Tips to Make Your Social Media Ad Campaign More Successful

Now that you know about some of the basics, here are some tips to help make your social media ad campaigns successful.

Manage Your Ad Spend Wisely

Make sure you are keeping a close eye on your budget, and don’t pour money into something that will not yield help you achieve your campaign objectives. We may sound like a broken record, but what works for one campaign may not work for another, so it is important that your budget is being allocated to the right platforms, and that you are always mindful of your ad spend. Facebook ads manager is a good place to keep these in check.

Figure Out Your Target Audience

As mentioned above, there are many different social media platforms out there, all of which have varying audiences. Because of this, you are given a lot of audience targeting options, and it is easy to choose the wrong platform for your campaign. If your product is aimed towards females aged 18-24, this should determine the platform. Take the time to discover which platforms are best suited for your target audience.

Focus on High Quality Ad Creatives

Ad creatives refer to the visual and textual elements of the ad. It is important to focus on the quality of these elements, as this is what is most important for turning an impression into a conversion. Whether a text ad, image ad, or video ad, and regardless of the social media channels in question, high quality content is always going to be what persuades a potential customer to make a purchase.

Is Now the Right Time to Start?

Now that you know the basics, are you ready to explore the world of social advertising campaigns? It can be overwhelming at first, but digital marketing campaigns are a very important part of having a successful business, and social media adverts are a large piece of that puzzle. While posting organic content on social networks is beneficial for brand awareness and engagement, paid ad placements are just as important.

If you’re still not ready to jump in yourself, we’re here to help! Here at Lift Marketing, we can help you get started with all of your digital marketing needs! Get in touch with us, and we can get started.