You can practically reach out and touch your ideal audience with just a few clicks of the mouse. But first, you must get their attention. One of the best ways to do that is to advertise on the social platforms where your audience hang out.

Why Advertise on Social Media?

It's Inexpensive

You can place ads on any social platform like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter with as little as $20 and get results. You can test an ad inexpensively, tweak it, make it better, then run it again, increasing your budget based on your desired ROI.

It's Effective

Paid ads work very well since so many people are regularly on social media. If you plan the advertisement correctly, it will seem as if you're just engaging with your audience more. You don't want the ad to look like a TV ad, but instead more like another share with valuable information.

Targeting Is Amazing

The way that you can laser target your audience on social platforms is reason enough to start using paid ads. You can run remarketing campaigns that show an advertisement to people who already went to your site but left without buying, for example.

It Boosts Brand Recognition

Even if someone doesn't click on your advertisement, they may still see it in their feed. That seeing can't be undone, and the more times they see it, the more likely they are to act on the advertisement. If you want people to recognize your brand, it's important to develop a branded appearance that you use across all social media networks. Use the same logos, in different sizes, and stay true to your brand at all times.

Provides More Opportunity for Your Leads to Convert

If you really want to convert more leads, a direct paid advertisement on social media is an excellent way to accomplish it because you'll reach more people than a regular post. If you want people to recognize your brand, it's important to develop a branded appearance that you use across all social media networks. Use the same logos, in different sizes, and stay true to your brand at all times.

Improves Your Brand's Authority

Most social media ads will show that they're ads with the word "sponsored" showing up on the post. While this might seem like a negative, it's not. If you're seen as someone who spends money on social media ads, your audience will realize you're making money in your niche. This will then start to bring you up to authority status in their minds. When you often post a lot of accurate and helpful information, people start viewing you as an authority on the topic. Once you're viewed as an authority, you will start making even more money because people will be waiting to hire you or buy your products.

Increases Brand Loyalty

The more people see your brand out there, the more loyal they will become toward what you offer. Your offerings should represent what your brand stands for and you'll find that people become more loyal to you as you stick to what you know and believe in.

‍Brings More Traffic to Your Website

Social media advertisements will bring more traffic to your website. Make sure you send them to an amazing landing page, specific to the social media site you're placing the advertisement on. Use social media to share and promote your blog posts, and new offerings will increase the traffic to your website exponentially. One of the best ways to rank higher on search results is to be active on social networks.

Builds Your Email List Faster

There is no doubt that using social media advertisements to offer a freebie (lead magnet) will help you build your list faster. But, it needs to be very targeted, solve a serious problem easily, and be set up correctly with the social media platform you're using.

Is Inexpensive

It's not an expensive form of marketing. It can also be fun. Guard yourself from getting sidetracked, but always be interactive and engaging with your followers. Remember, time is money. Automate what is not direct communication so that you can get more done in less time.

Allows for Useful Consumer Engagement

Social networks can let you engage with users in a very beneficial way. You can have deep conversations about many topics. Just remember to keep it professional and handle controversy carefully.

Works with Mobile Devices

Better than most websites and email, social media works effortlessly on mobile devices. Social media and mobile really go hand-in-hand. People take their devices on dates, and to bed - you've never been closer to your audience than now.

Although everything about Facebook isn't perfect, it's still the biggest social network and they want you to succeed using their advertising platform. This just makes sense. If you achieve your business goals while spending money on Facebook advertising, you're likely to use that marketing practice again in the future.

Social media offers individuals and business owners alike a great deal of ability to get the word out about any event or happening. Most people use social media of some kind - and what's more, they keep it close to them with their mobile devices at the ready.

People share everything on social media, from their baby's first steps to more mundane things like what they're eating for dinner tonight.

Being online and using social media to promote your business offers many benefits.

How to Track Success on Social Media

How do you know whether your social media marketing efforts are working? These seven ways to analyze your social media marketing efforts will help you understand what is working, what is not working, and what needs to change.

1. Engagement

Are your followers responding to your social media shares with comments of their own? How many comments do you get on average for each post? Which post has the most comments ever? What happens if you go off topic? What happens when you stay on topic? These questions can be answered with the analytics in your social media platform dashboard.

2. Likes

When you post something what is the response? Do people like your post or love it, or dislike it? Does it make them happy or angry? Looking at the likes on each comment and how they grow for your overall page is a good way to know whether you're connecting with the right people.

3. Shares

What percentage of your posts are shared? Do you ask people to share? When posts are shared at a high rate, it's a good indicator that you're connecting with your audience. When no one shares a post, it's either because it's not really that earth-shattering or they don't think about it, so make sure you ask people to share.

4. Growth

It's easy to tell if you're growing or not by the number of likes you get on your page. If you can drill down the analytics to find out where the new people came from, that will make your efforts much more effective since you can repeat what works and stop doing what's not working.

5. Reach

Often, especially when you boost a post, your reach (meaning how many people see the post) is an important indicator of the effectiveness of your post. For example, if it reaches 1000 people but no one responds, likes, or comments, the content might not be the right content for your audience.

6. Clicks

How many people click through to your landing page versus how many people see it is also a great indicator of whether you're hitting the mark with your audience yet. If you're getting lots of clicks and no conversions, maybe the landing page isn't quite right compared to the information that causes them to click through.

7. Mentions

Who is talking about you, what are they saying, and where are they saying it? Social media is a great way to check the barometer regarding the health of your business and the views others have of your business. You can set up a Google Alert to let you know if someone says something about your niche, industry, or even your name.

Every social media platform has its own way of showing you their analytics, but each has good analytics that can show most of what is mentioned here without having to buy anything special. That's one of the many things that makes social media marketing so effective.

Facebook wants your business to succeed when using their social platform. This just makes sense. If you achieve your business goals while spending money on Facebook advertising, you're likely to use it again in the future.

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