How Small Businesses Can Make the Most of Paid Social Media Ads
What is Paid Social Media Advertising?
Paid social media advertising is a way to market your brand online to reach a defined target audience. It’s an easy and effective way to reach pre-existing customers that are active on social media. Paying to advertise can create leads and sales that may not have been able to find you organically. Many small businesses and start-ups struggle to get the organic sales and conversions they need and often turn to paid advertising. Paying to advertise may increase visibility, but a strategy is still needed to increase target audience engagement.
Target Audience
Paid social media advertising is available on almost all social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn are some of the most popular social platforms on the market. Each social media platform comes with unique audience demographics and user statistics.
- Facebook is most popular amongst men aged 35-44
- Instagram is most popular amongst men and women aged 25-34
- TikTok is most popular amongst Females aged 10-19
- LinkedIn is most popular amongst men aged 25-34
Social media is a trouble-free way to reach your target audience. Focusing on one platform, where your target audience spends most of their online time, is the easiest way to start your paid social media journey.
Stand Out from the Competition
One of the best ways to convey brand personality is through social media. Many choose to follow brands that incorporate some humour and entertainment in their social media strategy. Make your paid ads as entertaining as possible and have fun with your call-to-action. Videos over static image can be a great way to grab your target audience’s attention. Videos force scrollers to spend a moment longer before understanding the gist, giving you more of a chance to increase user engagement.
Budget
Many small businesses love paid social media advertising as they have complete control over their spend. Social platforms will require you set a minimum daily budget for advertising. The rates can vary depending on bid type, impressions, clicks, likes, and views. Most social media platforms have low minimum budgets, which is great news for many small businesses. There are a wide range of variables that can raise or lower the price of your social media ads, such as target location, industry, season, date, and ad relevance. As prices vary, it’s impossible to know the exact CPC until you have created your ad. Here are some ballpark CPC figures on how much you can expect to pay on each platform:
- Facebook average CPC is £0.80
- TikTok average CPC is £0.82
- Instagram average CPC is £2.91
- LinkedIn average CPC is £4.29
If you can afford to hire a social media agency they will be able to optimise budgets and improve strategies. Many businesses use social media managers, virtual assistants, or agencies to monitor and maximise the efficiency of advertising campaigns.
Show your Audience Appreciation
Take a moment to show your audience how much you appreciate them. Using paid ads to advertise competitions and giveaways can enable you to raise awareness of your brand and gain new leads. Running giveaways creates a buzz around your brand and provides immediate advertising results. Offering your audience an incentive will lead to higher click through rates and more opportunities to grow your email list.
