This is part three of a four-part series on social media marketing. In this chapter, you will learn advertising and engagement strategies for various social media platforms.

social media advertising

Promote Yourself on Facebook

With Facebook’s new algorithm update, your page might be seeing declining traffic and lower engagement metrics. If this is happening to your business, it might be a good time to consider advertising. Here are some steps for targeting an audience, setting a budget, and choosing an advertising strategy.

On Facebook, you have several options for advertising. Some of the most popular options include:

• Promote a post – get more people to see and engage with a post on your page
• Promote your page – connect more people with your page and earn more likes
• Promote your website – increase the number of visits to your website
• Promote your local business – connect with more people in your local area

To create an ad, go to your company page. Then select the blue “Promote” button in the right sidebar. Scroll down and select “Go to Ads Manager.”

Here is how you create an ad:

1. Click the green “create ad” and select the type of ad you’d like to create. For the purposes of our tutorial, we’ll choose a local advertisement with the objective of promoting our business to reach more people nearby.
2. Now you will need to create your ad set. Here you will determine the location, gender, and age of those your ad will reach. You will also select images, headlines, and a call to action.
3. Finally, you will need to determine a budget and duration for your campaign. Keep in mind, the amount of people your advertisement will reach will depend greatly on the budget you set and the duration of your campaign. For help setting your budget and scheduling your ad, refer to Facebook’s campaign guide.

 

Create an ad or sponsor content on LinkedIn

LinkedIn advertising can be used to acquire customers and find potential employees. Advertising on LinkedIn is particularly helpful for businesses selling B2B products and services.

On LinkedIn, you can choose to:

• Create an ad – target a specific audience and direct them to content on your website or to your company’s LinkedIn page.
• Sponsor content – promote a post from a LinkedIn Company Page to specific people directly in their news feeds. This allows you to easily reach the right people with the right content.

How to Create an Ad:

1. Begin by hovering over the “Business Solutions” tab in your nav bar and select “Advertise.”
2. Choose to “Create an Ad.”
3. You’ll need to develop a name for your campaign, a headline, and an ad description. The headline must be 75 characters or less. LinkedIn provides you with a few tips to help you get started. After creating this, you’ll then be directed to the “Step 2 – Targeting page.”
4. Here, you can determine a location, company, and job title to target. You can choose to target to specific companies by name, by industry, or by company size. Additionally, you have the ability to target toward individuals with specific job titles, by function (administrative, marketing, etc.), or by seniority. Here’s what you can expect to see:
5. Now you’ll need to set your campaign budget. You can choose to pay by clicks or by impressions, depending on your goals for the campaign. You’ll also be able to set an overall budget and length of the campaign.
   

Now that you have set the demographics, budget, and duration of your ad, you’ll see a final summary of your campaign. From there, you will be directed to enter your credit card information.

How to Sponsor Content:

1. Begin by hovering over the “Business Solutions” tab in your nav bar and select “Advertise.”
2. Choose to “Sponsor Content.”
3. After choosing to sponsor content, you’ll be given the option to select a post to promote and you will be given an idea of what your sponsored content will look like to a desktop, mobile, or tablet guest.
4. After selecting a post, you’ll be directed to the “targeting” section of the planning, where you’ll be able to determine the location, company, and job title of those who you’d like to see your promoted content.
5. Finally, you’ll determine the last of your campaign options, including the budget and duration of the campaign. You can choose to pay when someone clicks on your campaign or when the content appears on someone’s page (this is called an impression). This page will look similar to the one above in the “Create an Ad” section.

After completing these steps, you’ll be able to checkout. From there, your campaign will begin. It’s always a good idea to keep tabs on your campaign as it’s running, so you can redirect as needed.

 

Tweet louder on TWITTER

On Twitter, you can choose between several options for advertising. Your choices include:

• Objective-based campaigns
• Promoted Tweets
• Promoted Accounts
• Promoted Trends

For the purposes of our tutorial, we’ll cover objective-based campaigns, as they are the most likely to be used by our clients.

To create an objective-based campaign, you’ll first need to select your objective. Your options are to gain followers, drive clicks or conversions on your website, increase engagement with your Tweets, encourage App installs, or find leads on Twitter. For this example, we’ll focus on gaining followers.

After selecting your objective, you’ll take these steps to create an ad:

1. Name your campaign and determine a start date.
2. Next you need to determine the creative portion of your ad. You can choose to write a new Tweet or select from Tweets your page has previously published.
3. Once you have content ready, you’ll select targeting information including gender and location. If you choose, you can also target users by behavior, who they’re following, and what their interests are. Keep in mind, if you’re interested in reaching people who have traditionally worked with your competitors, you might want to target users who follow those competitors.
4. Finally, you’ll set a budget for your campaign. You are required to set a daily budget and can also choose to set an overall budget, if you’re interested in doing so.

Here’s an example of what your promoted Tweet will look like:

INSTAGRAM AND PINTEREST advertising

Instagram and Pinterest advertising platforms aren’t currently open to all companies.

Instagram hasn’t made any indications about opening up its advertising options to all brands. However, Pinterest promises to eventually allow all advertisers free game to their “Promoted Pins” feature and has begun using a waiting list for the feature.

 

Now that you know how to get started with advertising on social media, it’s time to talk about analytics and measurement. We’ll cover how to track your ROI in the next edition of Getting Social.