Why Social Media Ads
Why use social media ads? How can they grow your business and what are the drawbacks?
Thinking of running ads on social media? You first need a social media ads strategy. Ads have changed and it's not the same game on Facebook. Twitter, and LinkedIn. Your ideal client is still on your favorite social media platform, but you need to know the new strategy to reach them.
If you are looking to save money and get better results from your social media ads, check out the best practices for 2022. Get seen, make more sales, and expand your audience all with these simple tips.
How Social Media Advertising Works
Let's start with how it doesn't work. Social media ads are not a shortcut to getting your business or brand visible. There was a time when you could pump out ads on Facebook and fill your event or sell your course or even launch a product.
What happened? Well, in short, 2020 happened. That may be oversimplifying but the online space changed. Businesses wanted to drive sales so they pushed out more ads than ever. People were online more than ever before and so it seemed like a perfect solution until it wasn't. The constant advertising backfired eventually. People didn't want to see ads, they wanted to see their friends and family in their feeds.
So, every platform retooled its best practices and how they serve ads to users. This made them more expensive, less effective, and more complicated.
Which Social Media Advertising is Best
Organic reach and growth are still the best way to use social media. You need an established and engaged audience for advertising to work. Ads cannot make up for this. In fact, platforms like LinkedIn, require you to have a content ad running concurrently that attracts engagement if you do not already have consistent engagement on your posts.
Posts? Why would I post if I have ads?
See, that is exactly what has changed. People don't buy products and services. They buy solutions from people or organizations that they trust. How can you build trust? Engage your audience and provide value every day. No one wants to be sold.
How Much Does it Cost for Social Media Ads?
Gone are the days of 50-cent conversions. Here are some statistics as of the first half of 2022. It costs an average of $27 to get one person to enroll in a free masterclass or webinar on Facebook via ads. Considering that 40-60% of the people who sign up for events don't show up, and only 1-10% buy-in, that is a very expensive ad.
LinkedIn advertising best practices suggest a minimum of 3-4 ads (you need the 4th one for engagement) to be running concurrently. Each ad needs a minimum budget of $1000 to reach peak performance.
So, you need a minimum of $4000 to advertise on LinkedIn and get any results. This doesn't factor in any help you hire to create the ads.
Are Social Media Ads Effective?
For some businesses or occasions, they can be. However, overall, they are not unless you have a very large advertising budget and are already very visible on the platform.
So what can you do instead?
Here are the top 3 ways to create a buzz without paying for advertising:
Consistently create engaging and value-rich content that sets you up as the expert.
Engage on the platform at least 30 minutes each day, targeting ideal clients.
Do message outreach to individuals who engage on your posts, and connection you already have.
Social media doesn't have to be expensive to be effective. But, it does take an investment of time, energy, and focus to build a strategy that works.
If you are a creative B2B service provider who needs a better game plan on LinkedIn, book a complimentary consultation here: https://calendly.com/jenniferelia/30min