Susan Gilbert
May 23, 2016

The Importance of Social Advertising For Business

Would you like to increase your sales and subscribers through social media?

Are your posts getting less leverage than they used to?

The new trend in social media marketing is advertising and promoted posts, which is now supported by major networks like Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. In fact, eMarketer reports that businesses spent over $23 billion on social advertising to reach consumers – a number which continues to rise:

Advertising-statistics

The Ins and Outs of Social Advertising

Instagram in particular is gaining in popularity with the integration of Facebook’s Power Editor tool for either photo or video ads that can be shared on both platforms at the same time. Imagine being seen by a growing number of mobile users who search and makes purchases from their devices!

According to an article on TechCrunch, mobile users spend most of their browsing and interacting time on Facebook and Instagram with the top spot being taken by Facebook in a study of Android users in the United States:

mobile-stats

Overall it is fairly easy to set up an ad on social media, and when done strategically, it can be less expensive than traditional advertising, email marketing, PPC ads, etc. as shown here from MarketingCharts:

B2B-Cost-per-Lead2014

If your business already advertises on Facebook, then it is simple to include Instagram by selecting Instagram as your objective even if you don’t have an account there. As you include your website or offer link, you can double your website traffic and leads, which improves your conversion rates.

The benefit of advertising for your business on these social platforms, is the increased target market reach such as millennials, who are especially attracted to story telling techniques. It’s important to know which advertising formats are available on each network in order to make these most effective. For example, Instagram offers three different styles, which include images, carousel ads, video, and marquee ads.

Here’s a great image ad example from Levis featured on Curalate:

Levis-Instagram-example

If your business is new to advertising on social media, then you can get the process started through the business section of each network. On Facebook, users can sign up through their profile or Administrator account, and Facebook will allow you to categorize and choose your ads with keyword entry and ad tracking features. Pinterest sponsored ads can be set up once your account is upgraded to a free business account, which allows you to create pins that blend in well with organic pins:

Pinterest-ad-example

While Facebook and Instagram are currently taking the lead in advertising on social media your business may also want to include Twitter in the mix, which allows for brands and businesses to target users who show an interest in what they have to offer.

Twitter-ads

As advertising continues to expand on social media platforms, businesses can benefit from additional features which will not only save time in ad creation, but allow campaigns to be created all at once. Your content will be available to thousands of desktop and mobile users, and drive more traffic to your website for more leads and conversions. It’s important to choose just one or two networks to start the process, and focus your ads on what your audience responds to on each platform.

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Online Marketing with Focus - Let Susan Guide you to Online Success. Especially loves to help Authors, Speakers, Coaches & Entrepreneurs. Susan Gilbert uses her laser focus knowledge to coach and provide online marketing and social sharing programs. Author and publisher of several books including “The Land of I Can,” and “KLOUT SCORE: Social Media Influence,” Susan combines online marketing with strategic thinking. Follow her Digital Marketing Tips at her blog: www.SusanGilbert.com