Social media advertising for business is a lot like a gym membership. Everyone knows it’s worth the investment, but most people don’t utilise the money they’ve outlaid effectively, to get the best results. This is generally because they haven’t done the research.

With your social media advertising, it’s important to try different approaches to your marketing campaigns, focusing on being unique and innovative, to see what gets you the highest return on investment (ROI). While one of your social media advertising campaigns might go viral, the same concept might not work as well with your target market the second time round. It’s a lot like Janet Jackson’s nose jobs, the first couple looked pretty good and they’ve gradually gotten worse, leaving her looking like a cross between a pug and a shih tzu!

I’ve listed 4 ways to help you lower your social media spend and get the best ROI. You can either follow these yourself, or pay a social media specialist to take the reins for you.

#1 ALWAYS TEST YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ADS ORGANICALLY

Before you invest in the ad campaign you’re going to run on your social media platforms, design several versions of the ad, with different images and content, and post these to run organically on your chosen platforms, for a couple of weeks. The highest performing ad posts, indicated by the most successful audience engagement, are the ones you should use for your paid social media campaigns.

#2 TARGET YOUR ADVERTISING DOLLARS

When creating a social media campaign for your business on Facebook, Twitter or one of the many other platforms available, you’re given the option of scheduling when your ad post runs, which is how you target your advertising spend. Select to run your campaign at times when you know your target market will be online. Generally, it’s not a smart option to have your campaign running at night, unless of course you’re targeting stalkers, burglars or vampires!

#3 PRICING OPTIONS

You will normally get several bidding options to choose from with paid social media campaigns. For example, Facebook offers pay per click (CPC), by impressions (CPM), or by reach. Facebook also gives you the option to optimise your spend, or allocate a maximum figure for your ad campaign. Don’t just go with the default, (pre-set), bidding option a social media platform offers, choose which will give you the highest ROI for your advertising budget.

#4 ADVERTISING PLACEMENT

Social media platforms will give you a range of placement and formatting options for your paid ad campaigns. Using Facebook as an example again, with their paid ads you can select either a desktop or mobile news feed, identify specific audience networks to target, or even opt for the right hand desktop column. Test different placement options, and see which offers the most increased engagement for the lowest spend.

Need some help increasing your social media advertising reach and lowering your campaign costs? Ad On Digital can help. The social media marketing specialists can set up your campaign for you, as well as create targeted posts. Call them now on 1300 055 091 or send them an enquiry by email.