Looking to reach your target audience and convert them into customers? Social media advertising is your answer! One of the most effective forms of digital marketing, social ads are a major opportunity for everyone from small businesses to larger organizations.
Choosing what social platforms to use is your first consideration, and unfortunately, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Without knowing your specific needs and goals, it’s difficult to recommend one platform over another, but there are some common social networks that are more likely to give you a return than others. Here are some of the most common platforms for social media advertising and a few things to consider for each!
Popular Platforms for Social Media Advertising
Meta, formerly known as Facebook
- Range of demographics
- Meta is a reliable platform where you can ensure that your target audience is actually going to see your ads. Because of its popularity, you can be confident that your audience is already engaged with the platform.
- Advanced targeting
- Advertisers can optimize and target based on demographics, interests, behaviours, age ranges, or locations. It’s about quality over quantity.
- Advantages for merchants
- Ideal for brands who are advertising products/services, it integrates with business pages seamlessly and caters to customers at all stages of the buying journey. Businesses can sell directly to consumers without leaving the platform.
- Keep in mind:
- Because of the wide variety of demographics, there is strong competition, which could make it more difficult or expensive for your content to show up. There’s a chance people could become desensitized to ads, ignoring anything that looks like a promotion, due to diluted feeds.
- Users are trending a little older and usage among younger generations has been drastically declining.
- Visually engaging
- Ideal for brands with a strong visual focus or visually appealing products. If you are able to effectively incorporate your products or services into visual media, you will tend to see higher engagement rates than you might on other platforms.
- Shopping-focused
- People use Instagram to research a brand’s products and services and often make a purchase directly through the platform. With advanced commerce features and a variety of different ad formats, it’s simple for brands to create storefronts and tag products to support in-app purchases.
- Influencers
- Influencers have taken over Instagram, making it the go-to advertising network for brands with ambassadors and frequent collaborations.
- Keep in mind:
- Users have now come to expect a certain standard of visual media. Content needs to be high quality to impress consumers and stand out!
- The target demographic found on Instagram consists mainly of Gen Z and younger millennials.
- Reach a more professional audience.
- LinkedIn consists of active, educated, and career-oriented professionals, so if that’s your target audience this could be a beneficial platform for advertising. The number of users continues to grow, which is a big advantage.
- Target based on job qualifications
- LinkedIn has an advantage when it comes to targeting industry-specific variables. This includes industry, job title, company, seniority, skill and more.
- Receptive users
- The opportunity for conversions is high, as business-oriented users tend to be more receptive to advertising. Simple ads perform well and you don’t necessarily need to invest in an attention-grabbing campaign.
- Keep in mind:
- Advertising can be more expensive than on other platforms, so it’s important to analyze your ROI and make sure your conversions are worth the ad spend.
- Because of its specific professional network, LinkedIn is a strong choice for business-to-business ads but can be somewhat limited otherwise.
TikTok
- High potential, fast-growing
- TikTok has been identified as having the highest potential for growth and reach. This platform is dominated by Gen Z, an influential demographic that many brands are trying to reach.
- Allows for a lot of creativity
- TikTok ads come in many different formats and creative content is encouraged. TikTok tends to have a high engagement rate, with a large percentage of engaged users regularly on the platform.
- Keep in mind:
- With a focus on going viral, content moves quickly on TikTok so you have to be prepared to keep up with the trends and adapt your strategy on the fly to capitalize on what’s trending.
- Organic, user-generated content thrives, so consider your industry and audience.
- With concerns of an impending ban due to security concerns, the future of TikTok is uncertain at the moment.
- Highly targeted search engine
- Content shared here can be discovered over and over through keyword searches, interests, and boards, which helps generate long-term traffic.
- Ideal for visual ads showcasing products
- Pinterest is a highly visual platform, so if you have a product-focused brand, promoted pins are a great option to consider. Users are often looking for ideas and are open to discovering new brands. High-quality visuals will create a great impression, which could ultimately lead to conversions!
- Keep in mind:
- Pinterest doesn’t have nearly as many users, so it’s not exactly a top-of-mind platform. A strong female demographic can be found on Pinterest.
- Less competition
- Twitter isn’t known as the default advertising platform, so the opportunity to stand out is there.
- Intentional users
- Twitter users have their finger on the pulse, are up to date on all the trends, and are willing to interact and share content. The potential to reach your target audiences and build brand awareness is high.
- Keep in mind:
- Advertising on Twitter can be more expensive.
- The future of Twitter is uncertain and many people and businesses are not as active as they once were because of the constant changes.
YouTube
- Large platform
- With so many users found on YouTube and a close link to Google, this platform is a strong contender for advertising if you have video content in your marketing strategy.
- Video content investment is consistently rising
- Video content can have a very strong impact if done correctly. YouTube advertising is less competitive so if you have the resources, you have the potential to be successful in this space.
- Keep in mind:
- To stand out you need powerful content! You also need to understand your audience to ensure they are active on the platform.
- The audience skews a bit younger.
Let our advertising professionals help you grow your online presence! Learn more about our Online Advertising Services and how you can work with Bluetrain to achieve your business goals with our social media advertising process.