Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is a form of marketing that involves creating promotional campaigns on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Hallmarks of social media advertising include the ability to determine prospect criteria for the purposes of refining your target audience and incorporating a pay-per-click approach where payment is made only when someone from your target audience clicks on a link.

Because marketing is a general term that encompasses multiple forms of product, service, or brand promotion, social media advertising is considered a form of marketing. Social media advertising can be one of many components of marketing, the same way that search engine optimization, traditional advertising, product placement, content marketing, and other activities fall under the marketing umbrella.

Successful social media advertising campaigns begin with identifying goals and objectives. A strategy should then be developed to reach those goals and objectives. Next, identifying a target audience is important, as social media platforms allow for very refined identification of audiences. Deciding on the specific social media platforms to use is also important, as some are more effective than others for achieving certain objectives and reaching certain audiences. Developing the ads and setting a budget round out an approach that should create an effective social media advertising campaign.

Social media advertising campaigns can cost as much or as little as an organization is willing to spend. There is no one standard cost for a campaign; it’s always determined by the company’s objectives, audience, and overall budget. Social media advertising campaigns can cost as little as $50 per month focusing on one platform or as much as $10,000 a month across multiple platforms. One variable in social media advertising is the cost per click associated with each campaign. Advertising products or information that truly resonates with a particular target audience on Facebook or LinkedIn can significantly reduce the cost per click. Alternatively, advertising items that an audience might not care about can significantly increase the cost per click.

There are several advantages of launching a social media advertising campaign. First, such campaigns can be tightly controlled, often down to the dollar. Budgets, timing, and very specific audiences can be determined in an effort to control spending and exposure. Depending on results of the actual campaign, companies can continue the campaign, stop it, expand the audience, or change the targeted click cost. In short, social media advertising can be a very cost-effective form of marketing that can accommodate any type of budget while doing an excellent job of targeting your unique audience.