How to advertise on social networks and design an unstoppable social media strategy? step by step guide

If you thought the internet had changed the world, then wait till you see what social media can do with itl. This simple idea that has unified the way we interact and therefore has also changed the way we do business.

One of the industries that has felt the impact the most is advertising, giving rise to a new way of doing marketing; digital marketing. For years companies completely ignored it, but currently it is undeniable that its results can make a SME become a great brand without even having a physical office.

If you want to learn how to take advantage of this for your business, join us while we teach you how to make a smart social media strategy. In this way you can boost your business and sell more, as well as be more recognized.

What is social media advertising?

The social media advertising are all those advertising strategies that are executed through these, being Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter the most important at the moment. With this you can achieve direct interaction with the target audiencecreating greater empathy with this since it is not only about selling in the conventional way, but about offering content that attracts them to later offer a product.

As in search enginesThere are two ways to do this type of marketing; organically or paying for it. The former usually takes more work, but in the long run it becomes a great tool for passive income generation, like SEO.. The second is more efficient in the short term, but requires maintaining a constant investment by paying for ads so that our message reaches the desired audience.

The importance of digital marketing in social networks for your company

The importance of digital marketing in social networks is that With this channel it is possible to establish a closer connection than with conventional advertising. For example, a decade ago, classic advertising was done on radio or television. These means of communication were effective, but they did not always generate communication since an average person is not always in front of a screen or listening to the radio.

With social media it’s different. since it is currently difficult to imagine our day to day life without a smartphone or a computer. Or rather, it is practically impossible to imagine a day without being connected to the internet.

In addition, social networks currently have billions of monthly active users, which is much more than the audience of any radio or television program. So with social networks you get people to be constantly consuming your content.which in turn makes them feel more attached to your brand and its message.

Advantages and benefits of social media advertising

Do you understand now why it is important to do marketing on social networks? Well, if you still don’t have it clear, let us tell you the benefits that your business would be losing if you do without it.

• Wider and more precise visibility: We already gave you figures of how many people use social networks monthly, which gives you an idea of ​​how much visibility you can get with them, but this is not all. The really beneficial thing about this strategy is that you can focus on attracting a certain audience that is really interested in consuming your content and your products.
• Better return on investment: If you correctly establish your buyer persona, you will be able to focus your economic efforts on attracting only users who perfectly fit that description. In this way you ensure that the money you invest is to specifically attract those who are more likely to consume what you sell.
• greater empathy: Going back to what was said before, being a channel that people are tuned in to practically all day, you can create a deeper connection with them and make them really empathize with your brand.
• The investment is smaller and more effective: Currently, you can invest in advertising on social networks with a capital of up to 10 dollars in services such as Facebook Ads or Adsense on YouTube, which will give you a reach of approximately 10,000 people. Additionally, you can set your ads to show in a certain geographic location. On the other hand, to pay for an ad on an international television channel, you need several thousand dollars and it will be seen all over the world at random, which will make it reach people who cannot even consume what you sell because they are not in the country. indicated to buy it.
• You can manage everything related to your campaigns: In any social media ad service you can manage each and every one of the most important aspects of your strategy; from the location of the screen in which it is displayed, during when and where. Also, you will have access to accurate metrics so you can see how your audience interacts with your ads what will allow you to plan future strategies in a more intelligent way.

These are just some of the most important benefits that your business achieves with advertising on social networks, but the reality is that there are many more. Also, the numbers speak for themselves.

Just enough see Forbes studies and other recognized companies that indicate that those companies that use advertising in digital media obtain twice the visibility and growth compared to those that do not. So the best thing you can do is start investing in Facebook Ads or Adsense.

How to devise a successful social media advertising campaign step by step?

Devising an advertising campaign on social networks is not very different from doing it in any other medium. The real differences are in the application and the tools used, but basically you have to take into account the same factors.

Establish your target audience

The first thing to do is obviously set your target audience, which in basic terms are all those people to whom you intend to sell your product. For this there are two basic aspects that you must take into account, which are:

• Segmentation: segmentation consists of differentiating your target audience from the general audience of the medium in which you will advertise, for this you must ask questions related to your product such as Is it something for men, women or unisex? What age range would an interested person have? What do they do? And what purchasing power do they have?.
• Behaviour: You must decipher the behavior of your audience to know for sure what is the best way to reach them, so you must ask yourself: What social networks do they use? How much time do they spend on their networks? What are their purchasing needs? ?, What type of content do you consume? And what is the medium you use the most to buy?

Once you ask yourself these questions, you can get a clear view of your target audience. Suppose you have a shoe store, orA simple example of this would be; people between 20 and 30 years old, with a purchasing power of between 1,000 euros Y 5,000 euros, who use their social networks daily and are interested in sports shoes.

Know your buyer person

The next thing you have to do, and possibly the most important of all, is to establish your buyer person. This is nothing more than a representation of who your ideal client is, the one on which your greatest efforts will be focused, since basically he is the one who is most likely to consume your product. For this you must take into account demographic statistics of your current customersbut you don’t have to limit yourself to these, you can also come up with one based on a new audience you want to attract.

Do not confuse the buyer with the target audienceAlthough they are related, they are not the same thing. In fact, the former depends on the latter, since it is a more specific representation of it. Continuing with the example of the shoe store that we raised in the previous point, a buyer person would be something like; Mario, 24, is a personal trainer in Madrid, uses Instagram 5 hours a day and is interested in Nike and Adidas sneakers.

Choose the social networks in which you will advertise

Once you know who to sell to, the next thing is to determine where you want to sell. This is simple but must be related to the data you already have. Namely, If your buyer uses Instagram, as we stated in the previous case, you are not going to establish Facebook or Tiwtter as the main medium, because the campaign will be a failure.

Nevertheless, if you want to attract a new audience and not be guided by your buyer persona but by your target audienceyou can plan a strategy in which you attack multiple social networks.

Design a budget

Now it’s time to talk about money How much are we going to invest? Well, as we told you before, one of the advantages of this methodology is that you can start with low budgets, so if it’s your first time, ideally you should consider a relatively low budgetso that you can gradually see the behavior of your audience and devise more solid strategies in the future, when you are really interested in investing 4 figures in it.

Select the type of ads you will share

This is the creative part of this whole process. It is here when you must devise the ads and the type of ad that you are going to share. Of course this is tied to the budget you want to set for the whole strategy, since content also represents an investment.

In other words, creating a poster will not cost the same as make a video or podcast. This is also directly subject to the information you have about your buyer person, since if he uses YouTube more than anything, it would not be a good idea to attack him with posters, as it would be if he moves more than everything on Instagram.

Mark your goals

What do you want to get from your target audience? This is a very serious question that will determine the success of the strategy. In general terms, you always want to get a conversion that translates into a sale, but how many sales do you want to get with your first campaign?

This is something impossible to know since the results in this sense are appreciated in the long term, by having precise metrics you can know how each person has reacted to it, which allows you to establish specific objectives in relation to them.

Tips for designing an effective and successful social media advertising strategy

If you have fallen in love with this way of advertising and want to put it into practice so that your company takes advantage of all the benefits it can bring, then follow these tips to build a successful campaign.

Set realistic goals in relation to the budget you have

Yes, social media advertising is wonderful, but it’s not miraculous. So you have to set realistic goals based on the budget you are investing. Namely, don’t expect to increase your sales 200% by investing $200 in advertising on Instagram or YouTube. If you do this type of thing, you will simply end up disappointed and possibly not in the mood to continue investing in digital marketing.

Don’t focus on just selling, add more value

If all your ads are like a megaphone telling people “Come buy here”you will most likely end up generating the opposite effect. You have to understand that a sale is a consequence of a series of factors that are related to empathy and the brand-consumer relationship. There is a saying among specialists that is “If you want to sell, don’t have the intention of doing it” Does this seem ridiculous to you? Well it isn’t.

Before telling a person to buy your product you must give him a reason to do it. Put yourself in the place of your target audience and understand that you would not like to be obfuscated either, much less a brand that you do not even know. You must first make yourself known, generate empathy with them, outline a need and then show them how your product can satisfy it.

Share quality content with your audience

If I don’t sell then what do I do? This is a question that may be haunting your mind after reading the advice above. The reality is that what you should do is focus on sharing quality content with your audience, you should educate them about their needs and teach them how to satisfy them correctly. This is the best way to generate empathy with her so that when you decide to sellpeople are connected with your brand.

Less ads is more empathy

Continuing with the objective of generating empathy with your users, it is important that you understand that it is not necessary to bombard them with ads throughout the day. On social media, less is more. so you must find the right moment to show that ad that will catch and hook them.

This will bring economic benefits for you since you will not have to invest so much in advertising several ads but you will simply share just the necessary ones, which in turn will result in a more effective campaign.

The most important and used social networks in which to carry out advertising campaigns

By now you should be very clear about how to plan your strategy, but you still don’t know everything. As you know there are multiple social networks and each one works in a different way, which makes the way of advertising in each of them different, as well as the tools and ads you can promote. Therefore, below we will explain the operation of each network and the formats that you can take advantage of in each of them.

YouTube advertising

YouTube is one of the most powerful social networks when it comes to digital advertising, since it is one of the most used in the world. In it everything revolves around the video, but in the same way it offers you different formats so that you can launch more dynamic strategies. The main types of ads in this network are:

• TrueView in-stream: These are ads in video format that belong to the Adsense display network that are played while the user is consuming the content of a channel. However, they do not always play completely, since they can be skipped after five seconds, so you have to come up with something that engages in that time so that people are encouraged to watch it completely. But, as an advertiser, you will only pay when a user views these for at least 30 seconds.
• Discovery or TrueView in-display ads: These are thumbnails accompanied by three lines of text that when people click they are directed to a video. They can appear as sponsored content in search results or on the main page of the mobile or web version. These work under the pay-per-click format, so you will only pay when a user clicks on it.
• Bumper Ads: these are ads similar to the first ones but they last only 5 seconds, so the user will be able to see them in full. As they will always look at each other, it is certain that you will pay for it 100% of the time because their payment is per view.

Advertising on YouTube is quite demanding since it is a social network focused on entertainment, so you must create ads that follow the dynamics and entertain users so that they can see them and feel identified with them.

instagram advertising

This is the visual social network, where images and video rule over any other content format. It has more than a billion active users per month and among its advantages is high engagement, which far exceeds Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

Another aspect that you should consider is that it is consumed in 80% of cases by mobile devices, so the dimensions of each image must be adjusted to these screens.

The types of ads you can promote here are:

• Sponsored post: this is a video or image that is displayed on the main page of the application and appears as users see new posts. Include a link that can be to your website, YouTube channel, or advertiser profile. Videos can be up to 60 seconds long.
• Carousel: is a sponsored post where you can display multiple images or videos (or both). It also appears on the main page and includes a link.
• sponsored story: This is an image or video that appears between the stories of the day. It also includes a link to the Advertiser’s profile, website or YouTube channel.

One disadvantage of this type of advertising is that it is charged per view, so for each person who sees your ad you will have to pay, regardless of whether they play it (if it is a video) in whole or in part.

Facebook advertising

Facebook owns Instagram, but the tools it offers to manage your ads are superior. Although you can show basically the same types of ads.

The really curious thing is the way in which you can segment your campaigns to decide who to show your ads to and who not to, which allows you to make them much more effective. In addition, another thing that you cannot ignore is the possibility of creating a store and selling through it.

Twitter Advertising

Twitter is possibly the social network with the fewest users on the list with just over 300 million monthly, but it is still a reference medium in which people are guided to find out things. You could say his 140-character tweets are like TV news headlines.

Therefore, if your strategy is based on informing, you will undoubtedly want to use it. The types of ads you can pay for are:

• Promoted accounts: they are profiles that appear in the first row when a user is looking for another, being an excellent way to obtain followers.
• Promoted Tweets: allows you to promote one of your tweets in which you can share a photo or video.
• Promoted hashtags: they allow you to position a #hashtag to create a current of opinion based on it.

Advertising on Linkedin

LinkedIn is a social network with a structure very similar to that of Facebook, with the difference that professional profiles are created on it. If your intention is to make a personal brand, without a doubt this is the best social network you have for it, as well as if your company is a B2B who wants to sell a service to other brands. The types of ads you can pay on it are:

• text ads: are all those ads that appear in the form of text, which are generally one sentence long, when we browse the platform. Its can be seen at the top of the screen or in the upper right corner of it. The format of these is pay per click, so you will only have to pay when a user clicks on them.
• Display Ads: they appear in the same position as the previous ones with the difference that they are in video or image format. They are also CPC (pay per click).
• sponsored post: This is a post that appears on the main breaking news page. It can be in text, audio (podcast), video or image format. In this case, you pay for each view regardless of whether the user interacts with them or not.
• dynamic ads: These are advertisements that advertise a user or company profile and are automatically filled with the information established within them.
• InMails: These are messages that arrive directly to your inbox within the social network. They are unique in their style since they do not exist in any other social network.

Returning to what was said at the beginning, this is a professional social network in which, although you do not need to be dry, you must maintain a certain seriousness in your ads to generate empathy and, above all, professionalism.

List of examples of successful ads on social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube)

If you have already decided to start a campaign on social networks, we recommend that you look at others that were successful at the time and generated consumer engagement, making little-known brands become a trend in their respective sector. Therefore, here is a list of successful ads on the main social networks.

#MiLugar de Mastercard on Twitter

Mastercard wanted to show that its cards could be used in any store in the world, and for this it devised this campaign that involved the entire Latin American community in 2017. This consisted of a series of videos in which different users could be seen using their product in all kinds of stores.but what is interesting is the empathy they managed to generate by explaining a little about their history and applying a sepia tone filter that provided a unique warmth.

Avenues that become streets, containing cafes, flower shops, antique shops, pastry shops… and in all of them there is always @Mastercard https://t.co/7oH86BNFUB pic.twitter.com/mhBWhy3mjl

– Mastercard Argentina (@MastercardArg) December 15, 2017

Netflix Latin America’s Stranger Things on Facebook

Netflix is ​​one of the most creative brands and this is evident in their campaigns. In 2017 they launched a campaign to publicize their series stranger things on Latin American soil, and they did it with a series of ads on Facebook that are real gems. in them they try to show in a funny way how fond people are with this series that won all the awards that year.

Aeromexico on YouTube

Aeromexico is one of the airlines that best understands the concept of creating empathy with its audience. They do it in a simple way, telling a story that connects with your potential customers and makes them choose you over the enormous competition they have worldwide. To do this, they made a series of short videos on YouTube, when in-stream advertising on this platform was in its infancy.

That’s all for now. We hope we have helped you learn all about social media advertising and that we have inspired you to start exploiting it for your benefit and that of your brand. In the future we will bring you more specific information on how to create campaigns on specific social networks and how to use their managers to create an ad step by step on them.