Ads are everywhere online, and growing steadily on social media channels. Log into Facebook, browse Twitter, search Linkedin, watch a video on YouTube—you’re going to see ads. While you may not click on many of the advertisements marketed to you, you do see them, and chances are you remember them.
But are they viable? Are Twitter Ads and Facebook Sponsored Posts a quality investment of your marketing budget? Let’s examine three of the top social media advertising options available to businesses today.
Twitter Advertising
This is a form of advertising that we’ve been seeing a lot of lately. Not just seeing ads in our Twitter streams, but Twitter pushing us to pay for our own ads.
You can choose one of two types of ads—either Promoted Tweets or Promoted Accounts. Choose your type based on what you want as a result: Either increased views on one tweet, or an increased amount of followers to continue tweeting to over time.
Twitter Advertising isn’t something that we recommend for small businesses, because it isn’t a time-tested advertising method yet. However, for medium to large-sized businesses with a little extra in their marketing budget, we say give it a try!
Want to see who else has benefited from Twitter advertising? Check out the success stories.
Facebook Ads
While it can seem like Facebook is too big for small business advertising, it differs from Twitter in one (very important) area—it’s more personal. The way Facebook is put together allows for a more personal experience that Twitter simply doesn’t have. Geo, gender, interest and age targeting allow you to zone in on the exact audience you want to see your ad on Facebook.
Facebook also allows for a few different types of advertising. One is the typical ad to the right of your screen, which links to either your business Facebook page or an external URL.
Another is the promoted status, which will show your ad to friends of the users who like your page. This is a great option to choose if you have a promotional campaign running for a certain product or service.
Check out some of the businesses that have benefited from Facebook Advertising: Facebook Ad Success Stories.
Ads on Linkedin
If your company is specifically business to business, advertising on Linkedin might be your best bet. Linkedin is the social network for professionals, and people are more likely to be looking for business services on a site like Linkedin, as opposed to Twitter or Facebook.
Ads on Linkedin look a lot like those on Facebook, and can link to any URL you’d like—a company page, personal page, products/services page, careers page or an external URL.
Linkedin also offers a very cool feature—up to 15 variations in your ad, in order to test which style of ad is best for your audience! Facebook allows you to do several ads as well, but not as easily or quickly as Linkedin’s service.
Not convinced? Take a look at some Linkedin success stories!
What Social Media Advertising is Right for You?
We’d love to discuss it with you! Give us a call or send our team an email, and we can talk about how to make social media ads work for your company.
I am starting my first advertising campaign on Facebook, but wanted to get a coupon first to test it out. Thanks!
@ October 27th, 2012 at 06:13Let us know how it works out, Lowell!
@ October 30th, 2012 at 09:58