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“Is it worthwhile to advertise on Facebook or LinkedIn?”
Facebook and LinkedIn must be sending out lots of incentive emails to get people to advertise, since this is one of the most popular questions we get. The answer is simple… “It depends.” It’s like asking if you should go fishing in the ocean or a freshwater lake. It depends on what you are trying to catch.
The fact that advertising revenue on social media is expected to increase over 190% to reach $15 billion by 2018 is a good indicator that you are not alone in wanting to fish for the attention of these social media audiences. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are the top three preferred platforms to advertise on, but LinkedIn is not sitting back quietly. You might have received one of their $50 incentives to go fishing on their advertising platform.
Before you plan your fishing trip and start throwing money at Facebook, Twitter or any other advertising platform, you need to answer these 5 questions:
1. What do I want to achieve with this ad campaign?
Be specific. Do I just want more likes to my Facebook page? Am I trying to get more people to buy my new book or sign up for a course I have coming up?
Identifying your goals is a critical first step. This will determine which kind of ad you should run and where you will want to run it. To get more page likes you will want to drive people to the actual page, versus a landing page to sign up for your newsletter or webinar. You can use promoted page advertising for likes versus a crafted ad that will show in the newsfeed of your targeted audience on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or others.
2. Who do I want to reach?
Again, be specific. Am I trying to reach people in sales positions or perhaps the target market is women between the ages of 30-50 years old living in 5 zip codes in and around Denver? Social media ad platforms are like Google ads, in that you can get very granular with your audience targeting. Getting granular will save you money from having
Take some time to clarify who you want to target so you are not paying for clicks from people that will not end up converting. If you are targeting all people in the United States, it’s almost better to list states individually than to leave the location you want to reach as United States. Many spam accounts will have something in their profile stating United States as an interest even if they do not live in the US.
3. What is the best platform to use to achieve the goals I have?
Do I want to advertise on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube?
One you identify the audience you are trying to reach it will help you know which platform that audience is more likely to be on. If your target market is 35-50-year-old men, advertising on Instagram may not be the best use of your dollars. If your audience is the business executive over the age of 40, advertising on Facebook may not be the best choice either. Know where to lay your dollars down but don’t be afraid to test a few of the other platforms to see if you should be fishing there.
4. How much do I want to spend to run these ads on social media?
The good news is you can start with a low budget and gradually increase your ad spend as you discover which ads perform best. Start with a $50 budget or even $25 and test a couple ads. Create a few variations of each ad—perhaps some with different photos and some with different copy, to see which ads get people to click on them. You can set a cap on your spending so you don’t have to fear blowing your budget and getting stuck with a thousand dollar Facebook advertising bill. Run the ad for a set number of days and start measuring. Which ads get results, and which get chalked up to learning?
5. How do I begin?
Here is your starting point on Facebook advertising
Here is the starting point for LinkedIn advertising
Here is the starting point for Twitter Advertising
Now it’s time to cast your line into the water. Just like fishing, it takes the right pole, the right bait and the right spot in the water, but there’s no time like today to start!
If you need help with your advertising or social marketing, let us know…it’s what we do best!