If there was a way to affordably target your specific customer base with your message, would you take advantage of it? If you are shaking your head yes, then you will want to listen to this episode about social media ads.
We invite you to listen here on our website or from your favorite podcast player. Scroll below for episode summary and other resources.
Episode 10 Summary: Social Media Ads 101
- Social media ads are cheap. Social media ads are targeted and focused. Consumers of all ages spend a LOT of time on social media each day. Nearly every social media platform has an ads tool, so wherever you have a presence, you can advertise.
- Everything I just said is completely true about social media ads on their own as well as when comparing social media ads to more traditional forms of advertising. Even further, you have so much more flexibility with social media advertising compared to traditional advertising options like print, radio, TV, and billboards because you can start your ads, stop your ads, tweak your ads, and test important ad elements like ad copy, image, and targeting any time you’d like.
- We aren’t going to get into the specifics of each social media ads platform in today’s podcast, but we are going to talk more about social media ads in general. For example, nearly all – if not all – social media platforms have their own ads tool. The ads tool is built into the platform and designed for businesses to advertise their content. Each ads tool has a variety of ad types you can choose from. When we say ad types, we mean different ad options like advertising a video or a photo or a series of photos. Or sending traffic to your website or online store.
- These social media platforms have their own pixel or tracking code. By that we mean…have you ever been shopping on a website like Amazon and then you return to Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, and then see an ad for the exact product you were just shopping for? That’s a pixel at work. And popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest all have one. A pixel tracks and accumulates people who visited your website, and allows you to create audiences of those people to use in your advertising. This is powerful because these people in your pixel audiences are what’s called a warm audience because they have some awareness of your brand already.
- Another awesome reason to use social media to advertise for your business is the wealth of targeting options. Of course, these options vary by platform, but generally speaking, you can target potential customers by details like basic demographics, plus marital status, education level, whether or not they have kids, and other details like interests they have. Social media users send a LOT of signals to the algorithm based on the other accounts they like or follow plus the content they interact with. So if you want to target someone aged 45-64 who likes dogs and lives within a 15 mile radius, you can do that!
- Be careful with image use and permissions plus copyright rules!
- Some social media ad types require a link to your privacy policy on your website.
Episode 10 Takeaways:
Liz: Social media ads are wonderful for a lot of reasons, so it’s worth it to give them a try. And if you aren’t able to get trained to manage them yourself, hire them out.
Ronda: Create a budget, test, test, test, and give them a go!
Related Episodes: Website basics
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Liz Jostes – LinkedIn, Website
Ronda VanBuren – LinkedIn, Website
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