Social Media Advertising

• Date: 09 April 2018
• reading time: 20 Minutes Minutes
• Blogger: Gurby Bulo
• E-mail: [email protected]

Recent observations on social media advertising showed that internet advertising expenditure was overdubbing in 2013. It is also predicted that by 2020, the cost of social media advertising will rise to $ 113 billion.

Facebook is the biggest player in the digital advertising world, capturing 35.4% of total display advertising spending in the US $ 11.93 billion. It is followed by Google taking in $ 4.79 billion. And this figure is just for display ads. Facebook's total social revenue revenue was more than $ 6.8 billion in quarter 3 of 2016 alone. While, Twitter earned $ 545 million in social media advertising revenue. Snapchat sold $ 367 million in social ads in 2016.

95% or social media managers say that Facebook offers the best return (ROI), followed by Twitter and then Instagram.

Developing a social media advertising strategy is a challenge for businesses. In this beginner's guide to social media advertising, you will need to know how to create new social media networks.

What Is Social Media Advertising?

Hootsuite defines social media advertising as any kind of paid content on a social media network. Different networks have different options that advertisers can choose from. This may include: one-off promoted Tweet or Facebook post to a full-scale campaign.

Tips on social media advertising

1. For paid social ads, use free social media to beta test

Track which content are being clicked, liked, shared and commented on. These content or messages where there is customer engagement make best candidates for social ads.

2. Take advantage of targeting features

Social media advertising has several benefits. Social media platforms offer effective targeting capabilities to address the inefficiency of traditional ads. Take advantage of this efficiency in online advertising.

3. Frequently rotate ads

Hootsuite suggests that the best practice is to rotate ads every three to five days. However, fresh content is also key in social media advertising in engaging customers online.

4. To test the texts and images used in your ads, use samples

Take advantage or instant feedback. Test several ads with a small audience to see what works and how to use it.

5. Know how ads are sold in different networks

Keep your social media ad budget under control. Think about your target for the campaign, would it be about impressions or engagements? Impressions mean that you pay every time someone sees your campaign, while engagements are your target.

6. When designing ads, think mobile

In 2016, more than 80% or social network users are accessing social media through their mobile devices. Therefore, this means that social media ads are being viewed on mobile devices. Make sure that your ads are viewable on mobile devices. Also, take advantage or geofencing to target mobile users when they are in a zip code. They will see your ads when they are close to your front door.

Social Media Advertising in Different Social Networks

Advertising on Facebook

Facebook has different kinds of advertising choices these include:

Photo ads whihc can have a headline or 25 characters, 90 characters or test, and a description or up to 30 characters. You can also add a call to action button like: Shop Now, Learn More or See Menu.

Video ads like photo ads, have the same character count and call to action options.

Carousel can include up to 10 images plus links in one ad. Characters of the text may be up to 90, 40 for the headline, 20 for the description with 1: 1 image ratio.

Slideshow is an ad using several static images in a video. Images here should have the same size and aspect ratio.

Canvas is a mobile ad that combines videos, photos and call to action buttons. It also has a feature which let users interact with the imagery.

Audience targeting in Facebook

By choosing your target market, you will be able to maximize your costs on your Facebook ad. The target of your ad should be based on location, age, gender and language used by your target audience. After, go to detailed targeting options like:

Demographics: Helps in filtering your target audience: education, ethnic affinity, generation, composition of their household, life events, parenting, politics (for US customers only), relationship and work.

Interests which include social media activities which include: business and industry, entertainment, family and relationships, fitness and wellness, food and drink, hobbies and activities, shopping and fashion, sports and outdoors and technology.

You can also view Facebook gathers from partners.

Facebook has a custom audience feature where you can upload a list of email addresses, phone numbers, Facebook user IDs, or app user IDs. You can also use lookalike audiences in other people on Facebook that are similar to that audience.

Once you have your target audience set, you can set the Wi-Fi or data.

Pricing or Social Media Advertising Ads on Facebook

Prices of ads on Facebook varies. Cost per click may vary depending on placement. Desktop news feed costs $ 0.29 per click to $ 0.18 for mobile devices in 2018. Prices may also be as much as £. Cost per click in the US in 2016 was at 27.29 cents and CPM was at $ 7.19. In Australia, average CPC was at 80 cents.

How to buy ads on Facebook

The first step in buying ads on Facebook is to set up a Facebook business page. Then go to the Facebook ads Manager to create your ads.

On the Facebook ad manager, choose your campaign objective.

Facebook has 15 different campaigns which businesses could choose from. These are broken down to three broad categories. The first category is awareness, followed by consideration and finally, conversion. Choose the objective which will best achieve your goal.

Next step would be to choose your target audience and placement. Here, you will see the range of your audience with a daily reach estimate chart. Facebook and Instagram will both be in the placement options.

Next step would be the setting up of budget and schedule. Choose your dialy or lifetime budget and set the start and end dates for your ad campaign. You can also set it to start running immediately.

Advance budget options are also available. These would let you control what you spend and improve your delivery, whether for engagement, impressions or unique daily reach. Or you can pay by impression or engagement only.

The final step would be to create your ad. You can also create an existng one. You can also choose from the different formats, whether it is a single image, video or slideshow, then write the text of your ad. You can also preview your ad on different formats.

If you are contented with how your ad looks like, click the Place Order button and wait for an email from Facebook.

Advertising on Twitter

Ad types on Twitter

Promoted tweets are tweets which appear directly in the timelines or Twitter users.

Promoted accounts are ads that invite targeted Twitter users to follow your brand.

Promoted trends are the most talked about subjects on Twitter and usually appears on the left side of the page. These would be your story on top of the list.

Twitter ads are categorized depending on the campaign objective:

Website clicks or conversions campaigns where you can visit and engage with your website. Here you will be charged per click.

Tweet engagements campaigns are Tweets which has the main goal of starting conversations about your brand. Initial engagement is to be paid for these tweets.

Followers campaigns are used to promote your Twitter account and payment is for each follower gained.

Awareness campaigns, these are Tweets to a broad audience and the payment is per Impression (CPM)

Video views, are videos promoted to a target audience. Payment is per video viewed.

Apps installs or re-engagement are campaigns that promotes Tweets and payment is installed per app.

Lead generation campaigns promotes Tweets and payment is collected per lead.

Audience and How to Target Them

Targeting on twitter is based on location, gender, languages, device used, platform and carrier. More detailed targeting options include targeting the audience by keywords. Tweet, interests, TV shows They are interested in. Twitter also allows the uploading of specific lists of people that you want to target with your audience or target audience.

Pricing on Twitter Ads

Prices of ads depends on the type of ad. Promoted Tweets and accounts cost between 50 cents to $ 10 or more per engagement, either through video view, link click, follow, etc. Promoted Trends costs $ 200,000 a day.

To get the most out of Twitter ads, test your ads. Try to run short with a small budget to see which objective is perfect for your audience and budget. Engagement campaigns are complete when you complete the action on your objective. Also, always be informed about what other advertisers are also bidding on.

How to buy ads on Twitter

The first step is setting up your campaign. Pick the objective and create a campaign to reach the campaign screen. Give your campaign a name and place when you want to start the campaign with start and end dates. You might also want to add third-party tracking with Double Click.

Second, would be choosing your audience. Choose from the targeting options available.

Third, is setting your budget. Have a set or maximum budget for each day. Twitter automatically stops showing ads once the budget has been reached.

Fourth, is choosing your creative. Always be on the look-out for eligible Tweets to promote. You can always create new ones on the right side of the page.

Advertising on Instagram

Ad Types

Facebook owns Instagram which is why some of the types on this platform are similar to what is on Facebook. This include: photo, video, and carousel. Available objectives for Instagram include: website clicks, website conversions, mobile app installs, mobile app engagement, video views, reach and frequency, page post engagement, mass awareness, and local awareness.

Audience and Targeting

One difference between Facebook users from Instagram users is the age range of the audience. Instagram users are mostly young women with the age range of 18 to 29 years old.

Pricing or Instagram Ads

Instagram ads may be paid per engagement or per impression (CPM). The average cost per click in quarter 3 of 2016 was at $ 0.72 cents.

How to Buy Instagram Ads

Steps for buying on Instagram are similar to those on Facebook. For the 2nd step, choose Instagram for placement choice.

Advertising on Pinterest

Ad types on Pinterest

Awareness campaigns are not related to your product or brand yet.

Engagement campaigns aims at encouraging Pinners to engage with your content through repining or clicking pins that you promote.

Traffic campaigns directly from your promoted pins to your website.

Targeting and Audience

Pinterest can target your audience through:

Interest targeting

Keyword targeting which targets pinners based on terms they search.

Business data targeting targets existing customers, those who have visited your site, and 'lookalike' audience.

Pricing

Pinterest awareness campaigns by CPM, while engagement campaigns by click and traffic campaigns by click. You can also set a maximum bid that you are willing to pay. You could pay less than your maximum bid charge. Pinterest has an interface that helps in bid guidance. This could tell you if your bid is too low. Mininum CPM bid is at $ 5.

How to buy ads on Pinterest

When creating Pinterest ads, you need a Pinterest business account.

The first step in the process is choosing your goal. Click the + button and select create or go straight to ads.pinterest.com. You may then select the type of campaign you want to create. Your choices may be any of the following: awareness, engagement, or traffic. After, name your campaign and select the start or end dates for the campaign schedule and then set your daily budget.

The second step is to pick your promoted pin. Pick the pin that you want to buy or use filters to find out what has been the most intense 30 days.

The third step would be to choose your audience.

Go to Add more details screen. Use targeting options to choose.

The final step is to set your budget. On the Add more details screen, enter your maximum daily bid and daily budget.

Be sure to go right side of the screen and click. Approval may take up to 24 hours. While waiting, set up your billing details.

Advertising on LinkedIn

Ad types

Display ads - Are ads that help you share content with a targeted audience.

Sponsored Inmail - Are ads that deliver sponsored content directly to LinkedIn user inboxes.

Sponsored Content - Are ads or content that appear in the LinkedIn timelines of your target audience.

Text ads - Are text based ads that appear on the right column of a desktop.

Dynamic ads - Are ads that appear in the right column, but incorporates dispay ad unit formats.

Targeting and audience

LinkedIn is very good for employee and company specific targeting. It is very effective for B2B marketing and job-related advertising. Test audience targeting with several ads to find out what is right for your brand.

Pricing for LinkedIn ads

You may either pay based on cost-per-click (CPC) or by every 1,000 impressions (CPM). There is, however, a set minimum budget or $ 10 per day per campaign for this social media platform. Minimum CPC text ads is at $ 2 per click and CPM text ads at $ 2 per 1,000 impressions. Minimum bids for sponsored content vary depending on the audience you have. Test ads on LinkedIn and decide if they are good for your business.

How to buy

On this procedure, we will focus on text ads.

The first step is to create a new campaign. On the LinkedIn homepage, go to Business Services tab which is the top right and choose advertise. Scroll down to the bottom and click Create Ad. Then choose what type or ad you want to create.

The second step is to build your ad. This is where you can make a decision on where to link your ad to, add a small image with the headline and copy. You will be able to preview the ad in various formats on the right side of the page.

The third step is to choose your target audience. Your target audience can be selected from: industry, company size, job title and so on.

The final step is setting up a budget. Choose between paying for clicks or impressions and set your daily budget and your bid.

Advertising on Snapchat

Ad types

Snap ads - These are video ads that appear between stories. Users can see extended content like longer videos, articles, app install or visit a website.

Sponsored Geofilters or on-demand Geofilters - These are overlay graphics which users can select and add to their Snaps.

Sponsored Lenses - These are custom Snapchat lenses that work like any of the usual suspects

Audience Targeting

You can have your geotargeting to hyper-local where the Geofilter is active within a range of 20,000 to a maximum or 5 million square feet. Targeting options are on the basis of the geographic area that it will cover. Be aware that Snapchat users are usually under 25 years old.

Pricing

Ads like sponsored lenses can cost from $ 450,000 to $ 700,000 per day. While Geofilters, in immediate areas would cost about $ 13. When the territory is expanded to 5 million square feet it can cost up to $ 3,000. One block in a city can cost $ 45.

How to buy

The first step is to create a geofilter. Open Snapchat Geofilters page and log in to your account. Choose between a Geofilter you have created using design tools like Photoshop or Illustrator or select from online design tools. A custom Geofilter Provides greater customization to match your company branding.

The second step is to choose an occasion and design. Using design tools, create a Geofilter that is most appropriate for your brand. Celebrations have the most options.

The third step is to choose your geofilter will be available. Your geofilter will be available. You may choose a long term availability and pay yearly.

The fourth step is to choose your area. Draw a virtual fence to set the target area for your Geofilter. The larger area, the more you have to pay.

Social Media Advertising With Hootsuite.

1. AdEspresso by Hootsuite

Creation, analysis, optimization or Facebook and Instagram ads is made easy with AdEspresso by Hootsuite . It is best for small and medium sized organizations. It also allows users to monitor the results of their campaigns directly from the dashboard.

2. Hootsuite Ads

Create and test hundred or ads in minutes. Automatically boost budgets based on performance. Have the luxury of control over who can create and edit campaigns. Boost engagement and reach through organic posts using the Hootsuite dashboard. Also, save time and increase productivity.

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• Blogger: Gurby Bulo
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Online Marketing Strategy Expert at Social Media Gids
• Internet entrepreneur Gurby Bulo is the Founder of Social Media Gids and host of @SMG Hangout. With his virtual team, they follow the latest online marketing developments because they like it ;-) and to provide you with information, strategies and support necessary to increase your online marketing knowledge, sales and growth on your way to (financial) freedom.
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