What is Paid Social Advertising?
Whether you are a business owner, marketing nerd, research student or networking enthusiast, this breakdown of Paid Social Advertising is for you!
Paid Social Advertising is simply the more technical term for the prolific and ever present advertisements that interrupt your Instagram reels and Facebook feed. You might even have noticed and wondered why “Promoted” or “Sponsored” are labels on specific posts or publications. Simply put, they are the frontrunners for advertisements that are being pushed by the company, through a regulated platform for the best exposure and usually best results.
These are in contrast to the organic posts that businesses publish for their company. Organic posts refers to the regular and common posts, stories, and reels that can be shared from any type of account on social media. The various types of accounts on social media are: private personal, public personal, business, and creator. Each type of account has its own advantages but when it comes to business and creator, there are analytical and networking tools available to the user that are not available to personal accounts. These tools are the rudders and oars to keep your marketing schemes in the right current.
As a business owner or a marketing manager, you may at times feel like you have been treading water for too long by posting and sharing organically. Well, it is not cheating to take hold of the life raft that platforms and host networks throw out to help you and your business swim back to the boat.
You may be asking: Why Paid Advertising? What is the purpose?
Here is the answer: To get more eyes on your page and products!
“But how? What medium do I use?”
The answer? Targeted Ads! Targeted ads aimed to a direct and specific audience that you and your business are trying to reach!
You may be asking yourself, “But why do I need to pay to use a free social media platform to promote my business?”
The answer is five fold:
Wider Reach
More Visibility
Enhanced Brand Awareness
In Depth Marketing Insights
Targeted Advertising
Now let's dive into these five aspects of Paid Advertisements!
Wider Reach
Paid Social Advertising will help you and your company gain a larger audience through the algorithm and networking systems of larger platforms such as Meta, X, or LinkedIn. Regular, or organic posting, reaches your followers and friends immediately but does not come across the feed of those who do not already follow your business page.
More Visibility
Once you strike a deal with a specific platform, they now have stock and investment in your business - specifically that campaign. Not only will they reach a broader audience with that campaign but also promote and expose it more often to generate more revenue for your business. This in turn creates a relationship of promotions and product placement between your business and the platform.
Enhanced Brand Awareness
With a wider reach and more visibility comes enhanced brand awareness that utilizes networking and brand promotion. Your company, services, and products are now being shown worldwide at a rate and pace that is unmatched by any natural or organic start. Networking is happening naturally and brand awareness is now at an all time high.
In Depth Marketing Insights
Most, if not all - platforms and pages give reviews of Marketing Insights of your posts, stories, and website clicks. Instagram is a great example of how their mother brand, Meta, compiles data and information about the post placement and promotion and presents the information in an accurate and succinct way to the marketing manager.
Meet,
Cost per click (CPC)
Cost per action (CPA)
Return on ad spend (ROAS)
Return on investment (ROI)
These acronyms are going to be lighthouses that help you steer your company’s marketing ship back into safe (and profitable) waters!
Targeted Advertising
Paid Social Advertisements’ last leg of support is Targeted Advertising. Meta specifically, uses a combination of data collection, machine learning, and audience targeting options. This information is gathered by interaction, engagement, and analyzing information from your personal device and account.
SemRush reminds us how simple it is to set up our own target audience: “Many social media platforms let you target broad or specific audiences based on certain characteristics. For example, Facebook lets you target ads based on location, age, gender, interests, behavior, and language.”
The timeline is simple:
It usually looks something like this: Sarah is scrolling through TikTok and sees a backpack that she admires - she likes the video - that seller obtains her information. Later that day, Sarah, (still on TikTok) sees a video of New Balance’s spring and summer shoe collection. The longer she watches the video instead of scrolling right past, the more her information is shared with New Balance. By the next day Sarah’s social media feed is full of backpacks and New Balance kicks.
And once you’re in the system, there is no getting out…
With those five reasons and matters of importance in mind, here is a tip from Constant Contact to utilize as you seek to create your Paid Social Media Ads.
“For all of your paid social ads, remember to:
Define your objective
Define your target audience
Analyze organic (non-paid) posts to know what works best for you
Make your ads mobile responsive
Set, and keep a budget for social paid ads across platforms.”
Paid Social Media Advertisements are useful tools that are provided by networking and media platforms for the promotion of your business and products. The internal tools are usually set automatically but can be monitored or adjusted manually through the apps or websites. AI is a rising toolbox in itself that is being integrated into most Paid Social Media Advertising platforms. Yet, as much as this sector of advertising is broad and sometimes confusing, it still drives sales and promotions, giving you and your business Wider Reach, More Visibility, Enhanced Brand Awareness, In Depth Marketing Insights, and Targeted Advertising.
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