Social Media Advertising: A Beginner’s Guide

Social media channels are the most loved digital platforms at present. All age groups are hooked on the galore of entertainment, information, and engagement offered by prominent networks like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, etc. According to the latest statistics, 28 million Australians use social media, showcasing the medium’s popularity. Naturally, business owners cannot neglect this lucrative touchpoint for digital marketing that offers benefits like appropriate targeting and customisation.

Social media advertising and SEO in Gold Coast are the most powerful tools for attracting and retaining customers across industries. Social media marketing is easy to manage and measure with the help of analytics. Small business owners can effectively master it to increase revenue and acquire new customers. So, here is a beginner’s guide to social media advertising that can help achieve sales targets. This information can help businesses realise the importance of this type of marketing for growth.

1. Understanding Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is sending marketing messages through social media channels directed towards a specific target audience. This paid form of advertising can promote products and brands using images and videos. Social networks are the most utilised platforms for running paid ads after the popular search engines.

The audience that views these ads is known as paid reach. Social ads ensure a wider reach than organic promotions because they are highly targeted and generate leads and conversions. There are three types of ads: sponsored posts, display ads, and video ads.

2. How Social Media Advertising Works?

The process of creating ads may vary for different social media channels. However, the concept is the same. Social ads work on auctions, and the algorithm decides their cost and placement. Marketers have to identify the campaign objective based on the customer’s position in the sales funnel. The next step is to target the audience by choosing their demographics and psychographics.

According to professionals offering SEO in Gold Coast, social media ad costs depend on bidding strategy, campaign objective and optimisation. The expense also depends on the industry and type of campaign used to reach the audience.  

3. Steps for Creating Social Media Campaigns

Small business owners can start social media campaigns by following the steps below:

Determine the Advertising Budget

Small business owners must set the social media advertising budget after determining the amount that can be spent comfortably on ads. Usually, businesses spend 15% to 20% of their marketing budget on social media marketing.

Set Social Media Marketing Goals

Marketers must be clear about what they wish to achieve through social ads. The goals must be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely). This helps create appropriate content and measure the ROI.

Identify the Target Audience

While performing SEO in Gold Coast, business owners prepare the buyer’s persona. However, they must know their customers who will be viewing the ads. This will help them create personalised messages that will meet their needs and resolve their pain points.

Create and Run Attractive Social Media Ads

Business owners must create ads aligned with the brand guidelines and marketing goals. The content must resonate with the audience and, with clear CTAs, persuade them to take action. It must also be able to build authentic connections with the audience.

4. Benefits of Using Social Media Ads

SEO experts in Gold Coast highly recommend using social media advertising to reach marketing goals because of the following benefits:

Send Messages to Interested Audiences

Social media ads can be shown to a specific target audience that has displayed an interest in the products or abandoned their shopping carts. The ads can be targeted based on the demographics, geographic location, and psychographics of the users.

Acquire New Customers With Social Ads

Small businesses can acquire new customers by showcasing the ads in new territories to increase sales. The ads can be customised to suit the tastes and preferences of the local audience.

Enhance Brand Loyalty through Ads

Marketers can upsell and cross-sell products to their existing customers and increase loyalty by creating discount offers and influencing repeat purchases. The campaigns maintain the recall value and long-term relations with customers.

Track ROI Easily With Social Ads

One of the biggest advantages of social media advertising is that it can be measured to assess its profitability. Also, the ads can be improved in real time to get the desired response from the target audience.

5. Tips to Run Social Ads Effectively

Business owners must choose the social media channels used by their target audience and create content according to what is viewed on each platform. It is vital to conduct A/B testing of campaigns to check what is working and what is not. Testing helps to reduce wastage of ad budget and stay focused on the marketing goals.

Marketers must evaluate metrics like conversions, impressions, and click-through rates to assess campaign performance and make improvements if necessary. Creating a social media calendar and using a social media marketing tool like Hootsuite, HubSpot, and Sprout Social can help automate tasks and reduce the workload.

Wrapping Up

Social media advertising can be easily understood and started by small business owners with limited platform knowledge. However, they must know about the features and costs of each channel to create a rewarding social media marketing strategy.