When you think of social advertising, you might think of the ads you see on the side of your Facebook profile, and you’d be right. Partially. Social advertising is about advertising on social networks. But it’s also about enticing people to interact with your ads, instead of blocking them out.
Here are some “Rules” for Social Advertising
Find Your Audience. Assuming you know which social networks your prospects prefer is a reliable way to mis-allocate your advertising budget. As part of a social media marketing plan, you need to spend time researching which networks your potential buyers frequent for community interaction and information. This step will save you money and improve performance later.
Think: “Focus” You don’t necessarily need to spend hundreds of thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars on a social advertising campaign. In fact, in some cases, a few hundred dollars might be all that’s needed. Social advertisements more about targeting and efficiency than mass awareness. Think about the exact people you want to reach with your message: who they are, where they live, what they do for work and fun, their companies of interest, hobbies, etc. Fine tune your campaign to target them and only them. One word of caution for small businesses: some ongoing social advertising campaigns are charged to credit cards and it can be easy to forget that you’re incurring regular expenses.
Keep It Short If you thought mastering the 140 character tweet was easy, you’re in luck. Folks have a short attention span, and you’ll need to use those 140 character “elevator pitch” skills you’ve been honing to catch their interest as quickly as possible, then use your content savvy to induce engagement. A clear call to action, hyper-personalization and a dash of intrigue or humor is an ideal formula.
Maximize Keywords One way to avoid wasting your money is to become a keyword surgeon. Google’s free Keyword Tool is a great starting point, but there are many options out there for brands looking to see what words bring them the most traffic, what words their competitors use, and what people search for related to their industry.
To find out more about social advertising then please take a look at the Eloqua Grande Guide for Social Advertising
