Social media advertising – worth the bother?

01 May 2022By Michelle

“Why would I spend money advertising on social media when it’s free?!”

If we had a pound for every time we were asked this, we’d be on the rich list right next to Mark Zuckerberg. So, here’s all you need to know about social media advertising (and why the answer is YES! It IS absolutely worth it). Our Gold package includes paid advertising campaign management.

Quick Catch-up of the Last Few Years
Social media platforms are there to make money. They’re a business, after all. And the way they make money is from people like you – business owners who pay to advertise.

In recent years there’s been a lot of changes with the way social platforms go about this. The most important of which is that ‘organic’ (e.g. unpaid) posts are no longer reaching the same amount of people they once did. This graph from Hubspot sums up just how much has changed over the years, and this only runs up to 2014. Since that time, it’s been reported that organic reach plummeted further by a staggering 52% in 2016 alone.

It’s frustrating. But ultimately, you’re at the mercy of the social giants. So, what to do?

The Three Main Forms of Social Media Advertising
There are three core forms of social advertising…

• boosting a specific post
• digital display advertising
• remarking

Let’s dive into each in detail.

Boosting a post

Social media is a fast-paced and frenzied world. There’s plenty of noise out there to cut through – not only from your competitors, but also from friends, family, colleagues and celebs.
Boosting a post can provide you with an instant way to improve engagement with your post. It pushes it into your followers’ feeds and, if the post is right, sparks clicks and conversations.
This is often a more effective strategy than sponsoring a post, as it targets those warm leads who already know your brand.

Digital display

Social media platforms have made leaps and bounds in recent years when it comes to the options you have for sponsored posts – these include image, video and carousel ads. But you could also promote your social pages via digital display on other websites using Google Ads. This approach might be suitable where your customers have a long buying journey, or where YOU are your business (driving people to your community means that you can form the connection necessary before they decide to forge ahead and make a purchase).

Remarking

Did you know that it takes an average of 6 – 8 ‘touchpoints’ before a person buys from you? That’s at least six times they’ve interacted or ‘seen’ you, which could go a little like this…
Facebook sponsored Ad > Community page > Email sign up > Email > Boosted Post View > Remarketing Ad > FINALLY conversion!
This is known as remarketing – it’s the artform of presenting a marketing message to those who’ve already seen or interacted with you in some shape or form. And it’s incredibly effective…
The average click-through rate for display Ads is 0.07%, while the average click-through for retargeted Ads is about 0.7%. Website visitors who are retargeted with display Ads are 70% more likely to convert on retailer’s website.

A Three Minute Intro to Audience Targeting
Social media advertising hands you something that no other platform can – incredibly precise audience targeting. And when we say precise, we mean being able to target people based on their:

• age
• gender
• relationship status
• location
• job role

And if they interact with a platform regularly, you’ll also be able to target your audience based upon their:

• hobbies and interests
• frequently visited places
• current location
• likelihood of having children (and their ages!)
• specific lifestyle traits e.g. vegan, gluten free

So that’s why social media advertising. Now for the which agency…
Book your free social consultation with us today.