“The good news ladies and gentlemen is that this thing called ‘social media advertising’ is going the way of the dodo bird; it’s gonzo, extincto, bye bye, never to be heard of again! Billions of people will soon and suddenly turn from this devouring beast and will return to healthier pursuits like log rolling and leaf collecting.”
This recently discovered excerpt from a keynote speech to the National Luddite Society is here to show that not everyone is convinced of the solvency and potency of social media advertising. But then not everyone is convinced the world is round either.
For the rest of us, social media is still a “thing” and will likely be a thing all the way through 2022 so we might as well do something with it while it’s here, like social media advertising.
Facebook has about 2 billion daily users. So, if you wanted to go where the people are, at least now you have a clear signal about what to do next. Though the number of younger people using it is dropping slowly, about 75% of American adults use it each month.
So, it shouldn’t surprise us that the vast majority of marketers are incorporating Facebook into their portfolio and about half are looking to increase their use of it in 2022.
Facebook ads are so effective due to the huge numbers of potential viewers and the ability therein to target people from within those billions. Add to this more analytics and insights than you can shake a stick at, and you’ve got a great recipe for success.
Twitter has about 212 million daily users. It is used by more men than women, is the most popular social platform in Japan, 42% of U.S. users have a college degree, and of the Americans who earn more than $75,000, 77% use Twitter.
Obviously, in a world where you are limited to 240 characters and the typical tweet is only 33, advertising looks different than on Facebook where it’s a three-ring circus of flashing lights and dancing bears.
Twitter brings its advertisers value because you only pay when people act. If you want your app to be installed, you will only pay for the number of successful installs. When you are seeking followers, you only have to pay for the number of people who hit the Follow button.
Twitter is taking part of the risk with each engagement because it believes that their advertising product will deliver exactly what you want.
Instagram has about a billion active users, 64% of which are under the age of 34 and split almost evenly between men and women. Even though it’s owned by Facebook, the demographics are very different. Almost all marketers agree that it is the best platform for influencer marketing.
Because it’s a visual platform, Instagram ads give you a great way to display your product, and then with Instagram shopping, you can make it easy to convert your viewers into buyers. And because 83% of people use Instagram to discover new products and services, this is a target-rich environment.
LinkedIn has more than 800 million active users and 60% of them are between the ages of 25 and 34. It’s both the top paid channel for business-to-business advertising as well as the most trusted network. Almost half of all social media traffic to company websites comes from LinkedIn.
When you are trying to figure out where to spend your precious ad dollars, having a set budget is a necessity. LinkedIn offers two types of budgets, daily and lifetime. You can designate a certain amount of the whole to spend each a day and then how much to spend in total over the lifetime of the campaign.
YouTube
YouTube is the second-largest global search engine and more young adults use it as a way to consume videos than they do with any TV network. With the demand for video content growing, marketers are finding YouTube an excellent place to begin this process.
This seems to be where new ad dollars are heading in 2022 with 44% of marketers surveyed planning to start working with YouTube for the first-time next year.
With the ability get creative and launch ads ranging from a few seconds to long informational videos, you can reach a wide variety of people on this one platform.
If you are in the nonprofit field, YouTube has a nonprofit-friendly program that helps you to capture support through the use of “donation cards,” thus allowing supporters to donate directly through your videos.
YouTube follows a cost-per-click and cost-per-view pricing model so that you are charged depending on user actions. If someone watches your entire ad or clicks on your ad, you get charged. Whether you pay for views or clicks depends on the type of ad you create.
TikTok
TikTok has 689 million users and was the most downloaded app in 2020. The majority of its users are under the age of 21 and it used more by females than males. Those Americans who use TikTok spend more time on it than on the other social media sites they belong to.
TikTok ads start at $10 per 1,000 views. The most successful ads here display the message up front in the first few seconds and use emotion to see greater results.
Social media advertising might go away, but not next year. With everyone who you want to advertise to almost certainly involved in one of these top six social media platforms, the question isn’t if you’ll get involved in social media advertising but when and how much? Given that there are platforms for younger viewers (TikTok), older users (Facebook), professionals (LinkedIn), and everyone in between, your people are in there somewhere!
And, if you need some guidance navigating these constantly changing waters, contact us. We’ll be glad to share our social media advertising expertise and show how we’ve helped others bring their stories to life.