Get the Most Out of Your Social Media Advertising Efforts

From Facebook to LinkedIn to even TikTok, companies across the globe are utilizing social media ads to ensure they are building brand awareness, driving leads, and growing their business among their target audience.

There are many benefits to incorporating social media advertising into your digital marketing strategy. It’s affordable for businesses of almost any size and can yield higher conversion rates than traditional advertising.

Through niche targeting, geo-fencing, and advanced algorithms, your ads can reach new users and pique their interest without breaking the bank.

However, while there are advantages to social ads, if you’re not paying close enough attention to your campaigns, you’re not going to see desired results. Here are some key setting errors we’ve seen and how to fix them to guarantee your ads are set up for success.

1. Location – If your business is regional and relies on area locals to grow the business, you’ll want to make sure you’ve narrowed your targeting to that area. Check that “Living In” is selected to ensure your potential customers aren’t just visiting.
2. Age – If your ads feature adult content such as alcohol or adjacent, always set the beginning age to at least 21 years old. Without this setting, your ads will be rejected and over time may result in an account suspension.
3. Now Hiring Ads – If your business is looking to run a campaign to recruit employees, your targeting options are limited. You’ll need to declare this campaign as a “Special Ad Category for Employment” and limit your targeting settings only to location to ensure the ads will be approved and run properly.

When it comes to ad spend, you’ll want to set a master budget for all campaigns. This will help keep your campaigns on track without over/underspending.

Once you have a good idea of what your budget for your campaign will be, you’ll need to input it into the ad setup and decide if you want to use a daily ad budget or a lifetime budget. While these settings are closely related, picking the right one can make a big difference.

• Daily Budget – This setting allows for an ad campaign to spend a certain amount per day giving you more control over budget distribution, but if you’re not monitoring your campaign closely or add an extra zero, your campaign can overspend without any warning.
• Lifetime Budget – This setting allows you to set a budget for your entire campaign and will optimize your budget for the best times. While you have less control over budget distribution, you can easily stay on track and monitor your results easier.

Once your ads are set up correctly, add several types of creatives. From images to video to carousels (multi-image), to slideshows, the possibilities are endless.

Adding more than one creative per campaign allows the platform to prioritize the best-performing creative while minimizing user fatigue. A good rule of thumb is to always run 3-5 ads per campaign.

Do you want to get started with social media ads or want to know how to improve your current strategies?

Schedule an audit on your existing social media advertising with our analyst. Contact Tom now to get started.