Ad spending in the social media advertising market is estimated to reach US$10.1bn (£7.9 bn) in 2024. Social media platforms allow users to spend more time with more relevant content than traditional advertising. This makes social ads even more valuable since they are more likely to be seen by the people that will buy from your business.
In this blog, we explore the secret weapon of businesses: paid social ads.
Benefits of businesses using paid social ads
Amplify reach and visibility
In order to get your audience to complete a desired action, you need to first reach them. Paid social gives your business the chance to customise adverts in order to reach the right people. Organic reach refers to the number of users that will see your social media post without any promotion. On the other hand, paid social reach refers to the number of targeted people you are able to reach via paid advertising.
Focusing on reach is not an uncommon KPI. For instance, if your business wants to get word out about a new product, you would want as many people as possible to see your ad, click on it and explore further. Amplifying reach and visibility starts with determining the right audience. A paid social specialist will assist you with targeting your ideal demographic so your offering reaches potential customers.
Generate leads and sales
Lead generation and paid social advertising is a match made in heaven. Investing in paid ads can enable your business to reach a large audience and generate sales quickly. By targeting particular demographics and interests, your business can display ads to highly engaged and relevant audiences. And this will increase your chances of generating leads.
For example, one of our clients – a successful chain of Reformer Pilates studios – made use of paid social ads as part of their marketing strategy. The result? 1,268,017 impressions (how many times people saw the ads), 40k clicks to the website and a 64% increase in bookings in comparison to the previous three month period. While this can’t totally be attributed to paid social ads, they do play a huge role in building up impressions which leads to increased visibility and leads generation.
Increase brand awareness
Paid social is a brilliant way to build brand awareness. This is simply because putting money behind your ads guarantees that a lot of people will see them. Paid social is one of the best ways to get people to find out about your brand or product.
As a result of paid social, your business could even see an increase in new customers making the investment worthwhile.
Gain audience insights
You can learn a lot by using paid social media to reach new customers and audiences that are unfamiliar with your brand. With a rich set of analytics that come with paying for posts, you will be able to gain many valuable audience insights. Social audience insights allow you to understand audience interests and what drives them to make purchases. For example, Meta Business Suite Insights and Meta Ads Manager are tools that provide data for both Facebook and Instagram.
If you’re curious about audience insights, your paid social specialist will be able to break down the data for you into real terms.
Control your budget
When it comes to paid media, the burning question is: ‘how much should you spend?’ Regardless of whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or own a large company, you will want to ensure you see a return on your social media investment. This starts with having a well thought out paid social budget.
Paid social advertising allows you to set daily or lifetime spending caps, giving you complete control over your budget. You can start small, test the waters, and scale your campaigns up as you see success.
While there’s no hard and fast rule for how much you should spend, it does depend on your company size, revenue and business goals. When creating your budget you should also take into account which social platforms you want to focus on to get the best results for your business. Feel free to chat to our social media team for more advice on budget-setting for your campaigns.
Compete with larger brands
In a competitive digital landscape, paid advertising is crucial in helping businesses stand out and reach their objectives. This is especially beneficial if you want to appear as a bigger business online. In order to compete with larger companies using paid social media, focus on strategic targeting.
A laser-focused target audience may be more effective than a big brand’s campaign targeting a broad audience. It also helps to highlight what makes your business special in the ads whether its personalised service, unique product offerings or your sustainability commitment. This gives you a competitive edge that can make your business more attractive to customers.
Invest in your business’s social media
Ready to reap the benefits of paid social campaigns? Talk to us about your business goals and KPIs so we can create a highly targeted paid advertising campaign. Our paid social specialists are experienced at creating effective ads that speak to a specific audience.
Chat to us to find out more.
