Forget television, radio, and print – social media is the most effective way to reach a larger audience when it comes to paid advertising. According to research conducted by Statista, 79 percent of Americans currently use social media, an increase of 10 percent from 2015. Of teens aged 13 to 17, an astonishing 90 percent use social media! As you can see, it’s crucial to implement a targeted social media campaign.
What Is Paid Social Media Advertising?
Paid social media advertising is the act of incorporating paid social media messages, targeted audiences, or pay-per-click advertising to draw traffic to your site. Paid social media advertising can also come from influencer-generated content in which you pay a celebrity/influencer to endorse your product, service, or site. The largest social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin. Each platform operates differently but all can be incredibly effective if utilized properly. Find out the best way to incorporate each platform in order to drive traffic to your site.
The Method Around Paid Social Media Advertising
Facebook Targeted Ads are a great way to zero in on your target market. Through Facebook Ads, advertisers bid on ads they feel are the best fit for their site. That bid is entered into a lottery where it has a chance to be picked for a primetime position on Facebook’s feed. The great thing about Facebook, is that you can target potential customers by analyzing their behavior. If you run a cooking website, you can actually target potential customers who predominantly click on food sites.
Sponsored tweets on Twitter are an excellent option due to their obscurity. How often have you read a tweet and barely noticed that the tweet is actually an ad? The obscurity of Twitter ads mean more people will potentially click. They are simply not as blatant and demanding as other social media platforms. Twitter also allows users to tweak how often their ads will be seen based on their budget.
Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform. According to one study, 60 percent of people discover new products on Instagram and over 200 million people visit an Instagram business profile everyday.
The best part about Instagram is that all advertising is managed through Facebook due to the fact that Facebook owns Instagram. This means that you can manage your Facebook and Instagram ads in the same place. Instagram allows users the opportunity to post beautiful images, cool videos, and much more to attract the eye.
LinkedIn is the foremost professional social media platform in the world. Millions of professionals use LinkedIn everyday to post new developments, search for jobs, and browse what other people are doing. There are approximately 630 million people on LinkedIn – an excellent base to reach out to.
LinkedIn is ultimately the digital marketer’s B2B dream. You can target certain companies or professionals to reach out to for business opportunities, a potential partnership, or just to network. As with all of the platforms discussed here, LinkedIn allows for targeted ads and lets you choose a budget and ensure you don’t overspend. LinkedIn ads can be in a video, photo, text, or dynamic format, so make sure to experiment with which ad works best for your needs.
Don’t Get Left Behind – Use Paid Social Media!
Paid social media advertising is the perfect way for growing businesses to reach out to a large audience. Once you find the perfect recipe for your needs, social media can be your best friend. Make sure to try out each platform listed above to fully boost your traffic.