The Value of Social Advertising

Take the Hootsuite Social Marketing course and develop foundational social marketing skills to grow followers, engagement, and business results.

Video Transcript | Intro

Paid Social Media advertising is quickly becoming an integral component of a cohesive marketing plan for businesses large and small. By harnessing technology that allows companies to deliver messages to well-targeted audiences, social ads done right can help you get your business in front of people who are more likely to be interested in your message and your products.  

Targeting 

The value of social advertising lies in the large audience size your company has the potential to reach and the finely tuned targeting capabilities social ad platforms offer. Millions of people log onto Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn on a daily basis to share their interests and connect with friends, family, and their favorite brands. Social advertising gives companies a way to serve ads to the right segment of that active audience. For example, say you’re a band looking to reach a new audience in Vancouver ahead of a live show. You could target people by the genre of music they like, location and their precise age bracket. 

Before you get started

Integrating social ads into your content marketing efforts is a good avenue to explore, but before you spend the time and money, first take a look at whether your company is ready to incorporate social ads into its business. Ads that are well aligned with your social media strategy and larger business objectives yield much better results than haphazard efforts. Before you proceed, ask yourself these questions: does my company have a well defined social media strategy with clear objectives? Do I have a clear idea of how social ads will help support those objectives? Is our social team ready for a large influx of activity on our social ads? If the answer is no, it might be best to take a step back and build the foundational pieces of your social media program, which will shape and guide your social ads activity more naturally. Another important piece to think about is budget - it’s best to allocate enough financial resources to clearly see the impact of your ads. You might want to consider $500 is a good place to start. 

Testing

This is not to say that your company must be an industry heavyweight with flawless processes and protocols to benefit from social ads. Social ads can be useful in situations like promoting a small one-off event or simply testing and discovering what kind of messaging resonates with your audience. Ultimately, you want to establish the goals your social ads are intended to achieve and the objectives you want them to support and anticipate you’ll fine-tune your way to success along the way.

Looking for more? Checkout our blog and learn how to create a social media strategy in 8 easy steps!