Social Advertising 101: 5 Reasons Why Your Business Should Invest in Paid Social

Social Advertising 101: 5 Reasons Why Your Business Should Invest in Paid Social_

Social advertising is the future. Bold statement, we know. And whether you agree or disagree with us, there is no denying the power and influence of social media.

Facebook and Instagram have a whopping 3 billion users, with 24 billion monthly visitors across the world! With these figures only set to climb, it’s no surprise that more and more brands are investing in paid social as a means of marketing their products and/or services.

We could sit here all day and reel off stats and reasons why social advertising is so great but still, some businesses are sceptical about social advertising. So, we thought we’d write a blog.

Our Leeds marketing agency has put together just a few of the reasons why your business should invest, and how to make your budget work even harder for you.

Convert, convert, convert

Want to boost sales? Who doesn’t? Social media is the most effective channel for influencing potential buyers to purchase, shop, buy (or whatever else you want to call it). Now, we’re not saying that you will sell out overnight, but if you continue to invest in social media advertising, you will begin to reap the rewards.

Customers on social media are primed and eager to buy, so it’s important to be strategic with your ads to motivate them to make a purchase. The best ads are relevant, interesting and entice customers without being overly promotional. Targeting is a MASSIVE thing too, but we’ll come onto that later.

Get to know your existing customers with paid social ads

The beauty of social advertising is that you can really hone in on what your target audience responds best to.  Facebook enables you to run A/B tests, in which you can test two variables against each other. From creative and audience to placement and delivery optimisation, you can really get to know who your customers are (on social) and what they like.

For instance, you could test image against video to see which is more engaging with your audience. Or test two different audiences, to see who is more interested in your products and services. Remember to take note of your findings from split tests, and use it to influence future campaigns.

Reach new customers with lookalike audiences

With millions of active users, social media is perfect for reaching new customers. One of the best ways to do this is with a lookalike audience, which you can do with Facebook and Instagram advertising. A lookalike audience is a pool of people with similar qualities and traits to your existing customers. Facebook will use this and then deliver your ad to people that look like your customers.

You can even choose the size of your lookalike audience. Smaller audiences are those that match your customers more closely. Larger audiences have more potential reach but are less like your customers. Our Leeds agency would recommend going somewhere in the middle.

a phone displaying a paid social ad sits in a woman's hand

Spend a little, or spend a lot with paid social

Whether you’ve got hundreds or thousands to spare, that’s fine, as you can set your own budget with social advertising. Smaller businesses may even look to boost their posts by £20. Although a larger budget will result in more impressions, reach and referrals, you can still achieve results with less money.

Facebook and Instagram have an extremely low cost-per-click (CPC) which means you get more for your money. LinkedIn is more costly but can deliver great results for B2B businesses who want to target job titles and industries. Whatever your budget, it’s important to spend it on the right platform. Yes, Facebook is cheaper but if your customers are on LinkedIn, it makes sense to spend it on there. Quality over quantity.

Retarget users to complete the sale

It’s not unusual for people to drop off as they go through the customer journey. But did you know you can retarget those drop-offs with social ads? Let’s say someone has visited your site, had a browse but didn’t buy anything. Then they go onto Facebook and lo and behold the product they were just looking at is there. Some people call it creepy, we call it remarketing.

If you’re an e-commerce business with a catalogue of products on your website, you can also run dynamic ads. These automatically promote products to people who have previously interacted with your brand. For example, say you’re an online clothing brand, you can retarget shoppers to remind them of the items they viewed but didn’t buy.

Hopefully, this blog has helped you to realise the potential of paid social, if you didn’t before. Obviously, there are so many more benefits but if we tried to cover everything we would be here all day! If you’re keen to keep reading, you can check out our blog for more digital marketing tips. 

If you need help with your paid social strategy, give us a call on 0113 255 7285 and we can discuss over a brew.