What Is Paid Social Media Marketing?
With social media being more popular than ever, many businesses are looking into the opportunities they present for digital marketing. Social media marketing started out simply with businesses posting their content and hoping that its organic reach would produce results.
With more and more businesses saturating the market, people have been using paid social media marketing to get an even better edge over their competition. Digital marketing companies like InnoVisionare able to generate result-driven paid social media marketing campaigns for your business while maintaining your desired budget and goals for the advertisements.
If you’ve been curious about paid social media marketing, learning a bit more about it could help prove that it’s right for your business.
What Is Paid Social Media Marketing?
You’ve likely seen paid social media marketing before without noticing what it was. While you’re scrolling through social media platforms you typically see at least a few pop-ups in between posts from people you follow. They often relate to things you’ve searched for previously or other things you’ve shown interest in on the platform. These advertisements are created from copious amounts of research to be shown to people most interested in those services or products, making it a highly popular way to advertise. This is paid social media marketing.
Paid social media marketing is simply advertisements used on social media that businesses pay to have promoted. Unlike organic posts that businesses post to their followers directly, paid social media marketing ads are paid for by the business that’s running the advertisement. They pay to be put into your direct view, despite not being an account that you may already follow. In this way they allow businesses to gain visibility and reach more potential customers than they could on their own.
What’s the Difference Between Organic Social Media Marketing and Paid Social Media Marketing?
When learning about paid social media marketing, you’ll often hear the word “organic” used in contrast. Organic social media marketing refers to advertisements that aren’t paid for, and therefore aren’t promoted by the social media platform itself.
These posts are typically posted directly by the business and are only shown on the feeds of people following their social media page. This option is great for businesses with large followings or who aren’t looking to attract the eye of potential new customers.
Most businesses are looking to increase their visibility, which is why they like to add paid social media marketing to their marketing strategies. Paid posts are often pushed to the top of people’s timelines, or scattered between other posts, making them less likely to get lost after their initial posting. Unlike organic posts, paid posts can continue to show up for the people who show interest in them.
What Platforms Is It Used On?
Paid social media marketing can be used on nearly all social media platforms. Though they all work in slightly different ways, each can be beneficial to our paid social media marketing campaign. Depending on what service or product you sell you’ll find that some platforms will be more useful to you than others.
LinkedIn is a social media platform mostly aimed at professionals looking to network, making it a great place to use paid social media marketing if your audience is business professionals. These advertisements will be seen by LinkedIn users while they scroll their LinkedIn feed, but they also offer more direct advertising methods. Their in-mail messaging allows you to use your paid advertising to send messages directly to potential customers.
Instagram is another popular social media platform that businesses use for paid social media marketing. This platform allows you to make both video and image advertisements for potential customers to see. Image and video advertisements will pop up throughout their feed and be seen while they’re scrolling, and will often play without music. Another way these ads can be seen is through consumers’ Instagram stories, an option that is growing in popularity among users. They’ll give users the option to follow the link back to their website or click the author of the post which can lead them to your business Instagram page.
This social media platform remains one of the most popular to use for paid social media marketing as it’s one of the oldest and most widely used platforms out there. On Facebook, you can use both image and video advertisements to reach your audience and are often also able to use text to accompany those ads.
When using this platform you’ll be asked to choose your objective for the advertisement which can be a good way to get more specific about your goals. It also allows you to add a call to action button which can encourage people to interact with your post. This button can direct them to your website, a specific page on your social media page, or to your About page where they can learn more about your business, services, and products.
How Does It Work?
Paid social media marketing can be intimidating to people unfamiliar with how it works. This becomes less daunting when you know how much control business owners have regarding when the ad runs, where they run, and how much they’re paying to have it do so. For most paid social media marketing you’ll be allowed to set a budget for how much you’re willing to pay per day, week, or month. Pay-per-click ads are one of the most popular ways to use paid social media marketing, and they only charge you when people click on your advertisement and not just for running the ad.
One of the reasons that paid social media marketing works for businesses is because it uses research and consumer information to decide who to display your advertisement to and when. Some paid social media ads are able to pop up for people after they’ve interacted with your website or social media page. This acts as a reminder that they were once interested in your products or services and invites them to return to your page, increasing the odds of them making a purchase.
InnoVision can create paid social media marketing advertisements that demand the attention of people who see them and guide them to your desired online destination. When done correctly, this marketing strategy can increase your visibility, expand your reach, and result in more sales.
