What is Paid Social Media?
When we say Paid social media, we are specifically talking about promoted or sponsored posts on different social media platforms. All these posts are advertisements that appear on a timeline, page, or social media feed. The posts published on underpaid social media can appear on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and many other social media sites.
Companies use the power of paid social media to widen their reach and target the audience in both seamless and hyper-focused ways. Since more than 3.6 billion people are currently on social media platforms, using paid social media can be highly effective
Why is Paid Social Media a must in today's marketing landscape?
Audience engagement
By showing paid ads in the social media feeds, you can show your ads to those who are comfortable engaging with the content, and they even leave the social media platform for a more worthy and helpful website.
More refined targeting
Paid social experts can use a lot of data gathered from social media platforms and then use this data for better targeting. For example, on Facebook, you get the option to target people based on their age, location, interest, and sex.
Increased brand awareness
We can solve the challenge of boosting brand awareness and reaching a new audience through paid social media ads. We can restrict your paid social media ad to a confined location, which can help increase brand awareness without breaking the bank.
Quick results
Unlike organic activity, you can get quick results through paid social media ads. With the proper budget and settings, you can make your paid social media post reach the right people, and thus you can get quicker results.
Live changes
If your paid social media is not giving you expected results, you can change those ads without creating an entirely new ad from scratch. While running a social media ad, you get detailed insights, which helps in better customization of ads.
What to Spend on Paid Social Media?
According to the thumb rule, you should spend around 5% to 15% of your annual revenue on marketing and spend about 13% of that marketing budget on social media campaigns. But several factors are going to affect the overall budget of your paid social ads.
- The size of the audience
It's evident that the more people you target, the more you have to spend on your social media campaigns. But while designing a campaign, the number of people you will target will depend on the size of the geographical location you have chosen.
- Type of content used
If you are going to include videos in your social media campaign, it will cost you more than a static image. Still, since the video is the most consumed content, it can be more effective than a static image.
- Period
While designing a campaign, the period you choose for running the campaign will also affect the overall budget. According to the experts, you should run an ad for at least 3-4 days, but there is no thumb rule in this case.
Paid social media is a must in today's marketing landscape. It's not just for major brands and Fortune 500 companies, but small businesses can also benefit from its positive.
Small businesses can build brand loyalty and awareness through paid social media since they can focus on community and individual customers without breaking the bank. Even with a small budget, an SME can reach the local audience and boost its sale.
Paid social media also gives a golden opportunity for qualified lead generation for small businesses, and in this case, the rate of conversion is also high. So, overall, we can say that paid social media fit like a glove in the marketing needs of small businesses.
How to Set up a Paid Social Media Campaign?
The five must-have things for setting up a paid social media campaign are
- Goal
There are many options for the type of campaign you will run, and you can choose the suitable options only if you have a clear goal in mind. Before selecting a social media platform, you should have realistic and clear expectations from your paid social media campaign.
- User intent
Always determine what is the user's purpose on the social media platform. For example, Facebook is more used for entertainment, connections, and leisure, while Linkedin is used more for professional networking. It will help you in designing the campaign accordingly.
- The right mix of tools
If you are planning to get better insights and make the most of your social media campaign, then you need the right mix of tools. But don't worry about the budget, as many of these tools are free of cost.
- Content
The content of your paid social media campaign can make or break your entire campaign, and therefore, make sure that you use high-quality images and the content should directly speak to the audience. In addition to this, you should take care of the CTA as well.
- Social media calendar
Time matters a lot while running a social media campaign, and this is where a social media calendar can come in handy. This calendar is like a schedule for your social media activity. It helps you in keeping you on the right track.
Social Media Expert Hiring Models
Team screening
- Skills of professionals are matched with your goals
- Professionals are shortlisted on the merit of his proficiency
- Hire the professional on a full-time or part-time basis
Strategy Creation and execution
- Current scenario of your business is reviewed
- A strategy is formulated to meet your goals
- Strategy is executed in a streamlined approach
Monitoring and management
- Receive regular reports of your progress
- Review the scale of growth
- Observe the expansion of your brand