How social media advertising is taking over the world
The 2021 social media advertising is booming! It’s impossible to imagine advertising through socials without it. What is it and how do you use it?
Social media advertising, or in other words social media targeting, is becoming increasingly important in our society today, especially with the development of the Internet. It is almost impossible to miss out on advertising on social media before you fall out of the box. In this blog, we will discuss this phenomenon and how you can use it effectively.
What is social media advertising and why?
Social media advertising is simply advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. By advertising on these platforms you obtain data that you can use in future campaigns.
It also helps you to target advertising (direct marketing). You can achieve a lot if you know how and with what content you can effectively set up social media advertising.
Social media advertising helps you to precisely and correctly target your audience (for example, around demographics, geography and interests), you generate (website) visitors, leads and conversions so you can expand your reach and you can use social media advertising at every stage.
You become more involved with your target group and you gain direct insights or data. You do all this by making the most of your budget. This way you can continuously improve your strategy.
Ways of social media advertising
Facebook advertising takes into account the SEO and SEA among other things. Branding, traffic, and conversion goals can be achieved. Everything is also fully measured for you.
To inspire your target audience, generate traffic or obtain conversion you can use Instagram. You also have Instagram Shopping to offer your products.
If you want to get more visibility, advertise content in different ways (promoted tweets, promoted accounts or promoted trends) and to generate traffic you can use Twitter.
LinkedIn can be used when targeting professionals in certain fields. It is therefore ideal for business-to-business. You target on a functional and professional level.
Snapchat
The communication on this platform is only through images. It is an interesting platform if you want to get different advertising opportunities for your ad mix. Advertising through this Snapchat is mainly aimed at the somewhat younger audiences.
TikTok
TikTok is also a channel that is aimed at the relatively young audiences. In addition, you advertise with video ads and you can again target with your ads.
YouTube
YouTube ads help you reach potential customers who watch video ads. You can tailor videos to interests with this channel.
Users often search for visual inspiration via Pinterest. You can capitalize on visual search with Pinterest. You can reach users who have a specific goal.
The paid networks are the most suitable for achieving something with your social media advertising. That is why we recommend you to advertise via this way.
Make sure you have a clear message to the right target group, so you can stand out from the rest. The pitfall in social media advertising is that there are already thousands of other companies that advertise through these platforms.
Follow these steps to advertise in the right way:
- Research which platform(s) your target audience uses most and where they can be found.
- Determine your goals and KPI’s to be able to measure the results.
- Choose the form in which you want to advertise and communicate your message.
- Launch the advertising campaigns and share them with people who matter to your organization.
- Run any A/B tests to see which way works best. Also consider the data you obtain during and after the ad campaigns. These can also be valuable for making choices.
The power of a sales funnel
A sales funnel consists of three phases, each with a different purpose. It concerns the following three phases:
Top of the funnel (awareness)
The top of the funnel is used when your brand is not well known yet, you want to generate more traffic or if you are looking for more brand awareness. In this phase you need to be able to inform your target audience and share your Unique Selling Point with the outside world. Often the call-to-action is a place for more information.
Middle of the funnel (consideration)
The middle of the funnel is after you have passed the top of the funnel: people recognize your brand. It is now only a matter of consideration or possible persuasion. You want people to be interested in purchasing your product.
You can showcase your product through a carousel ad. You can showcase multiple products in this ad. You also have a canvas ad that can come in handy. This is similar to a carousel ad, only now you are more concerned with attractively presenting the images (including any text or links). It is also a fold-out ad while the carousel can only be seen by swiping.
Bottom of the funnel (action or conversion)
If you have gone past the first two phases, you are in the bottom of the funnel phase. This is where you are concerned with generating action (conversion). You want a direct call-to-action to convince visitors. In this phase you can advertise your products or offer discounts / promotions. Of course it doesn’t have to be a purchase: subscribing to a channel, participating in something or signing up for a newsletter can also count as an action.
Targeting in social media advertising
You need to target your audiences specifically and effectively on social media, but how do you do that? The social media platforms already help you to target specifically. However, it is important to do research beforehand on which target groups you find interesting to focus your social media advertising on.
On the channels you can target on interest, gender, location, education, relationship status, behavior and connections of the target group. By choosing the right and appropriate target group, you can make your campaigns more effective. You can also retarget if necessary to increase customer loyalty and action. Consider this step!
The final stage of the sales funnel requires a clear call-to-action. Often this is done by linking directly to something. The call-to-action should be short, clear and eye-catching. Check out tips for the call-to-action.
Return on invest (ROI)
Social media advertising obviously takes up a lot of time, energy and money. So you do want to be able to capitalize on the return of investment (ROI), i.e. earn something back. For this I give you the following tips:
- You can’t improve what you don’t measure. So make sure everything is measurable.
- Check with whom you share your content
- Check if you are using the right tools for the right target group
- Make sure your content is shown to the right target group.
- Read our blog about content business to better respond to this.
- Post content consistently and regularly
- The social media should give value to your customers
- Test regularly and find out what works and what does not by using the data you obtain.
- Use the data you get from the social media platforms
Do you meet the above points? That’s a great start! Remember that you’re not there yet, because there is always room for improvement and development with social media advertising.
The video below is the perfect guide for social media advertising beginners!
