With so many social media platforms competing for the eyes, clicks, taps, and opens of people around the world, it can be hard to determine which platforms should win your precious advertising dollars. Do you put it all on Facebook? Invest in up-and-coming platforms like TikTok? Finding business people on LinkedIn? Without knowing the advantages and strengths of each platform, itโs easy to spend your money ineffectively.
The biggest rule of thumb is always to go where your audience lives. If your audience is teenagers, putting money into LinkedIn will almost certainly be a tremendous waste. Are you a Dunder Mifflin-type company, selling bulk packages of printer paper? A visual and recreational platform like Instagram or YouTube may not help you find the audience you want. Regardless of the advantages of any given platform, if your audience isnโt there, donโt waste your money. But all else being equal, hereโs what you might expect in advertising on some of the major social media companies:
You simply canโt talk about social media advertising without talking about the cultural, technological, and social behemoth that is Facebook. With nearly 2 billion daily users and arguably the most robust suite of different advertising tools (including integrations with Facebook-owned platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp), Facebook gives you all the options you need to find not only your audience, but craft a message that appeals to them and creates viable leads and sales results.
The hardest part of utilizing Facebook advertising to its maximum potential may be that there are almost too many options. With so many users and targeting options, itโs easy to get overwhelmed or accidentally target too broadly, resulting in ads that are ineffective and fail to build the engagement and subsequent reach that give you a great return on investment. But if you can find your audience and target them appropriately, thereโs almost no limit to what Facebook advertising can provide to your business marketing efforts.
Instagram may well be the modern equivalent of the old-school glossy magazine. Instead of beautiful, full-page editorial ads, you have beautiful, full-screen social ads. Instead of editors curating the content and products you get recommended, you have influencers bringing you in to see the products and services they swear by. Instead of a list of subscribers you know are interested in the subject matter, you have targeted hashtags that bring users into the world your product inhabits. Instagram ads in both post and story form allow your business to target just the right audience and show them the gorgeous and striking visual content that attracts the eye, stimulates the mind, and can potentially be converted into very strong sales numbers.
YouTube
Far too many advertisers donโt even think of YouTube as a social media platformโthey see it purely as a content platform, but thatโs a limited perspective that may be keeping you from tapping into one of the largest markets on the internet! With 2.6 billion active users, YouTube is a place where a significant portion of the world spends their online time, and comment sections, live streams, and more allow for a great amount of social interaction and potential brand attention.
But perhaps more importantly, even if YouTube werenโt a social platform, why would you ignore a media company thatโs arguably usurped television as a video medium? If youโve ever considered television advertisements, understand that many people (of all ages, but especially younger audiences) ignore television and even many streaming platforms in favor of finding the content that suits them on YouTube. If you can smartly target the content that your audience is engaging with, you can see great return on investment with this massive video platform.
LinkedIn may not be your first thought when you think of social media marketing, but while the platform is niche, it can also be deeply powerful for particular businesses. If your company focuses primarily on B2B marketing, then advertising on other social platforms may not make much sense from a budgeting perspective. Even if you do manage to micro-target decision-makers on Facebook or Instagram, theyโre likely not even in a work mindset when scrolling. But LinkedInโwhile smallerโis built with the explicit intention of bringing business people together and discussing their industries, so advertising on LinkedIn may be the best place to target the right people in the right mindset and sell your solutions to their problems.
Social Media Advertising Platforms in the Future:
Of course, the only real constant with social media is change: this isnโt just true of changes within a social platform itself, but also extends to changes in which platforms are the most popular. Remember when Myspace was the major social media site? Or when Snapchat was the next rising star? Trends can shift quickly, and while we can never predict with 100% certainty which will survive in the next month, year, and decade, itโs always good to keep an eye towards the future.ย
Right now, TikTok is exploding as one of the most popular social media apps worldwide, and many businesses are looking to see if it makes sense for them to engage with the platform. While TikTok can be a fantastic place to grow brand awareness and become part of larger conversations, the monetized ad platform is still something businesses are discovering. With standard in-feed advertisements to unique options like full-feed โBrand Takeoverโ ads, TikTok can be a great option for engaging, highly visual brands looking to take a chance on capturing a younger-leaning audience.
Social messaging platforms like WhatsApp may also be worth your attention in the future. At the moment, parent company Facebook doesnโt allow in-app advertising on WhatsApp (after strong pushback from users), but knowing the history of the tech giant and the massive worldwide popularity of WhatsApp and similar social messaging apps, itโs likely only a matter of time before strong monetization options come into play. And if youโre looking to find an international audience or a new way of attracting eyeballs, youโll want to follow the segment closely.
Find the Social Advertising Platform that Works Best for Your Company
Social media is hard enough without putting the money in to run ads, and once youโve committed to that investment, it can become even more strenuous. But the payoff can be hugely beneficial to your business, so if you need assistance building success with your social media advertising, Skol Marketingโs team is here to help. For one-on-one guidance or to discuss how we can help your company make the most of its social media marketing budget in 2022, please donโt hesitate to contact the local social media marketing experts at Skol Marketing.
