Social media platforms are the next frontier in advertising. They allow business pages to create posts and share content, letting them promote the brand above and beyond their current following to get more recognition or to simply engage more consumers online.
But planning your social media advertising budget, especially when so much of social media is free, can be a conflicting process. Cost per click, cost per impressions, reach, engagement and other jargon are often used by them to explain what is going on with their client’s advertising budget. But if you want to get the most out of your social media advertising budget, here are some techniques that you can use.
#1. Use time
When you set up your ad, you can set the time during which they will run. This option is found on Facebook and Google Adwords. However, if you are using other platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn, we recommend that you pause your campaign during off hours. Your customers may not be online all the time. You shouldn’t promote during those hours. For instance, if your campaign runs across time zones, factor their schedules into yours when you decide your campaign’s active time – whether you’re thinking of sleep time or their work days, and leisure time they spend online.
#2. Use organic reach with paid content
Here’s one technique that pays off on LinkedIn and Facebook. You need to create two posts simultaneously on the platform. You promote the first one and watch the traffic it brings to your page. Once it’s on, you can post more content on your social media platform to enjoy the traffic the paid one is getting. This allows you to enjoy more engagement through your organic reach and lets you get twice the impact with the budget for one post. This also helps you learn which keywords have the most impact on your page rank. The traffic promoted content will bring needs to be capitalized on – next time, your user should come there without being lured. That’s how your page rank goes up organically – you get a loyal audience base.
Also Read: How Not to Do Marketing: Social Media Disasters
#3. Understand your audience
When you make free posts on social media platforms, they will be liked, tweeted and shared. Some may not be. Understand and evaluate which ones are getting more engagements and which ones are not. This is important. You will be spending money on promoting your posts. If that money is spent on posts that are not liked or fail to get traction, that’s money right down the drain. So carry out A/B testing of your content before you share it with your audiences. Use every analytical tool you can find. This is extremely important. Make sure that you use the right keywords to SEO your page, and keep track of page ranks, as well as what drives traffic the most.
#4. Keep Smartphones in mind
When you are creating ads on social media platforms, it is advised that you keep smart devices in mind. Mobile devices are being used frequently to use internet and social media platform and it is important that you create ads that are responsive to your audience screens. Make sure that you add mobile optimization in your ad campaigns to ensure you get more engagement on sponsored posts. Remember, tablets, light netbooks and mobiles are becoming more common for Internet access than full-size laptops.
Also Read: 4 Digital Marketing Tips That Have Created Success Stories
Using these techniques, you can use your advertising budget more efficiently. There may be more ways. We recommend that you listen any ideas your media planner has, as they’re in touch with the details of your specific campaign, and they know which parts need more attention. This is something that needs time, attention and specialization, so don’t assume that having social media accounts makes you an expert.
