Over the last decade, the nature of social media has changed with regards to the footloose and fancy free forum for business growth it once was. It's no longer this metropolis of free advertising space for businesses, it’s a competitive 'pay to play' arena where businesses are shouting to get noticed. If organic content and growth of a business is still a relevant, yet dated, horse ride along the strategic route to market... then paid social advertising is a Formula One car.
Paid social media adverts come in many guises, and choosing what type of paid advertising to invest in can be difficult. It all starts with choosing your platform. Think carefully about your real life target audience and where they spend their time; e.g. Kardashian obsessed teens? Head straight to Tiktok! Power dressing career climbers? Look no further than LinkedIn! Arty 30 somethings? Pinterest's your best bet! You get the idea 😜
From straight out boosting a post on Facebook to getting to grips with Twitter Promote or Snapchat Instant Create...the Ouma Team are on hand to guide your business through the complex tundra of cross platform social media paid advertising! We are your experienced Sherpas at Everest Base Camp, ready to help you reach the summit through a witty, personalised InMail on LinkedIn or spooky, yet incredibly effective Google Display Ads (and so much more!). Much like children in a sweet shop, there's absolutely no limit when it comes to social ads!
The Dynamic Duo...a Very Good Place to Start
To succeed at using paid forms of advertising on social media, and if you are particularly interested in the dynamic duo that is Facebook and Instagram, you're going to need to get well and truly acquainted with Business Manager. Think of it as Facebook's suited and booted older sibling. By organising, creating and monitoring your ads through Business Manager, we guarantee you will achieve a much higher level of control and feedback. The objectives that Business Manager can assist you with are endless, when used correctly. The platform allows you to directly focus your efforts on a whole range of goals including...
Improving your brand awareness to a particular audience by repeatedly creating touchpoints for your brand for a smaller, more refined demographic.
Spreading your message far and wide by showing your ad to as many people as possible across a broader demographic.
Increasing the amount of traffic through to your website by directing people to the website through a set URL on the advert and targeting audiences within your parameters that are more likely carry out this behaviour. (It can also increase the amount of traffic to your Facebook or Instagram store if you don’t yet have a website)
Increasing and improving the quality of your engagement (comments, reactions, shares etc.) by specifically targeting people who are more likely to engage with your content based on their previous behaviour.
Generating higher quality leads by creating a contact form or 'Instant Experience' within the social media platform making it easier to capture your target market's details.
Ouma Jargon Buster: What on earth is a CTR (click through rate)?
A measurement referring to the number of people that click on your link in your post and proceed through to your website. The higher the CTR rate, the more people are taking actions on your Ads. A low CTR means people are seeing your Ads, but not taking action.
Example: 1,000 people see your advert and 20 people click on it to head to your website; that gives you a 2% Click Through Rate. If you run a separate ad to the same audience and it returns a higher CTR, the performance of the advert is better (perhaps the wording, format or imagery is more enticing).
The Power of The Algorithm
'The Algorithm' sounds like a sinister character from a Sherlock Holmes novel or the name of a hipster cocktail bar. It is, in fact, neither of these things, it is the term referring to sequences of coded instructions that make the modern world turn on its axis. It is the bedrock of the online world. With regards to social media, it's what makes all of the above objectives achievable; how certain behaviour and the activity of users is noted and acted upon and reacted to, e.g. to predict and provide them with more of the content they tend to engage with. (Yes...The Matrix is real 🤓)
It is the data collected by the algorithm that allow us to clearly pinpoint your audiences when creating your advertising campaign and strategize your process. For example, you are able to build a specific audience for your advert from a vast range of different demographics and then create a look-a-like audience to turbo-boost the next stage of your campaign.
Paid social media advertising relies entirely on this clever piece of computer science, and is constantly being upgraded, expanded and added to. We feel it's important to have a general understanding of social media algorithms if you are stepping into the arena of paid online advertising, and it's essential to keep up to date with announcements and changes to the algorithm. Keep your finger firmly on the pulse - It makes your ads game and your organic content stronger and more successful.
Ouma Jargon Buster: Demographics?
For those who don't know, demographics are a fancy way of saying who your audience are. This is broken down into a multitude of factors including gender, age, location, interests etc.
The Benefits of Intuitive Technology
The intuitive application of social media technology holds a huge number of benefits to those investing in the paid advertising arena. The way systems can track and learn from your target audiences is truly astounding, and it's something we just love to work with!
There are pieces of code that can be integrated into your website that maps the way traffic has reached your site and what their actions have been whilst there (down to the second). If this isn't cool enough for you, these clever pieces of code and our know-how can then re-target those individuals across the internet!
This type of information is just one part of a range of useful feedback that systems like Business Manager and Google Analytics can provide you. We always recommend A/B Testing our client's campaigns by changing the nature of the post or target audience to ascertain what will provide them with the best return on their investment. By using A/B testing you can find what works for you and your business!
Ouma Jargon Buster: What on earth is A/B testing?
A/B testing in this context is an online experiment where two variants are shown to users at random with the sole aim to provide data for analysis and ideally determine which variant performed better in achieving a given goal.
This kind of advertising investment is totally unique for every business. It can be a tricky process to strategically refine for your organisation's needs. If you want to harness the power of paid advertising on social media platforms but aren't sure how to get started, reach out to the professionals and let us guide you through it! It's one of our favourite subjects (naturally!) and we're always around to offer a proverbial helping hand to steady the steering wheel of your brand new Formula One car.
