5 Reasons Paid Advertising Should Be A Part of Your Social Media Strategy

By now most of us know two things about Facebook, 1. that the social media giant makes its money selling ads, and 2. that Facebook owns Instagram, the other social media giant.

With these facts in mind, I am going to lay out the reasons you, as a brand or business owner, must make Facebook and Instagram ads a key part of your social media strategy. But before that, I want to make sure you’re able to distinguish between paid and organic social media marketing.

Organic social media marketing are social media activities that you do not pay the platform to post. These include informational, inspirational, or nurturing social media posts, Stories, Reels, etc, that you simply upload to your social media account; using hashtags on these posts; engaging with your followers or with other accounts; and responding to comments and DMs.

All of these activities have the potential to grow your followers, generate leads, and even make sales. The reach, however, that these organic posts have is limited—most of your own followers won’t ever see your posts.

Paid social media marketing, on the other hand, involves putting money behind your social media content. We’ve all seen those ‘Sponsored’ posts.

These are social media campaigns that look like regular posts but which a particular brand or business has paid the social platform to show to specific groups of people. In short, ads are social media posts you pay Facebook (or any other social platform) to promote.

Here are the 5 reasons social media ads are a must for brands and businesses in 2021

1. Reach

Algorithms aside, the sheer number of user accounts—personal and business—is off the charts. This means there is an ever growing amount of content being shared on social platforms, populating your followers’ feeds, which in turn means fewer chances of your organic content making it to people’s feeds. Organic reach has significantly dropped and will likely continue to drop - that’s the bottom line. Paid advertising, on the other hand, allows you to reach more potential customers by putting your social content in front of your ideal audience.

2. Cost

As a business owner, you don’t want to waste your time and money creating, or paying for, social content that only 2-5 percent of your followers will ever see. We all want our efforts to be rewarded, particularly when we know our content is valuable. If time is money, the time you’re investing in creating organic content that will be seen by 3 percent of your followers will be wasted money. Compare that to the average $4.33 per 1,000 impressions, or the 9.21 percent lead conversion rates Facebook ads can get you.

3. New Potential Customers & Followers

It’s no secret to anyone trying to grow a business social account that it has become extremely challenging. Yet, it’s also essential that businesses and brands keep an active social media presence. We love to blame the Instagram and Facebook algorithms (and we’re not entirely wrong, in my opinion), but if we think about it, that initial massive growth was not going to last once the platforms reached maturity and became as saturated as they are now.

If what we want is to create brand awareness and for our content to be seen by potential customers, then Facebook ad campaigns are our best bet. In fact, social media paid advertising, when done right, is by far the most cost-effective form of advertising.

4. Targeting

If you’re wondering how Facebook/Instagram ads can effectively put your ad in front of your ideal customer, the short answer is that Facebook (and by extension Instagram) has massive amounts of data on its users.

This allows you, the advertiser, to select who you want to target based on things like location, demographics (age, gender, etc), relationship status, interests (bridal gowns, Vera Wang, etc), education, and the list goes on. Again, when done right—and by this I mean great images, great product, a great message, among other things—Facebook ads can get you some seriously great results.

5. Your Competition is Already Advertising

Despite Facebook’s myriad problems, its revenues have continued to increase, and there’s no sign of a slowdown. This means that companies of all sizes are now advertising on Facebook, and so it’s very likely your competition is, too. The fact that not everyone is doing it right gives those who are an advantage.

If you haven’t already, start thinking about incorporating social media ads to your marketing mix. And if you don’t know where to start, send us an email at carla@theivorygreyproject.com for a 30 minute free consultation.