Social Media Advertising: A Practical Guide with Examples

Welcome to the digital age, where nearly 94% of consumers engage with social media platforms at least monthly. This tells us that the majority of consumers are tuned in to their respective social media platforms consistently.

So why not meet them there?

Social media advertisements are the way to do that. By running social media advertisements on the right platforms, you can capture eyeballs and hold their attention. In a 2022 study, it was shown that half american consumers discover their favorite products and make purchases through social media advertisements.

As impactful as social media advertisements are, it does come with a science to it. Not to worry, we’ve comprised a concrete guide to creating and maintaining advertisements that deliver.

Let’s break down the pillars of what makes an engaging social media advertisement; starting with the definition of social media advertising.

Understanding Social Media Advertising

To define social media advertising,

Traditional advertising is your billboards, broadcasting, handouts, bench advertising, etc. It focuses on offline media and ultimately casts a wider net and targets a larger audience. Think of social media advertising and narrowing your scope and personalizing your advertisements.

Social media advertising hones in on engagement in any digital space. Your advertisement is curated and tailored to the platform you choose.

Let’s say the majority of your audience is active on Instagram. You can hop on the platform and send out a unique, personalized advertisement to engage with your audience. Meet them right at the source.

The Benefits of Social Media Advertising

There’s plenty of pros to leveraging social media advertising, but the following three reasons prove why social media advertisements punch above their weight and bring your engagement to a whole new level.

Utilize Targeted Advertising

The most prominent feature of social media advertising is your ads go from general, overused, ineffective, to targeted, precise, and useful.

By zoning in on a specific platform, you’ve narrowed down your target to a clear demographic. You can better understand what they want to see, and in turn place ads that are highly responsive for that demographic.

When you choose to exercise social media advertising, you’re also utilizing targeted advertising, which is basically creating and placing an ad right in front of your dream demographic, and smashes it out of the park.

Who doesn’t love a home run?

Increase Lead Generation

Just as you can target audiences, social media ads also have the ability to generate new leads for your business. These ads you place will be seen by the audience you’re targeting but platforms also place these ads in front of people that carry the same tendencies as that targeted audience.

There’s thousands, perhaps millions of users on each and every platform that share the same preferences, interests, and purchasing habits as your current customers. Social media ads can help place you right in front of them.

You’ve just increased lead generation for your brand and they found the business/product they’ve been looking for.

It’s a win-win.

Improve SEO Rankings

As you harness more visibility through social media ads, (fully-embracing targeted ads and furthering your lead generation) you’ll climb search ranks simultaneously.

Get this.

The more views, clicks, interactions, you received from your ads on social media, propels a higher population of users to take action towards your business. For example, searching your brand on Google and boosting your search engine optimization (SEO) stats.

You can reserve your top spot on Google searches, all from social media advertisements.

5 Tips For Social Media Advertising

1. Choosing the Right Platform

So how do you know what social media platform is the most suitable one for you?

The easiest way to determine the platform to run your advertisements is based on your target audience and business goals.

For example: If you want to accomplish lead generation and traffic, host ads on LinkedIn. If your goal is to increase brand awareness and learn consumer habits, host ads on FaceBook.

Transform your social media game with ‘The Only 5 Social Media Marketing Software Tools Your Team Needs‘—read on to see the top picks

2. Creating Engaging Content

Crafting content that resonates with the audience also should be structured around your chosen platform. For example, the content that thrives on LinkedIn consists of industry insights, personal achievements, and polls. See how those are all informational and text-based?

Although that type of content wouldn’t be as effective on Tik Tok. Tik Tok as well as Instagram and YouTube require visual content. Videos, montages, humorous content.

When crafting your content, consider what encourages engagement on that chosen platform.

3. Targeting Your Audience

To squeeze the most engagement out of your social media ads it’s important to focus on a few key factors:

• What time is your target audience active on this platform? To run an ad when your target audience is inactive is to not run one at all.
• Is your content high-quality/attention grabbing?  Double check your content is of high-quality, you only have seconds to snag their attention and hold it.
• Are you collaborating with influencers? Influencers reach far and wide (including your target audience and then some).
• Have you used hashtags? Utilize trending hashtags to boost visibility.

All four of these factors done right will help you connect with your target audience without missing a beat.

4. Setting a Budget

The not-so-fun piece when planning your advertisements is considering budget allocation. But it’s possibly the most important step, (so bear with us, we will keep it short and sweet).

Allocate your budget around:

• Content Creation.
• Labor.
• Bids on placement, keywords, and audiences.

Split up our budget based on content creation, labor/resources it requires, and potential bids you’d like to make on your respective platform.

Pro Tip: Check to see if the chosen digital marketing platforms can limit your ad spend by stopping your ads once you reach your budget.

5. Measuring Success

The burning question when trying new tactics: How do I know when it’s working?

Easy. Return to these metrics when measuring social media ad success:

• Follower Growth
• Impressions (# of times your ad is displayed)
• Reach (# of people who saw the ad)
• Engagement Rate (# of people who interacted with your ad. Likes, shares, comments, etc.)
• Click-Through-Rate (# of people clicking on your links from ad)
• Conversion Rate (% of people contacting you to make a purchase)
• Return On Ad Spend (how effective your budget is being spent)

Any and all of these metrics help give you a glimpse into what is working and what may need some adjustments. From consumer behavior to budget effectiveness, you can peek at these to plan your next move.

Use our ‘Social Media Calendar Template To Streamline Publishing‘ to manage your content calendar effortlessly.

3 Real World Social Media Advertising Examples

Example 1: Facebook Advertising

NatureBox released an ad through FaceBook with all the right qualities. They harnessed a strong CTA with the inclusion of their free trial, as well as nailed the visual portion of the ad.

Users were just one tasty click away from engagement!

Linkedin

Let’s run through the 8 steps to completely create and launch your FaceBook campaign.

1. Define Your Campaign Objectives

1. Login to Facebook Ads Manager: Access Facebook Ads Manager through your Facebook account.
2. Create a New Campaign: Click on the green “Create” button.
3. Select Your Objective:

• Awareness: Brand Awareness, Reach
• Consideration: Traffic, Engagement, App Installs, Video Views, Lead Generation, Messages
• Conversion: Conversions, Catalog Sales, Store Traffic

2. Set Up Your Campaign

1. Name Your Campaign: Give your campaign a unique name for easy identification.
2. A/B Testing: Decide if you want to test multiple versions of your ad.
3. Campaign Budget Optimization: Enable this option if you want Facebook to distribute your budget across your ad sets to get the best results.

3. Utilize Audience Targeting

• Custom Audiences: Use data from your CRM, website traffic, or app activity.
• Location: Target users by country, state, city, or radius.
• Age and Gender: Specify the age range and gender of your target audience.
• Detailed Targeting: Use demographics, interests, and behaviors to narrow your audience.
• Connections: Target or exclude people who are connected to your Facebook Page, app, or event.

4. Refine Targeting with Audience Insights

1. Facebook Audience Insights Tool: Use this tool to understand more about your audience’s demographics, interests, and behaviors.
2. Lookalike Audiences: Create a Lookalike Audience based on your best customers to reach people similar to them.

5. Create Your Ad

1. Ad Format: Choose from Carousel, Single Image, Single Video, Slideshow, or Collection.
2. Media:

• Images/Videos: Upload high-quality images or videos.
• Creative Hub: Use this tool to create mockups and get feedback.

1. Text and Links:

• Primary Text: This is the main message of your ad.
• Headline: A short, attention-grabbing headline.
• Description: Additional information to support the headline.
• Call to Action (CTA): Choose a CTA button that aligns with your objective (e.g., Learn More, Shop Now).

6. Improve Content Strategies

1. Storytelling: Craft compelling stories that resonate with your audience.
2. Value Proposition: Clearly communicate the benefits and unique selling points of your product or service.
3. Visual Appeal: Use high-quality visuals and videos to capture attention.
4. Consistency: Ensure your ad content is consistent with your brand voice and style.
5. A/B Testing Content: Test different variations of your ad copy, images, and CTAs to see what works best.

Example 2: Instagram Influencer Collaborations

Hidden Valley tapped into a popular “foodie” influencer to promote their new flavor of Ranch. Users got to see their favorite influencer test out and try the new flavor in real-time.

Keeping Hidden Valley relevant and at the top-of-mind when it comes to your go-to dipping sauce.

Hidden Valley Ranch

Here’s a streamlined 5-step guide for collaborating with influencers on Instagram to amplify reach and authenticity:

1. Set Clear Objectives

Define what you want to achieve with your influencer collaboration, such as increasing brand awareness, driving traffic, boosting sales, or enhancing engagement.

2. Identify and Evaluate Influencers

Find influencers who align with your brand using discovery tools or Instagram features. Evaluate their engagement rate, content quality, authenticity, and audience demographics to ensure a good fit.

3. Build Relationships and Plan Campaigns

Reach out with personalized messages and be transparent about goals, expectations, and compensation. Establish contracts to outline deliverables, timelines, and content rights. Allow influencers creative freedom to maintain authenticity.

4. Execute and Monitor Campaigns

Collaborate on content creation and schedule posts. Track performance using Instagram Insights to monitor engagement, reach, and other metrics. Engage with followers by interacting with influencer posts.

Try our Free Social Media Post Generator!

5. Analyze Results and Maintain Relationships

Measure key metrics like engagement rate, reach, traffic, and conversions. Analyze ROI and gather feedback for future campaigns. Build long-term partnerships with top-performing influencers and ensure compliance with disclosure guidelines.

Example 3: LinkedIn for B2B Marketing

Aspect used sponsored content on LinkedIn to reel in users and score huge engagement. They cracked the code and found that boosting the right content will in turn, create leads back to your profile.

Linkedin

Follow these steps to effectively leverage LinkedIn ads that reach and engage with professionals and decision-makers in your B2B marketing efforts.

1. Determine Campaign Objectives

Identify your goals for the LinkedIn ad campaign:

• Brand Awareness: Increase visibility among your target audience.
• Lead Generation: Collect leads through LinkedIn forms or drive traffic to your website.
• Engagement: Boost interactions with your content.
• Conversions: Drive specific actions such as sign-ups or downloads.

2. Identify Target Audience

Use LinkedIn’s targeting options to reach professionals and decision-makers:

• Job Title and Function: Target specific roles and departments (e.g., CEOs, HR Managers).
• Industry and Company Size: Focus on industries and company sizes relevant to your business.
• Skills and Interests: Use specific skills and professional interests to narrow your audience.
• Location: Target based on geographical regions relevant to your market.
• Matched Audiences: Upload your own contact lists or use website retargeting to reach specific professionals.

3. Create Compelling Ad Content

Design your ads to appeal to professionals:

• Ad Formats: Choose from Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail, Text Ads, or Dynamic Ads.
• Value Proposition: Clearly communicate the benefits of your product or service.
• Visuals and Copy: Use high-quality images and concise, impactful copy.
• Call to Action (CTA): Include a strong CTA that encourages the desired action (e.g., “Download Now,” “Learn More”).

4. Follow Budget and Bidding Strategy

Determine your budget and bidding approach:

• Budget: Set a daily or total budget for your campaign.
• Bidding Options: Choose between cost per click (CPC), cost per impression (CPM), or cost per send (for InMail).
• Optimize for Results: Use LinkedIn’s optimization options to get the best results for your budget.

5. Monitor, Analyze, and Optimize

Track performance and make data-driven adjustments:

• Analytics: Use LinkedIn Campaign Manager to monitor metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and cost per lead.
• A/B Testing: Test different ad variations to see what performs best.
• Refine Targeting and Content: Adjust your audience parameters and ad creatives based on performance data.
• Iterate and Scale: Scale successful campaigns and continually optimize to improve results.

Conclusion

All in all, social media advertisements allow users to see relevant content, created specifically for their eyes, compared to less personalized traditional media. If this sounds like a route you might want to take for your own advertisements, you’re in luck. Social media platforms each have cultivated their own loyal following engagement is only growing.

We’ve seen brands using influencers (even micro influencers) for their social media advertising, and we’ve seen how effective it is. It grabs your audience’s attention, builds credibility, and keeps your content relevant. For the future of social media advertising we can expect to see plenty of opportunities to work with influencers in order to get the most bang for your buck.