{"id":1907,"date":"2017-04-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zenmedia.go4wordpress.com\/2017\/04\/25\/4-critical-tips-getting-paid-social-ads\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T22:44:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T22:44:55","slug":"4-critical-tips-getting-paid-social-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenmedia.com\/blog\/4-critical-tips-getting-paid-social-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Critical Tips for Getting the Most Out of Paid Social Ads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turning out high-quality content<\/a>, working with powerful influencers<\/a>, and using video strategically<\/a> are all huge elements of any digital marketing<\/a> strategy.<\/p>\n

Although these concepts have been around for years – decades, even – the way they\u2019re being used today is an extremely recent development.<\/p>\n

However, just because the rules of marketing have changed over the past few years, prioritizing endorsements from \u201cregular people\u201d over celebrities and inbound tactics over outbound ones, it doesn\u2019t mean that the entire playbook gets thrown out.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one strategy that people (and companies) that have something to sell have been relying on for hundreds of years: paid advertising<\/a>.<\/p>\n

313 years, to be exact: that\u2019s when the first American newspaper ad, an announcement that a Long Island estate was for sale in a 1704 edition of the Boston News-Letter, appeared.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that advertising looks much like it did back in the 1700s – or even the 2000s.<\/p>\n

As both advertising platforms and consumers become more and more sophisticated, advertising is undergoing changes on a yearly, if not monthly basis.<\/p>\n

Just look at digital advertising.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, you couldn\u2019t advertise on Instagram (they opened up the platform to advertisers in 2015).<\/p>\n

Go a few years further back, to 2010, and Twitter was just rolling out advertising in the form of Promoted Tweets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, you can advertise on virtually every social media platform – and with ever-more-accurate ad targeting, you can reach your advertising goals more quickly than ever.<\/p>\n

With all the potential behind paid social ads, you want to make sure you\u2019re getting everything you can out of them. Here are a few tips for maximizing your paid social ad results.<\/p>\nHere are a few tips for maximizing your #paidsocial ad results. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n

Pick the right social platform.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As with any digital advertising endeavor, you\u2019ve got to be selective.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true of content marketing – for example, there\u2019s no point starting a profile on Medium if you\u2019re not going to produce long-form content<\/a> on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true of social media. Why throw resources toward creating a Pinterest account<\/a> if your audience doesn\u2019t hang out on Pinterest?<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s especially true of social ads, especially because you\u2019ve actually got to pay for those things.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s generally agreed-upon among marketers and brands of all shapes and sizes that Facebook produces the highest ROI for social ads, so Facebook advertising is pretty much a no-brainer. Just check out this chart from eMarketer – the stats were taken from a 2016 report called \u201cThe Future of Social\u201d by Firebrand Group, Simply Measured, and Social Fresh.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Source: eMarketer<\/a><\/p>\n

But after Facebook, you\u2019ve got choices to make. Just looking at the chart above, there\u2019s Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest – how do you decide which platform is right for you?<\/p>\n

First, you\u2019ve got to look at your target audience. Who are you trying to reach? Let\u2019s go with a fairly simple example.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a B2B company that sells consulting services to financial organizations, then you\u2019re going to want a platform that will reach financiers. LinkedIn is likely the best bet.<\/p>\n

By contrast, if you\u2019re a social gaming brand whose customers are mainly between the ages of 18 and 24, Snapchat is probably a great platform to explore.<\/p>\n

Instagram and Pinterest can also yield excellent results, but only if you\u2019re able to take advantage of their visual format. If your product or service doesn\u2019t lend itself to compelling video or photo content, you may want to skip these platforms.<\/p>\n

Target, target, and target some more.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Social advertising platforms have gotten so good at segmenting consumers that you can target your ad based on extremely narrow criteria. And lest you think that sounds like you\u2019re just casting a smaller net, know that this kind of highly specific targeting is a good thing. A very good thing.<\/p>\n

What it means is that you\u2019re not having to waste dollars showing your ad to people who aren\u2019t going to have any interest in it anyway.<\/p>\n

In the old form of advertising, you bought an ad and hoped that it prompted a few people to take the next step toward buying your product or service.<\/p>\n

Today, you can greatly increase your ROI by targeting your ads narrowly. You\u2019ll start by choosing a location, gender, age, and language, and from there you can really start to find your audience.<\/p>\n

On Facebook and Instagram, which use the same advertising tool, you can choose among these categories:<\/p>\n