How to Create the Best Social Media Advertising Campaigns

Posted by Jazelle Handoush

One part book dragon, a dash of wordsmith wit, a lot of parts coffee, and a double dose of full-force nerd, Jazelle Handoush is the Digital Content Creator at Fable Heart Media.

Paying for social media advertising seems like a great idea. After all, 3.8 billion people (50% of the world’s population) have an account on a social network. However, a lack of planning can leave your business spending more than you make in returns. To successfully advertise on social channels like Facebook and LinkedIn, you need a few essential items. In this guide, we will go over these items and show you how to create the best social media advertising campaigns.

Are you ready to start using social media for sales? Keep reading to find out how!

Why Is Social Media Advertising Important?

The top answer: social media advertising provides you with another avenue to reach your target customers and grow your business. When executed correctly, social ads can:

Position your business or service to attract new leads
Boost the exposure of your company page’s social posts
Improve the awareness of your brand in the marketplace
Increase the number of visitors to your website
Drive higher revenue growth for your business

More and more companies (including your competition) are seeing numbers that prove social media selling works. According to this research:

93% of social media advertisers regularly utilize Facebook ads
53% of Twitter users bought a product they first saw on Twitter
Linkedin accounts for over 80% of social media B2B leads
Social media is the best way to advertise to 50% of Gen Z and 42% of millennials
Companies have shifted their ad budgets toward Instagram, where spending is now 23% higher than Facebook

The Social Media Advertising Process

So you’re ready to start advertising on social media. Perfect! Below we’ve laid out a detailed five-step process you can use as a framework. Use these steps to power up your next campaign from the start (instead of scrambling to fix it later on).

1. Create SMART Goals

Before you start, get SMART. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. When creating your goals, make sure they cover every step in the SMART process. Instead of a broad goal, like “increasing brand awareness,” a SMART goal would be to “generate 2,000 unique daily impressions using Facebook Ads to highlight our new products in Q2.”

The most common social media advertising goals include increasing:

Website traffic: measured by total unique visitors or pageviews
Engagement: measured by post likes, retweets, shares, and comments
Brand awareness: measured by reach and impressions
Leads: measured by form entries or newsletter sign-ups
Sales: measured by conversions

The goals you choose will define your campaign’s structure.

2. Pinpoint Your Audience

Which social media platforms are your target customers using? Instead of advertising on every platform, you can save time and money by only targeting the sites where your audience spends their time.

For the best social media advertising results, you need to choose the right platform to target. Below we’ve included information on each to help you decide.

Facebook

With the largest available audience, Facebook is ideal for B2B and B2C advertising. Using the vast amount of data it collects from its users, Facebook allows you to target niche audience groups. Try using demographics such as household income, employment, education, gender, age, language, location, and generation to narrow down who can view your ads.

You can also find your audience based on their interests (entertainment, hobbies, sports, shopping, etc.). Or, try targeting behaviors (device use, travel, events, purchases).

Instagram

If you’re trying to reach a younger audience, head to Instagram. This platform is now the most popular network for ages 18 to 24, more than Snapchat or Twitter. Instagram ads work through Facebook, so you can leverage the same targeting as we discussed above.

Instagram posts require an image or video, so ads on the “gram” work great for B2B and B2C companies that have a lot of visual content to share.

Twitter

Audience-based targeting is the claim to fame for Twitter advertising. The options for Twitter ads are limited in comparison to Facebook, but with Twitter, you can target specific followers and accounts, making it ideal for industry or audience targeting.

You can also target your audience based on the keywords and hashtags they’ve used. Targeting keywords makes it easy to pinpoint customers who are interested in a particular topic.

LinkedIn is the ideal channel for B2B ads. If you’re looking for job data when defining your target customer, LinkedIn is the best choice. The platform’s options include language, location, company, job title, and industry details. However, LinkedIn lacks the interest and behavior targeting you can find on Facebook.

After you find your target audience online, it’s time to dive a little deeper. Ask yourself questions about your audience, such as:

What hashtags do my customers use?
What do they search for online?
Who do they follow on social media?

Detailed targeting can ensure your ads reach the people most likely to become paying customers.

3. Build a Budget

37% of people are inspired to purchase through social media; that’s more than any other channel. To achieve those sales, however, you need to bid against competitors. Too low, and you limit your reach. Too high, and you’re overpaying to display your ads.

The Goldilocks “just right” bid in between can help you get in front of potential customers without burning through your budget. Bid low to start. If you’re not receiving enough impressions, increase your bid over time.

4. Create Your Ads

It’s not enough to create ads and hope for the best. Here are a few factors to look out for when aiming to develop the best social media advertising campaigns:

Make sure your ads are relevant and timely to your audience
Use high-quality, eye-catching images
Write captions that communicate your value
Link to a landing page related to your ad’s subject
Add a compelling, actionable call-to-action
Double-check everything

For a little extra ad power, supercharge your copywriting with this guide to composing social media ads that convert.

5. Review and Improve

After a campaign cycle ends, review your clickthrough rate (CTR), Cost per Acquisition (or Conversion), and Conversion Rate. These advertising metrics can help you make informed decisions about your campaign.

Don’t forget to update your ads! People aren’t likely to click on an ad they’ve seen a dozen times. Change your ad copy, images, and even your landing pages often to prevent ad wear out.

Refreshing your content is also a great way to test new ads, promotions, and visuals. You might even discover that your target audience is more responsive to one set over another, so keep an eye on those results!

Creating the Best Social Media Advertising Campaigns for Your Business

Social media advertising doesn’t have to break the bank. Placing ads on social media can be a cost-effective way to discover new customers, increase sales, and beat the competition. Use the process above, and you’ll be well on your way to creating the best social media advertising campaigns for growing your business.

Social media marketing is essential, as well. Or you can combine your social media advertising with Google advertising to reach more potential customers.

Fable Heart Media is Here For You.

Whether you own a small company or lead a marketing team, Fable Heart Media can help you achieve your business goals. Our process focuses on driving measurable growth and obtaining results. Of course, we love creating beautiful websites and writing awesome blogs, but for us, nothing tops the feeling of seeing our customers grow online due to our partnership.

Let’s Talk About Growing Your Business!