The power of social media is evidenced with billions of users worldwide. Social media provides a multitude of opportunities for brands to engage with customers across numerous platforms and through a variety of mediums. One such area is paid social media campaigns.
This guide will explore social media PPC campaigns across some of the largest platforms today including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Facebook PPC
1.6 billion people on Facebook are connected to a small business, and with so many eyes turning to one place it is crucial that your Facebook PPC is planned effectively. The first step is to decide on the type of ad to use, with Facebook offering over 10 different ads variations. In this instance, image and video ads will be focused on as they’re the most commonly used ads used on Facebook.
Both ad types offer 25 headline characters, 30 description characters and 125 primary text characters. The headline is the first thing that a customer sees, along with the accompanying image/video, so it should really engage and entice viewers. The description underneath the can then provide further information on the offering. The primary text should include the unique selling proposition and how your product or service can benefit potential customers.
When choosing an image to use, it’s crucial to use professional media if available. Include people in your images, especially when it is to do with specific products, and make sure those people match your target market; for example use a pensioner for a product or service that targets the elderly, rather than a 30 year old. Finally, images with people facing to the right are more effective as users will naturally follow a person’s line of sight, automatically going to the business’s ad text.
For videos, according to Hubspot, Facebook has an optimal video length of 1 minute. It is also recommended that videos aim for the best possible resolution, avoid blurriness or blockiness and make sure that content can be understood without sound given 95% of people often watch videos without sound.
Instagram PPC
While Instagram isn’t as large as Facebook, the platform still has approximately 1 billion active users making it a prime option for paid marketing. Similarly to Facebook, there are a range of ad options available on Instagram, but for comparison, image and video ads will be explored.
Instagram video and image ads are distinguishable from organic content with the text “sponsored” included above the video or image. The media is the main draw for a user on Instagram, with minimal text underneath. While ad text can support up to 2,200 characters and 30 hashtags, it is recommended that 125 characters are used so the text doesn’t get cut off and shows up on smaller screen sizes. 5-10 hashtags are optimum to maximise exposure to target audiences, without hashtag ‘stuffing’. In some cases hashtag stuffing can get businesses shadow banned, which refers to Instagram putting bans on individual accounts without the owner of the account being aware that the ban has happened.
LinkedIn PPC
Unlike Facebook and Instagram ads which focus more on personal profiles of users, LinkedIn ads are tailored to business professionals. With over 600 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is the prime location for businesses looking to target the professional community. This means LinkedIn utilises vastly different targeting tactics than their social media counterparts, looking to reach people based on skill set, industry, job title and degree to name a few.
There are not as many ad types available in LinkedIn, with the four being:
- Sponsored Content – Image, Video & Carousel ads that target valuable audiences through their LinkedIn feed
- Sponsored InMail – Direct messages to potential prospect
- Dynamic Ads – Right Rail ads that are tailored to individual profiles
- Text Ads – Purely written ads served on the right-hand side of the LinkedIn feed
In this case sponsored content will be looked at as it offers both image and video in-feed options. As with ads previously discussed, the biggest focus is around the text and media used. LinkedIn ad best practice suggests keeping your ad headlines under 150 characters, descriptive copy under 70 characters, high quality media and of course a clear CTA.
Extra PPC Tips
Planning – Make sure to plan social media PPC campaigns effectively to line up with day to day operations and maximise performance.
Test – Both your ads and the platforms being used. This will ensure your paid social media campaigns are optimised and ad spend wastage is kept to a minimum.
Use Analytics – When setting up campaigns make sure that accurate analytics can be performed. This will allow for the businesses to obtain effective insights into campaign performance.
Social media can be a tumultuous environment, but hopefully this guide can provide some insights to maximise your businesses paid social media performance.
Looking to further optimise your social media campaigns? Contact the team at Redline Digital today.