Social media is increasingly used as a platform to conduct marketing and advertising activities. Organizations have spent a lot of time, money, and resources on social media ads. However, there is always a challenge in how organizations can design social media advertising to successfully attract customers and motivate them to purchase their products and services.
In this article we are going to share how to evaluate which social media platforms you should be advertising on and some effective tips for your social media ad campaigns.
Evaluating Social Media Advertising
There are so many social media platforms out there. It can be overwhelming and confusing to pick the right one for your business. You may be perfectly fine (and comfortable) using Facebook, but as a business owner, you should know where and how to promote your brand depending on the user demographics and culture of each social media channel. Through social media, you can connect with your customers and build brand recognition. You can also create awareness, become a thought leader in your industry and so much more.
Each social media platform serves a different purpose and people who are users of these platforms use each of them in different ways. By choosing the right social media platform for your brand and tailoring your key messages for each, you’ll better be able to reach your target audience.
Here are four steps you should use to determine which social media platforms you should be advertising.
- Defining Goals
- Research Social Media Platforms
- Where is Your Target Audience
- Measure and Adjust Strategy
Defining Goals for Social Media Campaigns
It’s important to first define your goals on social media, as part of your overall marketing strategy.
You can begin by answering various questions including:
- Do you hope to grow brand awareness?
- Drive event attendees?
- Enhance communication with your customers?
Based on your answers and objective, set specific and measurable goals that you can strive to achieve on social media. When you set goals, there is a greater likelihood that you will accomplish them. They hold you accountable and guide your budget. According to Sprout Social, 70% of social media marketers top goal for social is to increase brand awareness.
Social Media Use Cases
Once you set your goals, get to know the different social media platforms and their uses. Think about how YOU use each social media platform, as a consumer.
A new Pew Research Center study shows that Facebook and YouTube continue to be the most widely used online platforms among U.S. adults. Roughly three-quarters of Facebook users visit the site daily. Snapchat and Instagram are especially popular among 18-24-year-olds. WhatsApp research found Hispanic Americans (46.6%) are far more likely to say they use this social channel than Black (23%) or White Americans (16%). By choosing the right social media channel for your business, you can market to a more targeted and interested audience without blowing your budget on paid advertising and securing the highest level of performance possible.
Just because a Social Media Platform is the most popular doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where you should be spending your budget. While Facebook and YouTube have more businesses advertising on their platforms than any others, in 2022 we have seen new platforms like TikTok and SnapChat are seeing huge growth in ad spending. Pinterest, Nextdoor, Reddit are all players in the social media environment.
Pew Research Center published showing platform usage by demographic:
With more than 2.45 billion monthly active users, as of 2020, Facebook is the largest social media network. The platform tends to be emotion driven and is a place where people want to connect with friends and family, in addition to the brands they enjoy and trust. On Facebook, share photos, updates and general news in a way that is engaging to your audience so that they will “like,” share and comment on your posts. Since many users rely on Facebook to connect with friends and family, it’s important that your posts aren’t too “salesy,” or they will be overlooked.
It’s where people go for news and live event updates. Users check this fast-paced platform to monitor and stay up to date on trending topics and events in real-time. This also is a good place for consumers to quickly communicate with brands and businesses they follow. Use Twitter to connect with your followers in a witty way—in 280 characters or less. Share quotes, stats or news with a link to your website or landing page. Be sure to use hashtags to reach a wider audience. Picking the right hashtags can significantly boost the reach of your posts.
It’s specifically designed for businesses and professionals. As a professional networking site, LinkedIn is a place of learning. Users rely on the site to expand their expertise and learn more about an industry. LinkedIn is typically an excellent platform for B2B companies to reach their target audience. It is a valuable tool for driving traffic, establishing thought leadership and recruiting employees.
A platform where users can capture, edit and share photos, videos and messages. Use Instagram to take your followers behind the scenes, expand your reach with hashtags or highlight new partnerships. One third of the most viewed Instagram stories are from businesses. Showcase the solution you provide by creating sharable content that entices users to tag and share with friends. That will help expand your reach on this platform. Be sure to regularly update the clickable link in the bio section and use it to drive event registrations, app downloads and purchases.
YouTube
As video content becomes more and more important in the digital marketing space, YouTube is becoming an increasingly popular social media platform for vlogs (video blogs) and other types of video content. Your business can share anything from how-to guides or instructional videos to tips/tricks and corporate videos. Use YouTube to create engaging videos that get your brand out there. Remember, when it comes to video, quality matters.
Identify the Platforms Your Target Audience Uses
After you get to know the many social media platforms out there, determine where your target audience, your preferred customers, spend their time. Most social media sites provide native audience insight tools to help you identify who uses a specific platform.
Next, take a closer look at your target audience. You can’t create content that will resonate with everyone on social media, but it should spark engagement with your target audience. By identifying the sites your audience uses and grouping them into unique segments, you can provide relevant content that will resonate with them. Segmenting your audience into unique personas is a necessary and important part of effective social media marketing.
Establish the main purpose of the content you’ll be sharing. Consider a mix of curated posts and original, high-quality content, while sharing an occasional promotion.
Once your business is established on a few different sites, encourage your existing customers to connect with you. Get started on a few platforms and see where your brand resonates best!
Measuring Social Media Ad Campaigns
Each month, measure your statistics on each social media platform and analyze the data on which posts performed the best based upon the goals you established in the beginning for your campaign. Part of this measurement will be engagement, but you can also review in google analytics clicks, time on site, pages viewed and completion goals. Don’t be overly hard on yourself if you see that consumers are not engaging with your content at a level that you had hoped. As with all media, social media usage is becoming more and more fragmented. Spend some time thinking about why these posts stood out to your audience and how you can generate engagement on the same platform, along with other platforms. A key challenge is breaking through the noise and getting eyes on your posts.
If there are posts that didn’t perform well on certain platforms, reexamine the times of the day you’re posting, in conjunction with the type of content. Knowing when to post on the different social channels allows you to post at peak times that will get more engagement and interaction. Be sure to align those insights with your social media calendar so you can plan posts that are strategic.
Hiring a Social Media Advertising Expert
If you are considering hiring an expert to help you in 2022, Copp Media Services would be happy to sit down and talk about your goals and objectives, targeting audiences, social media platforms and what is most likely to generate higher performances for your marketing dollars. We provide social media management as well as social media marketing. We can help you develop content and have the tools available to provide the greatest benefit to your advertising campaigns
Contact us to discuss how your business can benefit from social media advertising and marketing.
