What is social media advertising?
Social media advertising is a type of online advertising that allows you to reach your target audience through a specific social network in exchange for a monetary investment. You can run campaigns with a specific timing, advertising objective, and budget.
Each social network has its own platform (except Instagram, which uses the Facebook platform) to create and manage ads. You can create and launch Facebook and Instagram advertising from the Business Manager itself.
It is one of the most widely used types of advertising today because it allows you to segment in detail to reach users who are interested in your product or service, with lower costs than other types of advertising and with greater profitability.
Importance of social media advertising
Social media advertising allows you to be visible in those digital spaces where most people are interacting, thus gaining presence and brand recognition.
Social media advertising is very profitable because you have control over what you want to invest and you can do a timely follow-up; it is also focused, segmented, and strategic, which allows you to meet objectives such as attraction, reach, interaction, and conversion. There is also a great capacity to measure how well each ad works, which gives you the possibility of optimizing your campaigns.
Structure of advertising on social networks
Social media advertising is structured on three levels in the vast majority of advertising platforms:
Campaign: This is the top level, where you select the objective of the campaign you are going to create.
Ad set: This is the media level where you select the audience to whom you want to show your ads, where they will be shown (stories, feed, etc.), and the budget for each ad set.
Ads: This is the lower level, where the entire visual part that the user will see when the created campaigns are shown is created: image or video of the ad, copy that accompanies the ad, link, call to action, etc.
Main benefits of advertising on social networks
Reach a specific target audience
Social media platforms offer a very specific advertising targeting system. When you do very detailed segmentation of your advertising campaigns, you only reach the audience most interested in your products, which helps you maximize your advertising spending.
Learn and adjust in real time
Social media ads give you immediate feedback. You can measure the effectiveness of a sponsored post in real time and make appropriate adjustments to your strategy, including reallocating budget to your highest-converting ads with just a couple of clicks.
Easily monitor ROI
It’s not always easy to calculate the ROI of your social media strategy, but your ad reports show you the real value of your work in pesos and cents.
Most common types of social media advertising
Types of social media advertising by format
Image Ads
Image ads are the most common and most widely used. Since the origin of the first social networks, it has been the appropriate format for advertising.
On all social networks you can make ads with images; usually it is a still image, but it could just as well be a moving one, in GIF format. In these you can use a photograph of your products or services, a stock photo, a particular design, accompanied by a text related to your image and what you want to promote; in addition, a CTA or call to action to invite users to do something: “click,” “subscribe,” “visit,” “buy,” etc.
Video Ads
Video has become popular in many digital environments and social media. In recent years, it has been a trend in social media and will continue to have a great impact because today you can easily make a video from your cell phone with good quality and upload it without difficulty.
This format attracts attention and generates greater engagement with the audience.
Types of social media advertising by presentation
Group Ads
This type of ad involves a group of images or videos with a common message or thread, like image sequences on Facebook or carousels on Instagram.
These are a great option because if you show 5 or 10 images, you will attract more attention, and people will interact longer with your ad. Generally, social media algorithms value it when a user stays longer on a piece of content, so they will continue to show it to more people.
Dynamic Ads
Although images or videos are used for these types of ads, we call them “dynamic” because they promote interaction with people beyond their message and the format in which they are displayed. An example is the “stories” of Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and even Twitter; or the famous Instagram reels, Snapchat filters, and others.
These ads may only last a few seconds, but their impact is very powerful. Whether with a short 60-second video or with the use of filters, a dynamic is generated with users.
Direct Message Ads
Another possibility for social media advertising is sponsored messages delivered via chat or direct messaging on a social network. These types of ads must be implemented with caution and develop a truly valuable message to avoid being intrusive.
An example of this type of advertising can be seen on Facebook Messenger or LinkedIn InMail.
Advertisements on special channels
In this category, we refer to those channels that a particular social network has to show ads. For example, there is Instagram’s IGTV platform, Twitter’s Promote, and LinkedIn’s text ads that appear at the top right of the feed. On YouTube, there are ads that play before a video and its ads in “related videos” which are spaces that other networks do not have due to the specific characteristics of each platform.
How to do Social Media Advertising
1. Know your audience
Knowing your audience is essential. Having a clear understanding of your buyer personas is key to any effort you make to communicate something about your brand. If you know your audience, your ads will be more specific, focused, and in a tone that really connects.
Start by defining those ideal clients with these characteristics in mind, for example, age, occupation, interest, etc.
2. Define the objectives for your advertising
Set clear objectives for your social media advertising: what you want to achieve, what you need, what is the best format, among other aspects, because these objectives will guide each effort.
For example, whether you want to generate traffic to your website, increase your community, generate greater user participation, have a greater reach, promote a specific product, encourage a dynamic, etc.
3. Create campaigns
Once you have defined your objectives, you can create different campaigns, that is, a set of ads. A campaign involves the marketing actions you carry out to attract your audience.
To create the ideal campaign, you must first ask yourself the question, “What do I want to achieve through this campaign?” You can then design a campaign dedicated to achieving that goal. You must not lose sight of the fact that this is an integral process in which each part is very important for success.
4. Determine ad formats and types
If you have already decided on the social networks you will use and the objectives of your campaign, you must now think about the formats (image, video, GIF) and the type of ads you will make. It is recommended that you test all the spaces of the social network you are using to measure behavior and verify which type of ad is best for you.
Each brand, each social network, and each audience behave differently, but in general, it is recommended to create a set of ads with still images as a base and use videos to generate engagement.
5. Establish balanced budgets
It is often expensive to invest in traditional media, but today advertising has become democratized, and this is an achievement of digital environments. Advertising on social networks is flexible, since you can make a low or a very high investment.
However, you need to be careful with your investment, so think about balanced budgets, identify how many campaigns you have, how many ads they comprise, and make a balanced calculation. You can start with a smaller budget and reinforce the ads where you see more effectiveness, investing a little more in them.
6. Analyze metrics and optimize campaigns
Finally, social networks and social media managers provide you with highly detailed metrics and analytics on what your ads are producing, whether it’s clicks, engagement, views, comments, and more.
The metrics you need to focus on are reach, impressions, audience growth, and engagement rate. With reach, you can monitor how many people see your ads, see how many of them are your followers and how many aren’t, to give you an idea of how far your advertising is reaching.
Most popular social media advertising platforms
Ideal for large and small businesses, as well as solopreneurs, this social media app is geared toward older shoppers and retailers. It works well for those interested in running in-house ads using Facebook’s ad platform. Facebook Messenger can also be used for message exchanges and customer support.
Instagram is ideal for image-heavy campaigns and brands that focus on visuals and graphics rather than text-based updates. Instagram marketing targets young people and middle-aged people, depending on the niche or industry you’re targeting. Additionally, Instagram offers an instant messaging tool that lets you reply to direct messages from active users.
Although Twitter limits characters when sharing updates and new posts, it offers a wide reach and the possibility of fine-tuning the use of hashtags. A beginner’s guide to Twitter can help get you on the right track. Incorporating hashtags into various campaigns with this social network is a great way to gain traction while increasing the overall visibility of your brand online.
YouTube
The greatest place to share videos if you want to include social media into your business initiatives is YouTube. YouTube appeals to most age groups, regardless of location and interests. YouTube is ideal for those thinking about using video, podcast, or even recording media to attract attention to their business or brand. Having a popular YouTube channel can help you gain fans and provide a steady stream of cash.
Conclusion
Social media advertising has revolutionized the way businesses connect with their audiences, offering unparalleled opportunities to reach specific demographics with tailored messages. This advertising form’s unique advantages include precise audience targeting, real-time feedback, and flexible budgeting, making it a versatile tool for businesses of all sizes.
Social media advertising is an indispensable element of modern marketing strategies. Its ability to deliver targeted, engaging, and measurable results makes it a powerful tool for enhancing brand visibility and driving business growth. As digital landscapes continue to evolve, businesses that effectively leverage social media advertising will be well-positioned to succeed in an increasingly competitive market.
