Social media advertising is a must if you’re looking to reach a new, targeted audience—fast.
Like it or not, organic reach is harder and harder to achieve. The days of going viral without a little boost might be gone forever.
Of course it can be scary to move from an organic social strategy to putting real money on the table. So, it’s important to understand all the options.
1. Know what business objective you’re trying to achieve
As a first step in building out your advertising plan, it is a good idea to reflect on your goals. What is it that you want to achieve for your business?
It’s awfully hard to achieve your goals if you don’t know what your goals are in the first place.
Goals will vary by business, and by stage your business is at. And, the goal is not always expressed as achieving a certain revenue number or profit.
Sometimes, your goal may be a more intermediate step, something that you know is important to you to grow your business.
Understanding your business objectives is critical. It ensures you choose the right social network to advertise on. It helps you choose the right advertising solution within that platform. It even guides your creative strategy.
2. Know your target audience
Of course, we would all love it if everyone became our customer, but that is not very realistic. And, when you plan advertising, it is best to show your ads to people that are likely to take action as a result of seeing them. If you would show your ads to everyone without thinking about who might take action based on your ads, your money would not be spent in the best possible way.
So, you will want to ask yourself, who would those people be for my business? Who are the people that have a need that my product or service answers and who would want to buy or get my product or service?
Know exactly who you’re trying to reach to take maximum advantage of these targeting options. This ensures you get the best bang for your advertising buck.
After all, there’s no point in advertising to female athletes in Iten if your audience is young male video gamers in Kisumu. The ability to micro-target your ad campaigns is one of the key benefits of social media advertising.
That would typically be a group of users, and that group we often refer to as your target audience: the people or audience that would be most interested in what you have to offer. This audience will become the ‘target’ for your advertising.
Having a good understanding of your target audience will really help you when you create your ads on Facebook. It will help you to create the right message and to deliver that message to the right people across the Facebook platform
Developing audience personas can help you understand exactly which audience segments to focus on.
3. Let your organic posts inform your ads
You’re likely already posting content on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram every day. Maybe LinkedIn, TikTok and SnapChat, too.
Some of these posts will resonate with followers; others won’t. Track which ones are being clicked, liked, shared, and commented on. These high-performing messages make the best candidates for social ads.
If you’re branching out into a new network with your social media advertising, start small. Use what you’ve learned from your organic posts as a starting point. However, know that those lessons will not necessarily translate across social networks.
4. Pay for what matters: Impressions or engagement
To keep your budget under control, think about whether you want impressions or engagements.
If you’re paying every time someone sees your ad (impressions), your message can cast a wide net.
But if you’re paying for engagement, you only want people who are really interested in doing business with you to engage.
You don’t want to pay for engagements that are not relevant to your business goals. The wording of your ad should help people identify whether it’s for them or not.
Both engagement and impressions campaigns can be valuable for your business. You just need to choose the right one to align with your business goals so that you only pay for real business results.
5. Design your ads with mobile in mind
More than 3.25 billion active social media users access social networks through a mobile device.
That means most social media ads are being viewed on mobile devices. Your mobile ads should be specifically designed for the small screen. Incorporate images that are easy to view on a pocket-sized device. (Unless, of course, you specifically choose desktop placement.)
If you have a bricks-and-mortar business, you can use “geofencing” to target mobile users when they are in a specific zip code. This means they only see your ads when they are close enough to walk in your front door.
6. Test your ads to optimize performance
One of the great benefits of social ads is instant feedback. You can gauge the effectiveness of a sponsored post in minutes and follow up with advanced analytics reports.
The best practice is to test several ads with small audiences to determine what works best, then use the winning ad in the primary campaign.
Testing one ad against another to determine what works best and refine your strategy is known as A/B testing. It’s a critical part of your social media advertising efforts.
- Experiment with different ad variations: Test headlines, images, copy, and landing pages.
- Analyze results: Identify the most effective elements and refine your campaigns.
7. Measure results—and report on them
Just as it’s important to know your goals before running an ad campaign, it’s important to measure results. This will let you know whether you’ve hit your targets. It shows you what worked and what didn’t so that you can improve going forward.
Measuring your results and having concrete data about the value your ads bring to the company (purchases, leads, and so on) is a key part of proving ROI.
And if you can prove that your ads are paying off, that will ensure you get the budget you need to continue your work.
- Set clear campaign goals: Define what you want to achieve with your ads.
- Monitor key metrics: Track clicks, impressions, conversions, and ROI.
- Make data-driven adjustments: Optimize your campaigns based on performance insights.
By following these tips and continuously optimizing your campaigns, you can maximize the return on your social media advertising investment.
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