According to Small Biz Trends, almost 90 percent of marketers say their social marketing efforts have increased exposure for their business, and 75 percent say they’ve increased traffic. We all know social media is an effective free platform, but you may want to consider using paid advertising for maximum reach. With paid social media, you can track your return on investment and evaluate the success of your ads by reviewing page analytics. You can follow the cost per click, amount of engagement, impressions, and how many clicks the ad receives. But the question often is, what social platform will maximize my content views, leading to an increase in revenue?
Best Practices for Using Paid Social Media
1. Begin your brainstorming by developing a budget
Every social media platform offers pros and cons to advertising. The cost of an ad depends on many factors such as the season, day of the week, time of day, number of users you’re targeting, locations you’re targeting, demographics you’re targeting, how relevant your ad is to your audience, quality of the ad, and industry (in-text cite?). Of course, the social media platform is a huge consideration too. Some social media advertising is based on cost per click, while others have cost per thousand impressions. For instance, the average cost per click in Facebook ads across all industries is $1.72, and the average price per impression is $0.97 (in-text cite?). Developing a budget is flexible because it’s up to you.
2. Consider your target audience
The second step is determining what social media platform best supports your business and is within budget. Start by defining your target audience – think about their demographics and the platform. Essentially, consider what platform your target audience utilizes the most, as well as what kind of content you’re going to produce. For example, if you’re targeting Millennial and Generation Z brides in your area, emphasizing visual production, perhaps Instagram is the most effective social media marketing site for you.
3. Evaluate the pros and cons
Perhaps you’re unsure which platform is the best for your business. In that case, let’s circle back to step one. You could start by adjusting your budget so that it allows you to try out several social media platforms. Then, you can access the analytics to determine which social networks are gaining the most traffic to your website and page. Essentially, a process of elimination.
If you already know which digital market works best for you, then maximize that immediately! Schedule in time to evaluate your analytics depending on the frequency of your content; if you’re using paid advertising weekly, then think about doing a recap every Sunday. Let the market research numbers lead your content. If they are going down, then what can you do differently? Or, consider what you might have done differently.
4. Rotate paid, owned, and earned media
The best type of paid media is in combination with owned and earned media. You don’t have to break the bank through the sole use of paid media because you can also create great content for free. It’s essential to make everything shareable because this leads to earned media. Earned media is when your target audience reposts your story, shares your post on their story, or sends it to a member of your target audience via direct messaging.
Benefits of Embracing Paid Social Media
1. Brand recognition
2. Sales
3. Target audience
4. Content visibility
5. Brand credibility
6. Customer traffic and retention rates
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