How Paid Ads Can Grow Your Social Media Following
It’s no secret that an active social media presence is essential for small businesses. However, you need followers that consistently see and engage with your posts for your social media page to succeed. So, how do you grow your social media following? Obviously, organic growth is often preferred because there is no extra cost, but paid ads can also help boost your social media followers with the right strategies in place. So, let’s look at the social media paid ads strategies that can increase your page’s followers.
Start with a Target Audience
The first step to crafting a compelling social media ad is to start with a target audience. Facebook Ad Manager is very sophisticated to allow you to target an audience for your ad based on location, demographic, interests, and more. You can go very broad or specific for a target audience, and often it’s beneficial to target a more specific audience.
When you create a target audience for your ad, your money is spent more wisely because the right group of people (the ones who are most likely to follow your page and visit your website) are seeing the ad. For example, a local mobile pet grooming business will want to target pet owners within a certain mile radius in a specific income range. That way, the people that see the ad are more likely to invest in pet grooming and live close enough for your services.
Study Your Most Popular Posts
Before creating your paid ad, look at the most popular posts on your business page. These posts have the most likes, comments, or shares. It’s a good indication of what your audience resonates with and likes to see. Maybe it’s one of your giveaway posts, a behind-the-scenes picture, or an insider tip for your product. Use whatever you find popular on your page as a starting point and consider creating content similar to it.
Write Content That’s Relevant to Your Audience
Now with a target audience and an understanding of successful posts, it’s time to start creating content! As you craft this stellar content, always remember the audience. You’ll want any written content and visuals to be relevant to their interests, life stage, and needs. If your audience connects with the ad’s content, they are more likely to click through and like your page.
For the mobile pet grooming business, the audience might be busy pet owners who love their pets but don’t have time to visit a pet groomer or do it themselves. So, content that points out how mobile pet grooming saves time and is extra convenient for pet owners is very relevant to this audience. Therefore, your advertising budget will go much farther and reach the customers you want when your ad content caters to your target audience.
Include Pictures or Video
As consumers, we can attest that we are attracted to visuals more than just written copy. Pictures and videos tend to grab our attention more, so these are must-haves in your paid ad! When you have valuable written content, pair it with pictures or even a video to grab the audience’s attention more.
Drive Ad Traffic to Your Business Page/Profile
Since your goal for this paid ad is to increase your business profile’s likes or follows, you’ll want to drive traffic from the ad to your business page/profile. When you create a paid ad in the Facebook Ad Manager for your Facebook and Instagram profiles, you can choose to link to your profile in the ad. This is where you want the audience to land so they can interact with your other posts and hopefully follow your page and engage.
Before you link to your profile, view your business profile from the visitor’s view and note what they can see. Is your business website easy to locate? Are your local business listings correct and visible? Is your business info (about us) section updated and clear? Take an inventory of your page and make adjustments, so any new followers will find what they need.
Test, Analyze, Adjust, Repeat
Once you have everything you need for a successful paid ad, you’ll publish it, analyze the results, make adjustments, and then repeat the process. With paid advertisements, we are constantly testing what we think works, making any enhancements or taking things out that didn’t work, and then testing them again. Facebook and Instagram have excellent ad analytics, so you can view various ad metrics and decide what worked well and what didn’t.
Paid social media ads have many benefits and can impact your social media following, plus bring in leads. These tips can get you started for a successful paid ad campaign on your social media pages and new engaged followers! If you’re new to social media paid ads or don’t have the time to manage them, the digital marketing team at Suite Edge can help. We specialize in creating unique content for your business and have experience helping your business achieve long-term success in the digital world. Contact Suite Edge today to learn more about our services!
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