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Advertising on Twitter, Instagram, and Other Paid Social Ad Platforms
I’ll be honest with you: by now, advertising on Facebook is old news. It’s common practice to include FB in your marketing budget, and if you aren’t, you better get on that real quick.
Since we’ve officially entered the age of paid social ads, our options of paid social ad platforms are continually expanding. Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube command huge paid advertising audiences, and Instagram and Pinterest are joining the party later this year.
That’s a lot of paid social ad platforms for you to master, especially when not all of them are best for your business.
What you’ll find below is the nitty-gritty, must-know breakdown of advertising on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Keep up with our blog for more in-depth breakdowns of each, and contact us with any questions, comments, concerns, or fun facts that may tickle my funny bone.
ALLONS-Y!
Advertising on Social Media: Instagram
The nitty-gritty: Beginning September 30, advertising on Instagram will be available to all businesses, which is a huge win for the little guys. Instagram is most popular among teens and young adults, and has more than 75 million daily users. Â This Facebook-owned social media platform is the golden goose to visually-based services and e-commerce.
There are three types of ads that will be available:
- Image
- Video
- Carousel
Who it’s for: Any company, but those whose products or services are visually-based—think landscaping services, home remodelers, e-commerce—will most likely have more success.
Target audience: Teens and Millennials.
How it works: First things first, link your accounts by following steps 1 – 3 in the image below:
After you’ve linked your accounts, you’ll be able to create Instagram ads with Power Editor in the Facebook ads manager or through your Facebook representative. Just like good ol’ FB, select your objective, choose your budget, select your target audience and then upload or make your creative. The ad will be presented to targeted users in their Instagram feed and look more or less like this:
Check back to the Blue Corona blog later this month for an in-depth guide to creating ads for Instagram.
Advertising on Social Media: YouTube
The nitty-gritty: With more than one billion users worldwide, YouTube is an incredible way to target niche markets and direct relevant traffic to your site. It’s the second-largest search engine after Google, (because let’s be honest, who wants to read when they can watch a video) and has more than 1 billion unique visitors each month.
Who it’s for: Companies that have a primary goal of promoting brand awareness.
Target audience: Everyone.
How to do it: YouTube ads are created through Google AdWords. Once in your AdWords account, you’ll be able to link up YouTube from the navigation menu. From there you’ll choose the general settings of your ad, including your budget. After setting the locations your ad should target, you upload your video and voila!
Advertising on Social Media: Twitter
The nitty-gritty: In an age where humans have attention spans shorter than a goldfish, it’s not surprising that Twitter is one of the leading social media platforms of choice.
Seeing as there are more than 300 million active users and the lifespan of a tweet is under 20 minutes, it’s also not surprising that organic reach has become somewhat limited. Advertising on twitter is a great way to target specific users, increase brand awareness, and get local business.
BONUS: Google now includes tweets in its search results, which means if you haven’t already gotten on the Twitter train, it’s imperative you do so now.
Who it’s for: Any company, and it works especially well for events, local businesses, and companies looking to achieve brand awareness.
Target audience: Everyone.
How to do it: The Twitter ads interface is extremely similar to Facebook’s. You choose your campaign goal, set your audience, location, and budget, and then create your ad creative.
Advertising on Social Media: LinkedIn
The nitty gritty: Also known as the professional version of Facebook, if you’re a small business owner you probably have a LinkedIn profile. Traditionally overlooked by many B2C companies, LinkedIn is actually a great platform for companies whose target audience is white-collar (I use that term begrudgingly—the last time I wore a white collar it was popped and shimmery) professionals.
Think about it.
You can target people by their job skills, their position, their company, etc. If you’re selling language learning software you can pick out people who work in global corporations. If you’re selling office equipment you can target only operations managers or office managers.
Who it’s for: Mostly B2B companies, but I argue that it’s also great for B2C companies as well.
Target audience: Professionals.
How to do it: Just like the three before, you’ll log in to the LinkedIn ads page, and choose your campaign, message, target audience, and budget.
The interface looks a bit different than Facebook:
But it functions basically the same.
Advertising on Social Media: Pinterest
The nitty-gritty: We all know those nightmare Pinterest enthusiasts—you know, the high-strung bride who wants the perfect Pinterest wedding (*cough*my sister *cough*) and Martha-Stewart wannabes that make headboards out of old barn doors (*cough*me*cough*).
But Pinterest is no longer just for dreamy wedding planners and DIY enthusiasts. You can find a Pinterest board on everything imaginable, from high-level interests (pets) down to uber-specific interests (blueprints for 1930s New York skyscrapers).
What this means for advertisers is that the holy grail of super-specific niche markets exists, and it’s in the form of an online pin board.
Who it’s for: Any company but works best for e-commerce and building brand awareness.
Target audience: Mostly young adult females.
How to do it: Currently promoted pins aren’t widely available yet. If you’re gung-ho about making this happen for your company, join the waitlist.
Social Media Advertising for Small Businesses
I’ve just given you the rundown of five social media advertising platforms beyond Facebook that can transform the way you do business. If you have any questions, tweet us @BlueCorona, message me on Facebook, or give me a call at Blue Corona.
Want all this for your company but don’t have the time? That’s okay, neither do 99% of business owners, and that’s why Blue Corona exists. Contact us today for your own social media audit and let’s talk #hashtags!
About The Author: Blue Corona's Editorial Staff is determined to help you increase your leads and sales, optimize your marketing costs, and differentiate your brand by passing on our tribal knowledge. The team vigilantly stays on top of the latest in digital marketing, bringing you the top insights with expert commentary. Want to see something on our blog you haven't seen yet? Shoot us an email and our marketing team will get to work.
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The information on this website is for informational purposes only; it is deemed accurate but not guaranteed. It does not constitute professional advice. All information is subject to change at any time without notice. Contact us for complete details.
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