How Does Paid Social Media Work?

Paid social media is a method used by brands to boost their social media exposure through display advertising or sponsored marketing messages; these can include pay-per-click ads, influencer-generated content, display or banner ads and sponsored posts. 

So, let’s dig down into how paid social media works and the benefits it can bring to brands who invest in paid social media activity. 

Social media advertising is one of the most profitable advertising streams for brands looking to drive their business forward. Social media is a continually growing market with fantastic targeting opportunities – this is especially true for savvy brands who know how to target their paid social media activity to the right audience (or, who know who to employ to do this for them!) 

There’s a reason why, in 2018, social media ad spending reached about $27 billion in the U.S. – paid social works. 

The Strategy Behind Paid Social 

The main principle behind paid social media advertising is that it is advertising directed at people who will actively engage with your advert and remember your brand. 

This works through a series of audience targeting and algorithms to get your brand name and message in front of exactly the right people. 

But what does audience targeting actually mean? 

As a business, you will have your ideal customer – the customer profile that you have built in your brand strategy when creating, manufacturing and delivering your products or services. Paid social media strategies utilise this ideal customer profile information to formulate targeted advertising towards specific demographics. 

Targeted advertising metrics can include: 

• Age 
• Gender 
• Location 
• Interests 
• Job title
• Industry  
• Other liked pages 

By understanding exactly who it is your paid social media advertising seeks to speak to, your strategy will work to create messages that will resonate with these audiences and turn interest into clicks. 

Social media experts will then ensure your advertising is crafted in the best format for your audience and brand message. For example, B2B brands looking to connect with hiring managers will likely favoure a sponsored LinkedIn post targeting the job title “hiring managers”; however, a fashion band tailored for women under 30 will likely see best results from a highly visual banner ad posted on Instagram or Facebook. 

What these examples have hopefully outlined is that your end audience will direct every decision you make in your paid social media strategy – and this is, inessence, the crux of paid social media success.

Why Is Paid Social Media Advertising Successful? 

From the style of ad to the platform you chose to utilise, each decision is driven towards the end users’ engagement, clicks and conversions on your website. 

From this, the success of paid social media ads then comes down to the delivery and execution of the campaign. Some key points include: 

1. Being Visually Appealing: An ad which catches the users’ attention and ‘stops the scroll’ is one of the main goals for paid advertisers. Creating a visually appealing ad will include choosing the right colour palette, developing the right graphics or imagery and adding a tailored heading or CTA to grab the users’ eye. 
2. Simple Call To Actions: Which brings us nicely onto point two – the all important CTA. A vital step in the process, call to actions need to be sharp, engaging and easy to digest to make an impact with social users. 
3. Natural Advertising: Making your ads look and feel correct for the platform which you’re advertising on is the perfect way to boost engagement and encourage users to naturally engage with your post – even if they don’t realise it’s an ad! 
4. Prompts Conversions: Paid social media ads are often enticing or sharp enough to draw users to click on the ad – a catchy headline, a question you need answering, a sale you just can’t miss; these are the tactics that draw clicks and sale conversions. 
5. Strong Brand Presence: Paid social media advertising can help deliver a strong brand message and get your brand name in front of the right people to build a robust brand awareness, which will in turn, cement your brand’s expertise and bring users to your website. 

So the main takeaway from how paid social media works is that marketers drill down into exactly who their target audience are and then tailor their content, social media posting times and targeted ads to these groups.  

For more information on how you can make paid social media advertising work for you, contact us online or speak to one of our social media marketing experts today on 029 2169 0146. 

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Written by Laura Mallinson, for ThisIsUs.Digital.