The need for newer marketing techniques and strategies is dictated by modern society, which requires keeping abreast of the latest trends. That is why the importance and impact of advertisement on Social Media cannot be overstated. Conventional marketing tools like visual ads, TV/Radio still bear fruit, but not the way it used to and probably not the way you would like to either. So, there are a couple of valid reasons you should consider Social Media Advertising.

Reason #1 Though the primary reason for SM Advertisement is obvious from the first lines of this article, it should probably be stated once again. With or without pandemic everybody spends more and more time online, using some SM platforms, if not all. So, your potential customers are there just waiting for you. Facebook user statistics say that the number of active monthly users reaches a number of 2.8 billion. Two-thirds visit the platform on a daily basis and they are aged under 35. Instagram reaches roughly 1.1 billion active users worldwide with the same age limits. These facts place Facebook as Top-2 advertising platform. Other platforms like YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and even TikTok provide other advertising options to be utilized.

You simply need to find the right person on that SM sea. SM provide a range of tools for it. Basing on demographics, location, education, online activity (Facebook Pixel is the key point here) etc your ad can reach actually anybody. Well, targeting even the most specific audience is the most beautiful thing about advertising on SM. What’s more, your competitors are already using it.

Reason #2 Social Media significantly encourages online shopping, especially if you sell physical products. Facebook and Instagram are no longer just entertainment apps and have become full-fledged business platforms. Online shopping gained its momentum this year, so both platforms launched online shops, which made shopping and checking out much faster and easier without even leaving a platform.

Facebook Commerce Manager allows setting up an online shop and catalogs and also gives access to statistics. Once your account is approved, you can download your catalogs. You can do it manually if you’ve got less than 50 items to sell. If you’ve got more, it’s better to use one of the options provided to do it automatically. Proper catalog setup gives you an option of the paid advertisement from there. In that case, your potential customer sees the price, website link, availability, and other characteristics. Your primary goal is to sell, so the “Conversions” objective is the right choice while setting up an ads campaign. Using Facebook Pixel and Facebook SDK for events makes tracking your website products much easier and boosts retargeting capacity.

Instagram focuses on beautiful pictures, so it gives you a chance to present your goods at their best. Once you set up a shop on it, you can tag your products on posts, IGTV videos, and stories. You just need to make sure that tags match actual pictures, so as not to get your customers frustrated. Here you have two promotion options – Facebook Business Manager and the “Promote” button to set up a campaign directly from Instagram. If you’ve got Facebook Business Page, you can use Facebook Business Manager, which provides a wider range of advertising tools and much deeper insights.

The budget actually varies and depends on the products you sell, the market itself, the brand, etc. and needs extra testing on the marketers’ side. In a nutshell, the wider your audience is – the lower your cost per click becomes, but there is a risk of your ad’s becoming irrelevant to users. That’s why balance is crucial in this case. Operating on a meager budget requires some creativity and using relevant hashtags might help.

Besides that, Instagram keeps adding more and more eCommerce tools and is testing product listings promotion on the Shop front page. Once a customer clicks on a sponsored product, he or she will be forwarded to the Product Details Page, where some extra pictures can be viewed, if any available. These sponsored products can also be either shared or saved. And, after some testing, Facebook launched “Shops” as a single one store on both platforms – Facebook and Instagram. SM giant also promised to provide businesses with a link to “Shops”, an extension to Page tools.

Some businesses cannot set up online shops, just because they simply do not sell physical goods. In that case, your website is an absolute must and becomes a pivotal tool in reaching your goal. Though, to help you convert it should meet certain criteria and be optimized for converting. More about website requirements here (https://vafromeurope.com/6-website–design–tips–to–help–you–convert/). Your website can be used for reaching even those customers, who avoid using SM, because they surf the net anyway or use other applications. Even WhatsApp is testing its Online Shops.

To cut a long story short, SM advertising works and provides a wide range of tools for tracking ROI.

Reason 3# Social Media provide various Advertising formats. Different platforms provide different formats as well as promotion options.

• Facebook supports photo/video ads, stories, messenger, carousels, and slideshows. Even an Online shop product can be advertised and shown to a specific audience.
• Twitter promotes tweets, accounts, image ads, it also supports video and app ads.
• LinkedIn supports sponsored content, InMail, text and video ads, etc. The most important thing about this platform is a job advertisement. Thus, the choice of the platform you are going to be promoted on depends on your audience, budget, and objective.
• YouTube and its advertising platform become even more important within SM’s shift to video content.

In conclusion, the overwhelming influence of Social Media cannot be ignored. SEO still works and should never be ditched. A mixture of Google Ads and SM Advertising is the best option; the balance between the two just requires some testing. Surely, you don’t need to be a jack of all trades and be capable of defining your audience, optimizing your budget, and setting an ad campaign by yourself. You might seek help from a third party or hire a professional SM Manager. Anyway, VAfromEurope Agency’s experience proves Social Media Advertising should never be ignored, so do not do it either!