Social media advertising is one of the most forward-thinking, extremely-utilized, and profitable forms of digital marketing today.
From Facebook to Twitter, social media networks have not just become exponentially more popular, but also essential sometimes and have continually evolving to offer user experience and exceptional value for your advertising dollar.
It’s a surefire way to boost engagement and brand awareness for your business. If you want to learn more, keep on reading, and learn how to advertise on social media for free.
Perks of Social Media Advertising
Familiarity
When you use social media to advertise your business, you know who your target audience is. You’ve spent a lot of time researching and getting familiar with your chosen platform. It gives you an automatic advantage.
Cost-Effectiveness
Social media advertising supports a pay-per-click (PPC) model, which means you only pay when users take the action you want from them, such as clicking through to a web page or filling out a lead form.
While you can set up a Facebook, Twitter, or other social media accounts for free—in most cases—you will also want to take advantage of the low-cost advertising available through social media sites.
For instance, with Facebook, you can use the promotion tool that enables you to spend a small amount of money or a more considerable amount depending on how many people you want to reach and let your business show up on Facebook users pages.
Supporting Content
When it comes to paid advertising on a social media platform, you’ll be able to post and share diverse content like photos, videos, and website links through your free account to reinforce your electronic message and reach your target audience.
Targeting
With social media advertising, you are in absolute control of who sees your ads, which saves you time, effort, and money. With the use of psychographic data available on any social media, the level of targeting is unmatched by traditional media.
In addition to age, gender, relationship to your business, even political affiliation, you can target interests, hobbies, personality types, homeowner status, and more. With social media advertising, you can deliver your message to the exact niche you want.
Also, using tactics such as hashtags and unique landing pages can make your promotions more relevant, focused, and potentially more useful.
Build Brand Loyalty & Followers
With the help of social networks, your consumers can provide immediate feedback about your service or product.
If your consumer is satisfied, they can share a link to your company’s page, which allows more potential clients to become aware of your brand and business. With a handful of customers talking about your business, in turn, it can land you hundreds or even thousands of leads.
Best social media advertising lets your customers, and those people who follow your brand, know that you are human. Rather than directly pitching a product or service, and asking for a monetary transaction, you’re communicating, fostering long-term loyalty, and gaining confidence, so profits come easily.
Pitfalls of Social Media Advertising
Competition
One of the drawbacks, when you use social media to launch your business’s advertising campaign, is that many other companies manipulate the same platforms for their advertising needs and you may find the competition somewhat tricky, and sometimes conflicting, depending on the service or product you are offering.
As social media networks become increasingly popular, more businesses are cramming the platforms, making the competition unbearable in many sectors, and requiring more brainstorming and innovation to emerge to prospective customers or clients.
That means you either have to spend more time and effort into crafting unique and compelling content. Failing to do so may cause your business to become just another grain of sand on the beach.
Constant Monitoring
Social media advertising requires continuous monitoring. Time is as precious as money. To vigorously engage with your customers, answer their feedback, and consistently post the type of content that will get you seen, you will have to allocate a significant portion of time each week to keep up with social media.
Higher chances of permanent damage to brand image
When you gain a lot of exposure, it can be a great thing, but there is also the risk of harmful exposure.
Social media supports for “word of mouth” advertising, where customers can discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly about different companies.
And sometimes, even if you have excellent service, some people will ruin your brand’s reputation. It will come across on your Facebook page or your Twitter feed. It can also come across on every social media and can significantly impact future clients.
With its low costs and huge audiences, it’s easy to get carried away when using social media in your business. Don’t be scared to seek help and hire a professional digital marketing agency with your digital needs.
Tags: best social media advertising, how to advertise on social media for free
