10 Tips for a Successful Social Advertising Campaign

Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.

Mark Twain

As more and more people and content come onto the web, the average attention span gets a little bit shorter. That’s what makes it hard for businesses to reach their fans.

Fortunately, businesses have the option to advertise on their platform of choice (right now – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Adwords, including +Post ads). Investing in social advertising is a smart choice for any business – no matter the size or budget. Despite the all the bad press Facebook continually gets about declining reach or that it’s a “pay to play” platform, it’s still a valuable platform to use AND advertise on.

Whether you are starting out or are a seasoned pro at this, there are things to know when running social advertising campaigns.

In this article, you’ll find out –

• Why you need a budget for your ad.
• Why targeting is very important.
• Your CTA (Call-to-Action) options.

and

• How to have a successful social advertising campaign.

Here is what you need to know…

1. Know why you are advertising.

Everything you do when using social media for your business should have a purpose – it should all come together to help you achieve a goal. Social advertising is the same way – you should have a purpose behind every ad you run.

Some questions to ask yourself –

– Is the goal of this ad page likes/new followers or leads or downloads?
– Am I running this ad to bring awareness to an event or cause?
– What do I want my end results to be?
– What are my plans if I do not meet my goal?

2. Have a budget.

It’s important to watch how much money you spend on social advertising. Every platform that offers advertising give you the option to run the ad continuously. If you choose this and do not pay attention to how much you are spending per day, you will spend more than you planned.

My suggestions –

– Set a daily limit of how much you are willing to spend.
– Always choose the automatic optimize option.
– Always set a start and end date to control costs.

3. Craft a catchy hook to get their attention.

Social ads only allow you a certain number of characters for your ad. For Facebook, it’s 96; for Twitter, it’s 140. You have to be short, sweet and to the point. Some ways to get their attention would be to ask a question as your headline or as the main message of the ad. Ask them what they are already asking. For example, I’m a social media marketer wanting to target small business owners. One line I may include would be, “Not enough time to manage your social media?” or “Can’t figure out Facebook?” Knowing what questions your target audience is asking is key to crafting your message.

4. Know the demographic you are going after.

Targeting. This is one of the most important parts of your social ad. With Facebook and Twitter, you have MANY targeting options. For example –

Facebook:

– Income Level
– Net Worth
– Value of Home
– Type of moms – trendy, stay-at-home, sporty, green, etc.
– School attended.
– Job Title or Place of Employment

Twitter:

– Followers of your competitors
– People talking about a certain topic of your choice
– People talking and/or watching a particular TV show (think sports or Duck Dynasty or the Bachelor)
– General interests

You get the idea. The targeting options are endless, however you must know a little bit about your target audience to get this right. However…

5. Don’t target more than 250,000 people.

When targeting, you do not want to target all 1 billion+ on Facebook. That’s like throwing darts blindly at the target – you may reach some, but not the majority. You want to get your target audience number down to a number where the ad will be effective. So you have 2 million people when you’re done putting in your targeting options – split it into two ads. Run one ad for North America and one ad for Europe or break it up into East Coast/West Coast. There’s nothing wrong with that. The most effective ads are those that target less than a million.

Advertising works most effectively when it’s in line with what people are already trying to do. And people are trying to communicate in a certain way on Facebook – they share information with their friends, they learn about what their friends are doing – so there’s really a whole new opportunity for a new type of advertising model within that.

Mark Zuckerberg

6. Use Twitter’s Lead Generation Cards.

Twitter has gifted us marketers with fabulous Lead Generation cards. They are set up in the ads and analytics panel and are FREE. What happens with these cards is that when someone sees it and wants more information, they can click it and enter their name and email and voila! it’s saved for you to download. These can be used for demos, white papers, event sign-ups, etc. It’s a wonderful way to generate QUALITY leads on Twitter.

Here’s an example:

7. Use multiple photos.

Facebook will now allow you to use up to 6 photos with your ads. This is a wonderful way to test ads as well. Some picture may resonate better with your targeted audience than others. You do not have to use all 6, but use at least 2 and see the results. You can always edit the ads as your campaign runs.

Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.

David Ogilvy

8. Always include a Call-to-Action (CTA).

The purpose of the ad is to induce a reaction, correct? No matter if it’s digital, print or broadcast, you should always include a CTA. Facebook ads now have button you can include with wording such as “Sign Up”, “Shop Now” or “Buy Now”. Twitter gives you Lead Generation Cards (see above). People want to be told what to do, so here’s your chance!

9. Be flexible.

You think you may know the target audience well, but sometime they will surprise you. The targeting options can be tweaked along the way, so be flexible with your campaign knowing you may have to change the age or the interests or the location during the campaign’s tenure. If you (and/or your client) have an open mind and are willing to adjust along the way, you’ll have a more successful campaign.

10. Check your ad’s analytics daily.

The beauty of social advertising is that you can get real-time analytics any time you wish. You can see how many people have seen the ad, clicked on the ad, followed or liked the account because of the ad and so forth. Continual monitoring of the analytics will allow you to see what may need to be adjusted. You also want to make sure you are being a good steward of the campaign budget so watching this is key to maintaining it.

There is a lot to social advertising and much more I could add, however, this is just the starting point.

I hope you’ll bookmark these tips and use them as a checklist for when you run your next social ad campaign. I’ll be honest – you will not be successful 100% of the time. I’ve run hundreds of ad campaigns and not all of them have achieved the goal we want. What you do is learn from it and know what you can do better next time.

What other tips would you add to this for a successful campaign?