Social Media Advertising Benefits
Social media advertising is an effective way to get the word out about your business or idea. Whether you want to sell a book, market a course or get customers to buy your products, you can use this form of marketing to reach your target audience. What’s notable about social media advertising is it is accessible to all types of businesses, from small startups to big international corporations.
In this post, we will explore the benefits of social media advertising. We will also highlight the types and platforms for this form of marketing. Have a look at the benefits to help you gauge whether social media advertising is ideal for your business.
Key Benefits
Social media advertising refers to the act of targeting a paid advertisement to your customers through social media platforms. The advisements are known collectively as social ads or social media ads, and they come in different formats. The ads contain multimedia elements (photo or video), a title and description, and a call-to-action that invites the viewer to perform a certain activity.
What Are the Types of Social Media Advertising?
As we mentioned above, there are various types of social media ads that you can select for your business. Each type has its strengths and drawbacks. Let’s explore them one by one:
Video ads
Video ads are social media ads served in video format. These ads allow you to not only reach your target audience but also demonstrate how your product or service works. The videos are often short, ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes. The length, however, depends on the ad creator and the social media platform in use.
Here’s a quick tip – short video ads have a higher finish rate. The longer a video is, the higher the chances of a viewer skipping it halfway. It’s better to keep your video ads short so that the user remains attentive. Still, you can go for longer videos if you have a valuable and compelling message worth sharing, like demonstrating how to sign-up or purchase your product.
Photo ads
Photo ads are the most common social media ad type, and they involve displaying advertisements in image format. These ads appear on the feed and sidebar sections of a social network. They are easier to create and are an excellent option for building brand awareness and getting a user to perform an action, for example, heading to your website. Photo ads aren’t effective at conveying information. You can’t use them to show your audience how to use your product or service.
Messenger ads
Messenger ads are great for starting a conversation with your potential customers. They appear in Facebook’s Messenger chats tab in between conversations. They can also be sent automatically when a user comments on one of your Facebook posts. These ads are relatively new compared to other ad types. You can use Messenger ads to get your prospects talking to you or persuade them to purchase your product.
Stories ads
Stories ads appear on the stories section of a social network, and they can be in video or image format. One notable thing about these ads is they are displayed fully on the viewer’s screen, thus becoming the point of focus.
Stories ads run for a couple of seconds, depending on the social network. In the case of Facebook, one photo stories ad runs for six seconds. A video can be up to 15 seconds. As for Instagram, both photos and videos can play for 120 seconds.
Message ads
Message ads are more or less similar to Facebook Messenger ads in that they also appear in the chat section. These ads are available on LinkedIn, and they allow you to send direct messages to potential clients.
Message ads have a high open-rate, and they also enable you to start a conversation with your prospects. You can use these ads to generate leads or get clients to visit your page or website.
Which Platforms Can You Use for Social Media Marketing?
When deciding which social media network is right for your business, go for the one where you are most likely to find your target audience. Each platform has a different audience. For example, if you want to target business professionals and college graduates, you have a higher chance of finding them on LinkedIn. TikTok, on the other hand, may work if your product or service is for customers aged 15 to 25.
Here’s an overview of five top platforms you can use for social media advertising:
LinkedIn is a social network focused on professionals and anyone interested in the corporate world. This platform is an excellent option for businesses that target companies or job seekers. LinkedIn works better for B2B than B2C advertising. You can run the following types of ads on this platform:
- Photo and video ads (also called sponsored content)
- Message and text ads
- Lead Gen Forms
TikTok
Although relatively new to the social media scene, TikTok is ideal for targeting a younger audience. This social media platform is more of a video-sharing app where users can create and share short videos of any kind. You can use TikTok to make in-feed video ads, branded hashtag challenges, and TopView ads. For more see, How To Advertise on TikTok.
If you want to advertise to customers through photos and videos, Instagram might be a good fit. This social network is more of a visual than a text-reliant platform. The social ad types you can run on Instagram include sponsored video, photo, and stories ads.
Although the competition has never been stronger, Facebook is still the largest social media platform. It’s also a reliable choice for advertising your business. The great thing about Facebook is it contains wide demography in terms of age and gender. You have a higher chance of finding your target audience on this platform. The ad types available on Facebook are more or less similar to those on Instagram, except for Messenger ads.
X
Unlike Instagram, X is text-based. This platform is where most users discover new and trending information. The ad types available on X include promotion tweets and X ads.
Here are other platforms that offer social media advertising:
- Snapchat
How Effective Is Social Media Advertising?
There is no doubt that social networks came and changed how we view advertising. In the past, businesses relied on traditional forms of marketing such as billboards, radio, magazines, and television ads. Although still vital, these forms of advertising weren’t always accessible to small businesses and startups. The advantage of social media advertising is that it’s all-inclusive. Let’s go over a few benefits of advertising via social media.
Price
Social media advertising is relatively economical compared to other marketing methods. You won’t have to break the bank to run a social media ad. Most social networking platforms also allow you to decide how much you are willing to spend, so you have more control over your advertising budget.
Wider reach
On top of saving on marketing, you also get to reach a large audience by advertising through social media. Your ads can reach customers of any age, gender, or location.
Social media advertising is particularly advantageous for businesses that target international markets. It offers them a global reach. This advertising method enables you to drive sales and increase your conversion rate because you can access more potential customers.
Highly targeted audience
Another benefit of social media advertising is it gives you access to a targeted audience. You can choose the people you want your ads to reach based on demographics like age and location or psychographics such as interests and behavior.
Social media advertising allows you to segment your audience to only those more likely to buy your product or service. Your cost per customer acquisition reduces, and you get to generate more hot leads for your business.
Immediate insights and reports
Social media advertising has yet another edge over traditional marketing in that you can track the performance of your ads. Most social media platforms offer reports and analytics to show your ad’s performance. You get to see the number of people who viewed your ad, liked, followed, shared, or clicked your call-to-action. The platforms give you first-hand information to help you analyze the success rate of your ad campaigns.
Better engagement
Unlike traditional advertising, social media ads allow your audience to take more action. When advertising through a magazine or radio, customers can only get to you through your contact information. With social media, they can message you or follow your page. They can also comment, share, like and save your post.
Having more actions gives your audience the freedom to contact you at their own will. It’s not just a matter of buying or not buying. If the customer doesn’t want to buy from you yet, they can follow you or save your post for another day.
Conclusion
Advertising through social media is a great way to increase brand recognition and drive sales for your business. This advertising method is accessible to all types of businesses and offers more bang for the buck compared to more traditional marketing techniques.
There are numerous social media ad types that you can select. Some like photo and video ads are visually dynamic. Others, such as message ads, are text-based. Each platform offers its own category of social ads.
With social media advertising, you can segment your audience based on demographics. You also get to view analytics and reports showing your ad’s performance. Your potential customers have the freedom to contact you directly or take more actions, such as following your page and sharing your post. They have many options to reach you.
Resources
In this section, you’ll find a few resources that can help with your social media advertising.
Whether it’s information or sites that have advertising opportunities, it’s worth a few minutes to take a look and see what will work best for you.
Platforms
There are many social media platforms available today. Some platforms are well-known, while new sites are showing up and others are disappearing.
It’s beneficial to know about the available social media platforms. It’s also a good idea to keep an eye on the newer ones that are getting popular so you can determine if there’s an opportunity to market on that platform.
See the latest Google search results for social media platforms.
Marketing Tools
The right social media marketing tools can be a blessing. Marketing tools can save you time and offer valuable information to create a successful marketing campaign.
There are many tools out there. However, in my opinion, it would be beneficial and save you time to go through reviews for a headstart.
From there, you can try out the ones you find appealing and decide which are the best fit for you.
See the latest Google search results for reviews on social media marketing tools.
The Best Social Media Sites for Marketing
Some social media sites are worth the time, effort, and advertising investment. Others may not be a good fit. Some are still in the early stages of developing their advertising platforms.
Rather than trying each of them yourself, which could take a significant amount of time, I would suggest going through reviews to find the top sites and then choosing the ones that seem to be the best fit for you.
You may have a list of two or three sites where you can run a few test campaigns and see which one has the best ROI.
See the latest Google search results for reviews related to the Best Social Media Sites for Marketing.
Advertising on Social Media
You can benefit from spending a few hours reviewing suggestions for social media advertising and choosing the ones that make sense to you.
If you compile a list of 5 to 10 methods and start testing them one at a time over the next few weeks, you can develop a social media strategy that you can use to promote whatever you want.
For the latest tips related to advertising on social media, see the latest Google search results and choose the ones that work best for you.
Advertising Cost
Advertising costs will vary depending on the social media platform. Another contributing factor is the competition for your target market.
A highly competitive market will drive the price up. You will need to have a proven conversion rate or spend a lot of money testing and optimizing your advertising campaign.
Social media advertising costs are always changing. For an update, see the latest Google search results for social media advertising costs.
Advertising Services
Using a service for social media marketing can be beneficial because you should be getting a professional level of expertise. The key is finding a reputable, affordable, professional company that can understand your business.
When you find a company that can represent your business effectively on social media, you have found a way to increase sales anytime you start a campaign. For a look at the social media advertising services out there, see the latest Google search results.
Advertising Statistics
Statistics can give you an idea of trends, performance, and a benchmark of what to expect. Another benefit is you’ll be able to compare performance between social media platforms, giving you an idea of where you are better off investing your campaign budget.
See the latest Google Search results for social media advertising statistics for tips and insights you can use in your campaign.