Social media has not only transformed the way we communicate but also the way we make purchasing decisions given that social ads are now a normal part of the scrolling experience. In fact, a quarter of social media users ages 18-44 have bought a product on a social app, and 80% of social media marketers predict that social purchases will be more popular than brands’ websites in 2023.
As social media advertising is much more accessible compared to other media outlet advertising, it’s well suited for small businesses to use to complement their organic efforts. It’s a cost-effective advertising method because businesses set a budget for their social media advertising costs and ensure it is shown to likely customers by specifying the target audience the ad campaign is shown to.
So, should you add social media ad campaigns to your marketing strategy? We’ll help you decide.
The Benefits of Social Media Advertising
“Why is everyone telling me to use social media advertising for my small business?” If you’re a local business owner, you’ve probably asked yourself this question once or twice before. Let’s talk about what’s possible with social media ads.
You Can Meet Customers Where They’re At
Social media platforms are valuable tools in the digital marketing thttps://www.podium.com/article/social-media-marketing-strategy toolkit even when only sharing organic posts. On social media, you can meet your customers where they’re already spending time, attracting new eyes to the business and building loyalty through regular interactions over a period of time.
You Can Increase Your Reach
While organic social media can help you reach new eyes, social media advertising takes this to the next level. It boosts the efforts already being made. Paid social media campaigns have a much larger reach than organic posts. If you want to reach more people and build your brand awareness, social media advertising is the way to do it. Naturally, a higher reach will lead to more website traffic and more sales. Especially as ad campaigns are very customizable to the individual business.
You’re in Control
Most social media platforms have a paid ads option so depending on your marketing strategy and target audience, you can invest in Instagram ads, LinkedIn ads, Twitter ads and more. As well as customizing the platform users that will see the social media campaign, further audience targeting is possible when setting up social ad campaigns to ensure it is reaching your specific target audience depending on their age, interests, and behavior.
But if social media advertising is that great, why isn’t everyone doing it? Well, admittedly it’s not perfect.
What About the Cons?
Clearly, social media advertising has a lot of potential, particularly for small and growing businesses. However, it’s not as simple as setting up an ad campaign and seeing sales flood in. Making social media ads work does take a bit more effort.
Social Media Ads are a Pay to Play Game
While at the dawn of social media advertising businesses could set a budget of $5 a day and get loads of leads, the paid ads space is now much more competitive and not as easy to crack. Money needs to be invested to experiment with ad placements, ad types, social media channels, and audience targeting. Even when you’ve found your flow, to attract a significant number of leads, you may need to commit to a significant ad spend.
You Need to Know What You’re Doing
It does take knowledge and skill to create an ad campaign that abides by the rules determined by the social media platform and is compelling enough for your customers to interact with. The same expertise is needed to set up the audience targeting and then monitor and refine advertising campaigns. Successful social advertising requires expertise.
Recouping the Investment Takes Time
You need plenty of time, money, and patience. It’s unlikely your social ads will hit the mark straight away so you’ll have to spend time and money to achieve the outcomes you’re after. The social media advertising costs can rack up quickly. Even those who have a lot of success with social advertising have a significant proportion of their digital advertising budget dedicated to social ads.
Businesses need to be prepared to invest in social media ads to get the payoff. With fair expectations of social media advertisements set, let’s explore the different ad types you could use in your advertising campaigns.
