Digital Marketing 101: Paid Social Guide for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

Now that you know the basics of paid social, let’s talk about strategies for a few of the best social media platforms for businesses.

Facebook and Instagram

First things first – you must be present.

Creating Facebook and Instagram pages provides your business with a free and beautiful online home. Your social media pages should have a voice and tone, a reflection of your brand’s personality. Your voice is who the readers hear talking, and the tone is the way you are writing the content. A helpful way to remain consistent in your voice and tone is to analyze the data around your audience and what content is resonating with them. Then create a content calendar, posting regularly. Once you have accomplished this, it’s time to light the fire by spending some dollars to reach beyond the target audience to which the algorithm of Facebook and Instagram is limiting you.

Facebook Boosted Posts

Facebook boosted posts provide a way to fight the decline in organic reach. Boosting the right posts is essential. You don’t want to spend money on every single post. You want to gauge the performance and boost only those posts which are doing well organically. Posts with content that has high engagement (likes, comments, shares, and clicks) and is relevant to your goal are more likely to drive engagement when boosted.

Just like there is a right time to post on Facebook and other platforms, there is a right time to boost a post. Check your analytics and boost during the time most people are engaging. Be certain to set a reasonable duration. It is recommended not to boost a post for more than a week because your audience is narrow and will be exposed to the post multiple times. Remember when you boost a post, it could be the first touchpoint for an audience who is not familiar with your brand. The content needs to be eye-catching and engaging for this new audience.

Lastly, you must understand that Facebook boosted posts have a specific objective (engagement) and do not allow you to optimize for your marketing goals. They will get you likes, comments, and shares to build your brand’s reach and fan base, while Facebook and Instagram advertising helps translate your brand’s presence into tangible outcomes.

Facebook and Instagram Advertising

Facebook and Instagram ads are tailored to specific goals. You are not limited by the algorithm. Instead, you can choose your target audience and, most importantly, you can optimize and test your ads to receive greater results. All your efforts are measured in the Facebook Business Manager as it captures real-time data and performance results. Here are a few of the most common goals for Facebook and Instagram ads.

• Brand Awareness – Increase overall awareness for your brand by showing ads to consumers who are more likely to pay attention to them.
• Reach – Show ads to the maximum number of people in your audience while staying within your budget. You can also geotarget to reach consumers who are near your business locations.
• App Installs – Drive more installs of your app by linking directly to the App Store and Google Play Store. You can also choose to target high-value users.
• Traffic– Increase the number of visitors to your website, app, or Messenger conversation, and develop a strong call-to-action to encourage the likelihood they’ll take some action when they get there.
• Lead Generation – Make it easy for interested consumers to learn more about your business. Encourage them to sign up for more information, spend time with your app, or visit your website.
• Messages – Prompt consumers to open more Messenger interactions. Scale your ability to have personal conversations with them to answer questions, collect leads, and boost sales.
• Engagement – Get more consumers to follow your page or engage with your posts through likes, comments, and shares. You can also optimize for more event responses or offer claims.
• Video Views – Show your videos to people who are most likely to be interested and watch them to completion.

Insider Tips for Facebook and Instagram

Install the Facebook/Instagram Pixel – Step one should be to install the Facebook pixel on your website. The directions are simple and the campaign data is more granular, allowing you to learn more about your customers and then optimize to reach the right people.

Automatic Placements ­– Be flexible and allow Facebook and Instagram to choose your ad placements. Facebook and Instagram can reach your most valuable customers if you allow them to serve your ads dynamically, based on best performance, making it more likely you will achieve your desired results.

Optimize and Test – This is critical to campaign performance. If you do not have time to continuously optimize your campaigns and to test your creative assets and audiences, running a social media campaign is probably not something on which you want to spend your advertising dollars. If you have outsourced an individual or an agency and they are not talking about optimization and testing strategies and tactics, find someone who does.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is not for every business, but it is a solution if you are looking for a B2B platform for spreading brand awareness and driving lead generation.

In order to publish content, your company needs to be present with a LinkedIn company page. Once this page is established and shows a variety of consistent posts, you can ignite the fire by implementing LinkedIn advertising.

LinkedIn Advertising Cost: Minimum of $10 per day.

Types of Campaigns

• Sponsored Content looks and feels native to the LinkedIn platform and is placed in the LinkedIn feed (news feed). You have the option to target the professionals you want using LinkedIn profile data and your own audiences. These ads can consist of a single image, video, or carousel ad and they allow you to add a lead generation form.
• Message Ads allow you to send direct messages to your prospects to spark immediate action. There are no character limits and you can add a lead generation form to your message to collect leads directly on LinkedIn. Plus, these ads drive stronger engagement and response than traditional emails. According to LinkedIn, more than 1 in 2 prospects open up a message ad.
• Dynamic Ads engage prospects with ads automatically personalized to them. These ads use each professional’s own LinkedIn profile data, such as their photo, company name, job title, and more, to capture their attention. You can use these ads to gain new followers (Follower ad), drive traffic or spark an action (Spotlight ad), or increase relevant applications for a job posting (Jobs ad).
• Text Ads drive new customers to your business – on a budget that works for you – with easy, self-service pay-per-click advertising. These ads allow you to choose the audience you want to reach, create your own ads, and set a budget without contracts or long-term commitments. You pay only for the ads that work, and you can track the leads you receive.

Insider Tips for LinkedIn

Set up LinkedIn Conversion Tracking – Before you launch any LinkedIn campaigns, you will want to set up conversion tracking in order to measure the number of actions individuals take on your website.

Set Both a Daily and a Total Budget – This feature will allow you to have more control and allow you to stay within the overall budget you have set for your campaigns.

Include a Strong Call-to-Action – ALWAYS set up a strong call-to-action advising your audience on exactly what you want them to do.

A Few Final Thoughts on Paid Social

As with all your digital marketing efforts, you will constantly need to research new optimizations so you can keep up with ways to optimize your ad spend. Ideally, you would check on a monthly basis to see if there have been any updates. It might sound a bit tedious, but it can help you save money in the long run.

Finally, as you work to build your paid social strategy, we have a few important reminders and tips to help you manage your social media campaigns.

Website User Experience – Before running any type of digital advertising, make sure you have a positive user experience on your website. Remember that your website is your online storefront. If your site does not deliver a positive experience, your prospect will find a competing site that does, and most likely will not visit your site again.

Matched or Lookalike Audiences – Set up matched or lookalike audiences. Social media platforms have audience data that you can use to your advantage. These audiences have browsing and buying habits similar to your best customers, based on your website visitors. Take advantage of this option when setting up your social media campaigns.

Give Your Campaigns Time – Generally it takes three months of continuous optimization and creative campaign testing before you start seeing the results you want. It takes time, but be patient and you will see a return on ad spend.

Google Search/Text Ads – In conjunction with your social media campaigns, run a paid search campaign through Google Ads. This will allow you to capitalize on individuals who do not click the social ads because they prefer to go directly to Google and search. Digital advertising increases the number of individuals searching for your brand, and Google Search campaigns can provide visibility at the top of the Google page, allowing you to outrank competitors and increase traffic to your website.