Social Media Advertising

Social media has changed the business world. Suddenly, marketing a business isn’t just about talking to people, it’s about talking with people. The one-sided sales pitch can now be multi-directional, a community conversation on many platforms.

With social media, the power to control the brand message has largely been removed from a business’s hands. Fortunately, advertising allows brands to take some of that control back again in a targeted, revenue-generating way.

Social media marketing, or SMM, depends on serving the right ad to the right person at the right time. It’s a business’s opportunity to connect with potential clients and build long-term customer relationships on platforms where they spend time naturally — Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and others.

Social ads have become a powerful and necessary tool for most brands today. Products, information and services provided by SMM professionals can help a business improve their presence, engage with their target audience and develop a positive reputation online.

Making Social Media Work for Your Business

A business that is not interacting with clients through social media may be hurting their brand in several ways: the risk of fading away from their customer base’s top-of-mind recall; missed opportunities to reach new clients; and falling out of public favor by missing important conversations taking place online. So what’s a business to do?

With the help of qualified SMM experts, a company can optimize its social media presence. Advertising offers the flexibility you need to pivot quickly as needs change, as well as prompt feedback that helps you continually improve ad messaging, optimize landing pages and even refine product offerings.

At Bruce Clay, we carefully evaluate a client’s needs and target audience before recommending the social media platforms that will have the best return on ad investment dollars. Some research must be put into locating the places where the intended audience is active online, and creating an advertising strategy to reach them in relevant spaces. SMM services begin with research to identify those social media platforms where participation will produce the greatest pay off.

Developing a Social Media Strategy

An SMM company must tailor ad strategies to the needs of the individual business. Take a regional bakery chain, for example. Each bakery may do well to optimize their presence in Yelp and invite customers to review their cakes and pastries on the social review network. The company may also achieve branding on Instagram by posting videos of delicious cake icing techniques or a hundred other potential content marketing tie-ins. Sponsored posts can help get the word out, advertise “sweet deals of the week” or offer other enticements for people to shop.

In this SMM strategy, Yelp is used as the platform for building up reviews that reflect the brand as an established business with reliable products and services. Yelp has the added benefit for the business because it may be a trusted signal for the local map results of Google search. Meanwhile, Instagram can be used to entice people to place orders via rewards. Furthermore, social media is a conversation driver, encouraging people to become friendly with the brand and share worthy posts with their own community.

Must-Have Social Advertising Expertise

Creating social ads that pay off requires expert knowledge of what each platform allows. Anyone can click “Promote post” to waste money in Facebook, but a true advertising strategy takes planning and expertise.

Also, since people tend to use each social media platform differently, the rules of engagement are largely defined by the users themselves. The result? The same exact ad creative that works on Twitter probably won’t work on Instagram, and vice versa. This is why SMM professionals understand that social media marketing services are not one-size-fits-all.

At Bruce Clay, we can help you navigate expectations and the value of brand presence across platforms as you decide how to devote resources to social media advertising. Let our strategic PPC experts help you develop and execute social media campaigns that reach new audiences and generate ROI for your business. Contact us today for a free services quote.