How do social media ads work? We give you the best tips

• #How To
• #Social Media

So that every ad succeeds for you!

We’ve all been there: On Instagram & Co., we’re repeatedly shown posts or campaigns from accounts we don’t even follow. Among other things, these posts advertise products. This is called social media advertising, or social ads for short. We at Lookfamed also rely on it and tell you what social media ads are, how they work and why they are so useful and effective.

What are Social Ads?

Social Ads campaigns are digitally paid advertisements that can be placed on various social media and online platforms. There are numerous forms of advertising and display options that can be customized depending on the platform. One example is Instagram Ads, which I’m sure everyone is familiar with.

Social ads offer you a great opportunity to reach your self-defined target audience on social platforms with your content, who may not be following your company or have not yet come into contact with your company. You can use social ads on these social media networks:

How do social ads work?

Before we dive in, it’s important to understand the basics. Social ads are ads that appear on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others. They can appear in a variety of formats, including image ads, video ads, carousel ads, and story ads. Key to the effectiveness of social ads is their seamless integration into the native stream of each platform.

You have chosen a social media platform?

1. Define your goals: Setting clear goals is critical to the success of your advertising efforts. Target your budget:

• Increase reach 
• Spread brand awareness
• Identify new target groups and potential customers
• Promote your company profile
• Increase your sales
• Maximize conversion

2. Reach the right audience: Reaching the right audience is crucial. You want your social ads to be seen only by people who are potential customers. Target your campaign based on criteria such as age, location, gender, interests, and more. The more you know about your community, the better you can define it, reach it, and calculate with it.

3. Measure your success: How do you know if the marketing strategy with social ads is working? A very important step is to measure and analyze the performance of the ads. Useful social KPIs are:  

• Cost per thousand impressions (CPM).
• Cost per click (CPC)
• Engagement
• Number of impressions
• (Potential) reach
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Number of followers
• Number of likes, shares or comments
• Conversion rate

What social media costs should you expect?

By 2023, social media will have more than 5 billion active users worldwide. You can take advantage of this huge potential to market your products or services to your target audience. But how much do you have to budget for social advertising? The cost of social media advertising can vary greatly from company to company. One key factor that affects the budget is the type of advertising campaign.

Before you start your own campaign, it’s important to define some key factors. It is especially important to determine the frequency and duration of the campaign. You should also know what time of day and night your target audience is most active. With this knowledge, you can optimize your campaign on an ongoing basis. You can also use a test campaign to get more precise indications and potential. This is something you can count on when running a campaign. On average, prices for social media advertising range from $15 – $200 per day and $450 – $50,000 per month.

Social media advertising: what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Advantages of social media ads:

✔  Targeted advertising: One of the biggest strengths of social media advertising is the ability to target a specific audience. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer a variety of targeting filters, including demographics, interests, and behaviors, to show your ads only to the most relevant users.

✔ Measurability and Analytics: Social media advertising allows for detailed monitoring and analysis of your campaigns. Metrics such as clicks, impressions, conversions, and ROI can be tracked in real time. This allows you to continually optimize your campaigns for the best possible results.

✔ Flexible budgeting: You are the master of your budget. Set a daily or overall budget and adjust your campaign progress at any time.  That way, your spending stays in line and your resources are used efficiently.

✔ Creative variety: Social media ads offer a variety of ad formats, including image ads, video ads, carousel ads, and story ads. This allows you to create creative ads that get your message across in an engaging way.

Disadvantages of Social Ads:

✗ High effort: Your ad must engage your target audience. If it’s too boring, you’ve wasted your effort and money. 

✗  Don’t follow every trend: Don’t jump on every trend. First analyze whether it fits your brand. You can quickly get caught in a shitstorm.

Conclusion: Why Social Ads?

It’s hard to imagine the marketing world without social advertising, whether in e-commerce or in the general marketing mix. Specialized agencies rely on the performance and precise targeting of social media advertising. The benefits of social advertising are many. As a business, you need to set clear goals and target the right audience to realize the full potential. Social ads allow you to quickly track success, offer multiple marketing objectives, and require a clear call to action. Overall, social ads enable efficient targeting, measurement and effective use of marketing budgets. Social ads should be an integral part of your marketing strategy to get the most out of this powerful tool.

Want to know more?

If you want to learn more about social advertising, check out our news ticker. There you will find tips on branded hashtag challenges, YouTube shorts and TikTok ads.