One thing many clients ask me whether investing in paid ads on social media is even worth it. It’s a simple answer: Yes. But it all depends on whether you are actually setting the ads up for success or not.
Just boosting a post here and there won’t help you grow, so it’s important to ask yourself the following questions when looking at whether you should start running paid social ads or not:
What is the primary goal you are trying to achieve?
Start by looking at what your primary business goal is. Are you trying to drive sales on your website?
Maybe you need podcast listens or video views?
Perhaps you want to drive report downloads?
Whatever it is, it’s most likely a specific action that can be quantified. Write down the top three goals you want to achieve. They don't have to be digital either.
Defining how you achieve these goals will then help you decide whether paid social is the right avenue for you or whether you are better placing your time and resources elsewhere.
What budget do you have to play with?
Paid social ads are a long game. You aren’t going to drive sales or downloads overnight.
Every successful paid media strategy is always-on and is just as much about maintaining brand awareness as it is driving an action.
It’s unfair on small businesses and organisations who don’t have a couple of grand to spend every month, but it is a pay-to-bid system and if you do have the budget then you can make it go a long way.
“Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are still great for selling products, but if you can’t afford an always-on paid media strategy, perhaps spending more time and effort on other platforms where you do have the potential to go viral without paid budget is more worthwhile.”
TikTok is a great place to be if you’re selling a product now, so developing an organic strategy to achieve your primary goal here might bring better results.
Do you know your target audience?
Knowing your audience is crucial to running a business.
You might have an idea as to who your target audience is, but do know what their interests are? Where they live? What their job is?
Running paid social ads is a great way to test who you think your audience is and learn more about them.
By building a few audiences within your target group you can test to see which groups interact with your ad the most and which groups take action.
“You might also find that your organic social engagers aren’t necessarily the people you want to be targeting and so developing a more targeted paid strategy might help you grow a more accurate community base.”
Do you have a paid media strategy to follow?
Having a clear always-on paid social strategy is key to success.
You might want to test your audience or your creatives and learn what works in order to optimise your results, but it’s important that you map out your plan and audience journey instead of jumping in without too much thought.
You can’t test everything at once and so you need to be selective and strategic in your approach.
If you’re investing in ads, you should invest in a strategy that will help you succeed too.
Whether you hire a paid social specialist to run your ads in-house or hire a freelancer to develop this strategy, finding an expert to consult is the best way to ensure you start successfully and get more out of your investment.
Looking for a paid social strategy or someone to run your paid media?