No matter what industry you’re in, or what products or services you’re selling, social media advertising offers a real, effective means to grow your audience, generate leads, increase sales, and boost online visibility. If you need convincing further, consider that, by 2018, an estimated $14 billion per year will be spent on social media advertising. It’s time to take a look at how YOUR business could benefit from social advertising.
The really cool thing about social media advertising is that it helps businesses find new potential customers by using users’ own shared information to identify interest. These advanced targeting options increase your ad’s relevance to your users, providing a unique and powerful level of personalisation that other advertising channels could only dream of! And if, as a small business owner, you have an advertising budget that’s already spread pretty thin, the good news is that it can provide a relatively cost effective option. Let’s take a look at some options:
For small businesses, Facebook offers an unparalleled opportunity to increase their online reach. As the king of social media, it enjoys unsurpassed audience reach and strong targeting options, which make it a great choice for businesses hoping to increase foot traffic to stores, traffic to their website, or maximize brand exposure. Whilst the organic reach of Facebook traffic has fallen steadily, there are numerous opportunities for paid search advertisers to get their messages in front of Facebook’s vast audience.
Take a good look at the options, there are three main categories – Online Sales, Mobile Apps and Local Stores with numerous ad types in each – and make sure that any ads you create are the right ones for your business. Close monitoring of the conversion rates will give you a good idea of whether a campaign is working.
Twitter’s user base isn’t as vast as Facebook’s, but it IS dedicated and loyal, which makes the platform a great place for businesses looking to advertise to a reliable audience of frequent users. Twitter’s ads are very straightforward and come in the form of promoted tweets, accounts and trends. Promoted trends may be prohibitively expensive to smaller businesses, but you decide the daily and total cost of any campaign in advance and benefit from Twitter’s Campaign Dashboard which offers a comprehensive view of the engagement generated.
LinkedIn, as the world’s largest professional social network, is a great choice for B2B advertisers. It’s also growing, making it a good long-term bet in terms of consistent audience growth too.
The three main advertising formats on LinkedIn are Sponsored Updates, Display ads and Direct Sponsored Content. The unique value of LinkedIn advertising comes from the platform’s targeting options which leverage the site’s strengths as a professional social network, enabling advertisers to target users based on job title, seniority, industry etc. For small businesses looking to connect with other businesses, LinkedIn ads are a powerful form of advertising, but watch out for costs as they can be very expensive compare to other channels.
There are other platforms worth considering too: with around 200 million active users, Instagram has an enormous reach, and Pinterest, though a relative newcomer to the world of social media advertising, and a much smaller user base than its peers, has very loyal users and could be a great platform for increasing overall visibility.
Whilst it’s clear that social media advertising works, it’s also evident that not every platform will work for every business. It’s essential that, before you choose a platform and a format, you’ve carefully considered your budget and your needs. So, do your research, create an eye-catching, skilfully targeted ad that will pack a good punch and stand out online, and use the right platform. It’s worth experimenting with a few low-cost campaigns to find the right fit for your business. Social media advertising isn’t just for the big boys, so take advantage of the opportunities and harness its power to promote your small business!
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Perfect timing with this! I was just starting to put together some Facebook ads when it popped up on my news feed. Very helpful, thank you!