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Amid constant adjustments to social media algorithms and search engine rankings, getting your content noticed can be challenging. While organic search is the free and more comfortable option, the chances of going viral without putting some money on the table are slim.

In comes paid social advertising, which involves advertisements served to social media users and is increasingly looking like the surest way to bring in traffic and sales from day one.

According to a recent survey, 75% of Gen Zers and 48% of millennials are making purchasing decisions influenced by social media ads and in 2020, social media ad spending in the US was valued at $40.3 billion.

Whether a big or small business owner, social media advertising is a must, especially if you want to stand out from the crowd, gain content views and drive more sales.

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How to Manage Your Social Media Advertising Campaigns

To manage a successful social media advertising campaign, considering the following:

Run your ad campaigns manually.

Out of the three ways to manage a campaign, running it manually will be your cheapest and most straightforward option. All you have to do is choose an advertising platform and set up your campaign.

Pros

Running an ad campaign manually allows you to invest 100% of your budget into testing ads and finding the best rather than spending extra money on ad management tools or agency fees.

Plus, taking charge of your own campaigns can let you develop an eye for advertising to learn and improve your campaigns in the future. Instead of letting someone else do the work, you can become an expert and speak the language, even if you hire outside advertisers down the road.

Cons

Becoming an advertising expert takes time and commitment, which means that the more time you invest in advertising, the less you can spend in other areas of your business. If you are a business owner, spending hours mastering advertising might not be conducive to a busy work schedule.

Additionally, just because you invest a lot of time in becoming an advertising expert does not mean your ads will succeed. If you’re stepping into the advertising world, it may be a gamble to invest all that time and risk not getting the results you want.

Who is it ideal for?

Running your campaigns manually may be your best bet if you’re operating on a tight budget and don’t have the means to hire an advertising agency.

However, unless you’re already a seasoned advertiser, you will need to be willing to invest time and effort to learn.

Run your ad campaigns using automated software.

With social media ad spending in the United States expected to reach more than $122 billion by 2026, it should come as no surprise that there are now a plethora of third-party tools to help you manage your campaigns.

Pros

Third-party tools like AdEspresso or Revealbot can make optimizing Facebook ad campaigns and analyzing results much easier than using Facebook’s Ad Manager.

Companies can also utilize automated tools like Adext, which uses AI to manage the entire campaign and allows you to focus on other areas of your business.

With so many tools on the market, you’ll be able to save time, optimize campaigns and ensure that their money is going toward ads that will turn into sales.

Cons

While third-party tools are often relatively affordable, they are still an additional cost to consider.

Just like manually running your own ad campaign, automated software risks spending money but not getting the desired results. Since you aren’t controlling the entire campaign process, it might be more challenging to identify where the ads manager is falling short.

Who is it ideal for?

For merchants working on a tight budget but also don’t have the time to invest in running their campaigns, using third-party tools is the happy medium. Creating a successful campaign is achievable with automated software and minimal invested time.

For business owners with limited resources, this is likely the best option.

Hire a professional to run your ad campaigns.

While this option is often the most expensive, it’s also the simplest and will likely reap the most benefits. Rather than relying on your own expertise or automated software, hiring a professional is likely to be the best option for achieving the results you want.

Pros

The most obvious advantage of hiring an advertising professional is that they know what they’re doing. As a result, the chances of getting your desired results are much higher.

Hiring a managed service also means zero work on your part, so you can invest time and energy into other areas of your business that need more focus.

Although you’d be paying a fee and ad spend, the hope is that your advertising will turn into consistent sales and keep you net positive.

Cons

The primary downside to hiring an ad agency is that you could waste a lot of money if you don’t hire a good ad agency.

Make sure to perform your own research to hire trustworthy professionals. Unfortunately, some agencies are only self-proclaimed experts who lure customers into wasting their money.

Who is it ideal for?

Hiring a managed service is the ideal solution for those who have the budget to spend and are eager for immediate sales.

Since social media advertising is easily measurable — if your ads aren’t performing up to your standards — you’ll know who is responsible and if you need to hire a new and better agency.

How to Build a Creative Social Media Advertising Strategy

Making a successful social media advertising campaign is one thing, but crafting a creative ad strategy is often another matter. Before you begin, consider the following:

Determine what to sell.

If your ecommerce business only produces and sells one product, or if you already have an obvious bestseller, you can skip this step.

However, if your business has a large product catalog, you’ll need to identify which of your products are most valuable and should be central to your advertising efforts.

Once you calculate your product’s value, you can determine which ones generate high profits but are underrepresented in the ad account and adjust accordingly. While you can create a good advertisement for an average-selling product, featuring a bestselling product will likely result in more conversions and sales.

Research your audience.

Before selling to your audience, you must understand who they are and what they want. Knowing the functional purpose of your product and what your customers want isn’t always black and white.

To further know your audience, consider the following tips:

Whether positive or negative, customer reviews are valuable insights into what your customers want and how they view your product. These reviews can come from your online store, blogs, YouTube videos or Reddit posts.
Google Trends and keyword searches can help you understand how customers think about different products or topics.
Search for related hashtags on your brand’s social networks. This could be an excellent opportunity to find organic search for your products.

Use a creative platform.

The genesis of social media has opened the doors to many new opportunities for digital advertising, allowing businesses to take advantage of the innate capabilities of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

While there are limitations to social media platforms, they’re still opportunities for businesses to get creative in their customer interactions. Whether it’s building out a FAQ section, interacting with customers directly or crafting a consistent presence, social media can change the avenues and direction of your advertising plans.

Create a digital marketing campaign.

Once you know your product and audience, it’s time to start putting the pieces into action. Here are four steps to get you on your way to building a successful digital marketing campaign:

Define your goals

Setting clear and reachable business goals is a vital foundation for creating a successful campaign.

It can be easy to jump into a campaign with lots of vision and ambition, but if you don’t have a focused approach, these ambitions may fall short. Whether it’s brand awareness, more social media followers or a higher SEO ranking, make sure you have a definable goal to guide you in your decisions throughout the process.

Identify your target audience

Make sure to know your audience, clearly and concisely. The more you understand who your customers are and what they want, the better you’ll be able to refine your advertising to better meet their needs.

Create customer personas

A customer persona is a detailed description of your target customer, highlighting their demographics such as age, location, occupation, income and other details that may influence how they make purchase decisions.

Determine your budget

Assessing your budget is key to determining your limitations and how you should allocate your resources.

Luckily, social media marketing is generally less expensive than traditional marketing, so your investments in digital will often give you more bang for your buck.

Improve your performance.

Return on advertising spend (ROAS) can clue you in on whether your ads are working, but they can’t tell you why if they aren’t.

You can also use the AIDA system to help businesses understand how customers experience advertisements and content. Designed in 1898, AIDA is a behavioral model that highlights the four effects an ad should produce in a customer:

Attention: How the content stops the prospect.
Interest: How the content holds the prospect.
Desire: How and why the content causes the prospect to explore further.
Action: How the content effectively sets up the final desired results, from purchases to conversions.

Social Media Advertising Tactics

Once you’ve determined your social platform and the types of ads you want to display, it’s time to put your advertising wheels in motion. To help get you started, here are several tips to get more eyes on your content and turn viewers into customers:

Audience targeting.

Targeting an audience means zoning in on a select demographic, whether age, gender, occupation or interest.

By using keyword search, surveying and interviewing customers and creating clear customer personas, you can get a better picture of your customers and target them more accurately.

Not only should you target new and potential customers, but you should also make sure to retarget existing customers. This will help remind customers of your brand even if they’ve already made a purchase and is more cost-effective than advertising to potential customers.

Promote on social media platforms.

A critical aspect of social media advertising is upping your social media strategy.

Promoting and repurposing your organic content across social media channels as support for advertising campaigns can help you to tell your brand story and make it stand out from competitors.

Paid search and social ads.

Using remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA), you can tailor your PPC search ads based on whether a customer has visited your online store and which pages they viewed. This way, you can target users who are already familiar with your business.

You can take this up a notch by combining paid search with social ads to target both those who know and don’t know your brand. By first targeting social ads, you can build brand awareness and help customers become more familiar with your products. Then, when they see your PPC ads, they’ll feel more comfortable and inclined to click on your website.

Improve quality score.

Quality score is a ranking metric that search engines use to indicate the quality of your keywords and PPC ads and an essential aspect of social media advertising. The higher your quality score, the higher your ad will rank and the more impressions it will get at a lower cost per engagement.

By posting organically to social advertising platforms and tracking engagement with each ad, you can pinpoint which paid ads are top-performing.

Optimize user engagement.

One of the key ways to bring traffic to your website and consequently drive sales is by optimizing your ad content.

Among other ranking factors like keywords, page speed and mobile friendliness, one crucial SEO factor is user engagement. These metrics include click-through rate (CTR), bounce rate and conversion rate.

Even if user engagement isn’t a core ranking factor for search engines, high CTRs and conversion rates will still achieve better organic search rankings and more conversions.

Mobile-friendly ads are a must.

With over 98% of Facebook users accessing the app via a mobile device, your ads must be available for mobile use.

Not only should your ads physically fit on a mobile screen, but they also need to be designed with the mobile user in mind. This means legible branding, large and clear text, eye-catching graphics and interactivity whenever possible.

Omnichannel Commerce

BigCommerce integrates with over 150 marketplaces, social channels and search engines so you can sell more everywhere.

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The Final Word

In the ecommerce landscape, social media advertising is one of the most efficient and effective ways to reach your target audience and turn them into customers. No other advertising options can deliver the kind of consistent, scalable leads as social advertising.

As more and more retailers dip their toes into social media, it’s crucial that you understand the ins and out of this advertising medium and start strengthening your strategy. With these tips under your belt and actionable goals to guide you through the process, you’ll be way ahead of the curve.

FAQs About Social Media Advertising

What is the difference between social media advertising and social media marketing?

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Although the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there is a difference between the two.

Social media advertising generally refers to paid methods such as pay-per-click (PPC) or ads run on various social media platforms.

Social media marketing is a digital and content marketing strategy typically unpaid and involves creating, sharing and distributing content across social media.

What is the best social media platform to advertise on?

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Deciding on the best social media to advertise on generally depends on which platform you have the most invested in. If there is a platform where your brand has notoriety or prestige, then implementing advertising there would be the fastest way to success.

However, all things being equal, the best platform to find success is likely to be Facebook. With more than two billion daily active users and many different ad types available, the opportunities are substantial.

How do I know if my social media advertisements are working?

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One of the best ways to know if social media advertising is working successfully is through the use of in-depth metrics. By reviewing the following, you can see which strategies are working and which are not:

Conversion rates.
Quality Score.
Scroll depth.
Website Traffic.
Social media interactions and engagements.
Follower counts.

How much does social media advertising cost?

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When assessing how much social media advertising costs, it is helpful to look at cost-per-click (CPC) and compare that prices across the different social media platforms. Each of the platforms we listed come out at the following figures:

Facebook: $0.97 per click.
Instagram: $3.56 per click.
LinkedIn: $5.26 per click.
Pinterest: $1.5 per click.
TikTok: $1.00 per click.
Twitter: $0.38 per click.
YouTube: $3.21 per click.