Paid Social: Is it worth it?
Social Media advertising... As a user, it may be the bane of our existence but it's becoming very clear that social media ads are the new staple in digital marketing strategies. From Influencer Marketing, to promoted posts- it's something you can't seem to escape no matter what platform. Maybe that's the point!
What is Paid Social?
Paid Social is a method of running paid advertisements, or sponsored messages on social media platforms in efforts of targeting a specific audience.
Why Paid Social is "worth it":
Not only are you able to raise Brand Awareness and maximize your content marketing, a well-crafted campaign can immediately bring you results since you're tapping into a tailored customer base. For example, you can set up campaigns to only serve followers living in a particular area, earning a specific income level, or even just previous customers. It's all in your hands! Who's most likely to give you conversions?
Each social network offers different forms of advertising and insights that come with. Twitter has Promoted Tweets, LinkedIn has Carousel Ads, Facebook has Boosted Posts, etc. Facebook also allows you multiple targeting options depending on your goal.
Let's take a look!
Core Audiences
Core Audiences refer to a target audience that you can determine using a specific criteria like demographics, location, interests, behavior, etc. Whether it be a city, an age group, or even people who have interest in your subject, you set the rules.
Custom Audiences
Custom Audiences lets you find already existing audiences that know or are interested in your business. You could use your email list, or let Facebook automatically create a custom audience of people who visit your website.
Lookalike Audiences
Lookalike Audiences are a way for you to reach a whole new group of people that are similar to your customers. Exhibiting common interests or habits as your current consumer group, can be a telling sign they will respond well to your ads.
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Facebook Ad Example: Miracle Food Network
To better illustrate a quick and easy way you can utilize Paid Social Advertising on Facebook, I've created a mock promotion for a local nonprofit in the area.
As their main priority being Brand Awareness, and gaining leads for volunteers/donations, I've chosen the goal as "Get more traffic" to lead the audience to their website.
The ideal audience would be those who fall in the demographic of 18-65+, and who are in the geographic area surrounding Bellingham. Due to the nature of MFN, the interests match the purpose of the organization- but there's other options that allow you to target Custom Audiences that might have already shown interest in your page.
You can also review several different versions, and play around with various descriptions or images depending on your preference. This happened to be my favorite one.
See how easy that was?
Do you believe me when I say it's worth it?
It's common to think that ad spending is only for big brands, but social media platforms are making advertising accessible for both small and large businesses.
In fact, most of Facebook's revenue actually comes from small and medium size businesses that use Facebook for its specific audience targeting features - Mark Staton, 2021