How To Advertise On Social Media

In the digital age, the bulk of marketing takes place on the Internet, so it’s no surprise that social media is one of the most valuable advertising spots you can find. With the average user spending 28% of their Internet time on social media, it’s quite possibly the best place you can target your audience.

But what are the best social media advertising tactics for you to use? You can start by implementing some of these best practices for marketing your business on social media.

Once you’ve read through them, you can take your social media presence a step further by partnering with Rehab Center Marketing. Our team of over 200 online marketing experts will be happy to help you boost your online customer engagement.

1. Know your audience

Before you start trying to advertise on social media, you need to have a full understanding of who you’re advertising to.
Who is your target audience? What are their interests and demographics? And, perhaps most importantly, what social media platforms are they most likely to use?

Knowing this information can determine the format of your entire social media marketing campaign.
If you’re primarily targeting female homeowners in their fifties, for instance, you’ll almost certainly want to make Facebook the central focus of your advertising, whereas a campaign aimed at Gen Z would be better suited to Snapchat or Instagram.
And this information won’t just determine where you advertise, but how. Your advertising style needs to be suited to your audience. If your customer base is limited to a certain geographical region, tie that region’s culture into your ads.

2. Encourage interaction

Many businesses mistakenly believe that the way to run a social media campaign is to play the part of the celebrity, putting out content for hordes of followers to view without ever interacting with them on a personal level.
But the truth is, social media advertising effectiveness hinges on customer interaction.
You obviously can’t send personal messages to all the people who follow you, nor should you try. But if the majority of your followers see you interacting with a small minority, they’ll still feel more connected to you.
Much of this comes down to answering questions. When people comment on your posts or tag you in their own, try to answer a decent number of them. Doing so will make them feel heard and send a message that you’re invested in your customers’ well-being.

3. Tailor messaging to social media platforms

Just like you have to tailor your ad format to your audience, you also have to tailor it to the social media platforms you’re using.
A given format won’t work the same way on all platforms. For example, Snapchat — which operates primarily based on short, temporary videos — may not be the best platform for a text-based ad that you want to keep around for a while.
But it’s not just about outright limitations. You also want to put out ads that take into account the viewing habits of users on that particular network.
On YouTube, for example, posting videos from a branded account won’t draw anyone in — no one will click on branded videos in most cases. They’ll opt for channels they’ve subscribed to rather than clicking on literal ads. For that reason, you’re better off relying on something like bumper ads, which will appear on any videos they choose to watch.

4. Be engaging, not salesy

You can find all too many social media advertising examples out there where a business treated their account like a billboard, putting out post after post of nothing but big, overt ads. It’s not that that method can’t work, but it’s not the best practice for social media marketing.
Instead, you should aim to use the same approach that works so well for long-form content: Give people something they can use. If every post says nothing more than “buy our products,” you won’t see many results.
But when you embed your calls to action in informational content, users will actually stop to read it.