Social media advertising is a game-changer for small businesses looking to level the playing field with larger competitors. With over 90% of marketers now claiming that social media is important to their business, jumping into the mix is not just an option—it’s a necessity.
But with many social platforms, each with its own unique advertising features and best practices, where does a small business owner start? This comprehensive guide will walk you through everything you need to know to get a successful paid social media advertising campaign off the ground.
Why Should You Invest in Social Media Advertising?
The Reach is Unbeatable
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn host billions of active users each day. For small businesses like yours, this represents a vast pool of potential customers. By investing in paid social media advertising within your marketing strategy, even the smallest ventures can reach thousands, if not millions, of users in their target audience!
Targeting Precision
One of the most significant advantages of social media paid advertising is the ability to hyper-target your audience. Unlike traditional media, paid social media ads allow you to target based on demographic data, interests, behaviours, and even specific locations, ensuring your message reaches those likely to be interested in your products or services. Gotta love when you reach your target market (it means getting the right eyes on your brand)!
Cost-Effective Marketing
Compared to the high cost of print, radio, or TV advertising, social media advertising can be incredibly cost-effective, making it a fantastic avenue for small businesses with limited marketing strategy budgets. Paying only to reach those most likely to convert saves money and drives ROI in a measurable way.
Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Business
Each social media platform caters to different types of content and audiences. For paid social media advertising, it’s crucial to understand which platforms work best for engaging with your customers.
Facebook and Instagram
Demographics: Wide-ranging user base from teenagers to senior citizens.
Best Use: Storytelling, brand awareness, ecommerce business.
Features: Robust ad platform with a variety of ad formats, detailed targeting options.
X (formerly Twitter)
Demographics: Skews towards younger adults.
Best Use: Real-time updates, news, customer service.
Features: Promoted Tweets, tailored audiences, keyword targeting.
Demographics: Business professionals, B2B audience.
Best Use: B2B marketing, professional networking.
Features: Sponsored content, InMail, detailed professional targeting.
TikTok
Demographics: Young, entertainment-focused audience.
Best Use: Trend-driven content, brand awareness, influencer collaboration.
Features: In-feed native video ads, brand takeovers, hashtag challenges.
Demographics: Predominantly female, various age groups.
Best Use: Inspiration, DIY, shopping.
Features: Promoted Pins, shopping ads, visual search ads.
Selecting the right platform—or combination of platforms—is key to ensuring your ad dollars are being spent where they will have the most significant impact.
Setting Up Your First Social Media Ad Campaign
Now that you know where to advertise, it’s time to get started. Here’s a step-by-step overview of setting up your first paid social media ad campaign on three of the most popular platforms for small businesses.
- Create a Business Manager: Go to business.facebook.com and create a business account if you don’t already have one.
- Choose an Objective: Decide whether your goal is to drive traffic to your website, generate leads, or boost a post for better engagement among Facebook users.
- Define Your Audience: Use detailed targeting to select the characteristics of the audience you want to reach.
- Set Your Budget: Decide how much you want to spend and whether you want your campaign to run continuously or have specific start and end dates.
- Create Your Ad: Choose your ad format (image, video, carousel, etc.) and input your ad copy, creative elements, and the destination URL.
- Review and Publish: Double-check everything, and then publish your ad to start reaching potential customers.
Instagram ads are run through the same platform as Facebook ads, (it’s all under Meta ads) and the setup is almost identical. The only difference is that you’ll choose Instagram as the placement for your ad when defining settings like audience, budget, and timeline.
X
- Create an X Ad Account: Visit ads.twitter.com and set up your ad account.
- Select Your Campaign Objective: Options include tweet engagements, website clicks or conversions, app installs, and followers.
- Choose Your Ad Type: These can be promoted tweets, accounts, or trends.
- Define Your Audience: Use options like interest, username targeting, or keyword targeting.
- Set Your Budget: You can choose to pay per action or per engagement, and you can also set a daily or total budget.
- Design Your Ad: Tweet your content, and select the promoted ad option. Promoted tweets can include images, videos, or gifs.
- Create Your Ad Group: Decide whether you want to target by device type, location, gender, language, etc. You can also use tweet analytics for this purpose.
- Set Up Conversion Tracking (Optional): If your goal is conversions, it’s essential to track which ads are driving those actions.
- Launch Your Campaign: Once you’ve completed the previous steps, review your campaign, and launch it to start running ads.
The Power of Storytelling
Segmenting by Demographics
Consider the age, gender, language, and education level of your potential customers. Tools like Facebook Audience Insights can help you understand the demographics of your target audience.
Interest-Based Targeting
Utilise users’ interests, hobbies, and pages they follow to ensure your ads are displayed to those with a genuine interest in what you offer.
Behavioural Targeting
What kind of online shopping habits, device usage, or purchase history could signal that a person might be interested in your product? These are the behaviours you can target on certain platforms.
Geotargeting
For local businesses, setting a specific radius around your store or a targeted location can ensure your ads are seen by those in your vicinity.
Budgeting Your Social Media Advertising Campaign
Start Small
Begin with a conservative budget until you can gauge the effectiveness of your ads. Starting small also allows for more fine-tuning in your early campaign stages.
Understand the Costs
Different ad formats and platforms come with various costs. Set an initial budget based on the typical costs associated with your chosen ad type and platform.
Monitor and Adjust Regularly
Analyse your ad performance, and adjust your budget as needed to scale what works and pause or tweak what doesn’t.
Optimising Your Social Media Ad Performance
A/B Testing Ads
Create two versions of an ad with a single difference, such as the call-to-action or the image used. Run these in separate campaigns to test which performs better.
Ad Scheduling
Analyse when your audience is most active and schedule your ads to run during those times for higher engagement.
Analyse Your Metrics
Pay attention to metrics like click-through-rate (CTR), conversion rate, and cost-per-acquisition (CPA) to understand ad performance. Each platform provides detailed analytics tools to help you do this.
Refine and Repeat
Use the data from your ad performance to continually refine your targeting, messaging, and bidding strategies. Successful campaigns improve over time with careful review.
Budgeting Your Social Media Advertising Campaign
Start Small
Begin with a conservative budget until you can gauge the effectiveness of your ads. Starting small also allows for more fine-tuning in your early campaign stages.
Understand the Costs
Different ad formats and platforms come with various costs. Set an initial budget based on the typical costs associated with your chosen ad type and platform.
Monitor and Adjust Regularly
Analyse your ad performance, and adjust your budget as needed to scale what works and pause or tweak what doesn’t.