by Brittany McSorley
As a Cape Cod social media marketing firm, KDC works with both organic and paid content. While organic marketing is the foundation of any successful strategy, paid marketing can be an excellent boost on top of organic efforts. As long as organic marketing doesn’t fall by the wayside, the two methods can work in tandem quite nicely to increase customer conversion.
While organic marketing takes a slow-and-steady approach to growing a web presence and gaining customers, paid marketing cuts right to the chase, putting money behind specific marketing content so it gets in front of as many eyes as possible. Any social media platform worth paying attention to has options for paid advertising, but deciding which platform to use can be challenging.
So, which social media platform offers the best ROI when it comes to paid content? The answer is not so simple. The success of a social media ad can be measured in a number of ways, including: reach (how many people see the ad); engagement (how much an ad is liked, commented on or shared); clicks to your profile or website; and conversion (an actual purchase). According to MDG Advertising, one of the top social media challenges reported by marketers is accurately measuring ROI. Each platform has unique tools for measuring the impact of ads, and quite often, those tools are measuring how much an ad was seen or clicked, rather than if it actually created any conversion.
It’s easy to see how this could all become overwhelming. Fortunately, it’s generally agreed upon that Facebook is the best platform for social media advertising. The following stats from Hootsuite make it clear why:
- Facebook has nearly 2.5 billion monthly users
- It’s the world’s third-most visited website
- 71% of American adults use it
- 74% of high income earners use it
- And 74% of users log in every day
The people have spoken, am I right? Plus, millions of businesses are using Facebook to share sponsored content, and the platform’s ad tools are intuitive enough for even beginners. Marketers have the option to boost organic posts so they’re more widely shared, or to create specific ad content in a variety of formats (carousel, single image, slideshow, the list goes on).
While Facebook is the obvious choice for social media ads, sharing paid content on other platforms can be just as powerful for conversion. If you have a strong following on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube, you should definitely explore your advertising options. Instagram ads are particularly appealing because they blend into the main feed so seamlessly. And since all social media platforms are favoring video more and more, building a YouTube strategy could be a wise choice for your business.
No matter which platform you decide to use for paid advertising, it’s important to note that even the biggest paid campaign will fall flat if it’s not backed up by a strong organic marketing strategy. Similarly, an ad campaign that hasn’t been well researched will not reach its full potential. So be sure to know your audience and your platform of choice as well as possible before you take the plunge into paid marketing. And long live Facebook, I guess.
