Why Your Small Business Needs Social Media Advertising

In today’s world where having your own business or a side hustle has become a major trend, millions of small businesses have sprung up and are competing for attention, traffic, brand awareness, leads, clients, and to top the list, sales.

To get the needed recognition, these small businesses have turned to social media. No doubt, social media is the #1 digital avenue to create awareness for your business fast. But the days of organic reach on social media are over as social media algorithms have shifted towards paid reach.

Also, big companies and larger corporations are taking full advantage of social media to promote their businesses, leaving smaller businesses little or no chance of surviving on any social media platform.

This is why you need to spend some advertising dollars on your small business to get the traffic that will bring you some sales, so your business can survive this fierce competition and grow.

Here are the top 6 social media channels where you can get the best ROI for every advertising dollar you spend on your business.

Facebook

There are over 2.2 billion monthly active users on Facebook with 1.5 billion active daily on the platform. Facebook has become part of people’s lives and your potential clients are there on this social media platform.

Facebook offers advertisers a lot of options to create the audience they want to display their ads to. You can create your audience by

• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Device
• Online shopping behaviors
• Job Titles
• Interests, and lots more

Facebook ads are cheap. With a few hundred dollars, even with less than $100, you can start advertising on Facebook. you can spend as low as $5/day on Facebook ads to drive targeted traffic to your website.

Instagram

With over 800 million active users and still growing, Instagram has become a huge and diverse online community with unlimited marketing potential. 90% of top global brands use Instagram and I see no reason why you shouldn't advertise on Instagram to grow your business.

Instagram and Facebook are connected. This makes it easy to target your audience based on the superior Facebook data. In fact, Instagram ads can be created directly via Facebook without getting on Instagram.

Twitter

Most businesses focus on Facebook and Instagram when it comes to running social media ads for their businesses. Little do they know that Twitter is a goldmine of customer insights and opportunities to build their brands and drive sales for their businesses.

When it comes to achieving your marketing goals, Twitter is a powerful tool. With more than 145 million active daily users and more than 330 million monthly active users, using Twitter to promote your business is a smart decision and should be part of your marketing strategies.

Audience targeting on Twitter is very easy and straightforward. You can target your audience based on

• Location
• Device
• Age
• Gender
• Events
• Interests
• Movies and TV shows
• Keywords
• Follower look-alikes, and many more.

The best part, Twitter ads are very cheap and you’d be surprised at what you can do with $50. You can achieve cost-per-click for as low as $0.08 or $0.09 on average with Twitter ads.

YouTube

With over 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is undoubtedly the most popular website in the world...and you don't want to miss out on the huge advertising opportunities this platform presents.

Video is one of the most engaging content types out there and one of the most powerful ways to reach your potential customers. Video marketing and more specifically YouTube Ads are some of those tools you definitely want to have in your marketing toolbox.

The low cost of advertising on YouTube is an attractive proposition for small businesses. A typical video ad costs between $0.10 and $0.30 per view depending on the video quality, targeting, and overall goal.

Another advantage of using YouTube ads is - YouTube presents advertisers with a lot of targeting options to reach their potential clients or customers. You can target by

• Users' YouTube search history
• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Interest
• Lifestyles
• Household Income
• Hobbies, etc

YouTube Ads is not only about videos. You can create image and text ads if you don't have the budget for making videos. YouTube has an ad tool that can guide you through the process of making your own video or image ads.

Now you know how easy it is to get in front of your potential customers on YouTube.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is by far the best and the biggest professional social media platform. With over 500 million professionals and business people on the platform, advertising on LinkedIn is a smart choice for businesses in the B2B sector.

Although LinkedIn has fewer active users on it than other social media platforms like Facebook Instagram, YouTube, etc, the average buying power of LinkedIn users is 2 times greater than any other social media platform.

This means businesses advertising on LinkedIn are going to attract more high paying clients than on any other social advertising platform. Also, businesses offering high ticket services (or products) are likely to make more sales on LinkedIn than on any other social advertising platform.

LinkedIn ads offer a lot of targeting options. LinkedIn Advertisers can target users based on

• Location
• Job Title
• Company Name
• Industry
• Professional Interests, and many more.

The only downside to LinkedIn ads is that it's a bit expensive. But the fact that LinkedIn users are high-income earners has adequately compensated for this.

Pinterest

Pinterest is another great social media advertising platform, especially for women's products and services. Pinterest advertising is a pay-for-placement system that allows brands to reach over 200 million monthly users on the platform.

Here are some cool stats you need to know about Pinterest before you start advertising on the platform:

• 80% of Pinterest users are women
• Women pin 92% of Pinterest Pins
• 96% of users use the tool to research something they’re about to purchase
• Over half of the people using Pinterest have purchased a product after seeing it in a pin

People mostly use Pinterest to save products they will buy later. This is what makes Pinterest a perfect place to advertise your products. In fact, most Pinterest users plan purchases with Pinterest, and a lot of the users actually make a purchase because of something they saw on the platform.

Creating your target audience in Pinterest is easy. You can target your audience based on Interest and Demographics. You can also create an audience based on the following options given by Pinterest:

• Visitors to your site: For this, you’ll need the Pinterest Tag code embedded
• A list of customers you upload: You can upload a .CSV with email addresses and Pinterest will display ads to those people who are already on the platform
• An engagement audience that engaged with your previous Pins: People who have clicked on your Pins before are a good choice because they’re likely interested in what you’re offering
• An actalike audience that behaves in a similar way to your existing audience. You can use actalike audiences to find new customers or new people who are likely to engage with your ads based on your existing audience.

Now you know the top social media advertising platforms where you can promote your product and services. It's time to take action and start promoting your business on these platforms. You may try out 2 or 3 of these platforms, even all of them, to see which one works best for your products or services.

If you need help promoting your products or services on any of these platforms, get in touch with us, we are happy to help you.