Comprehensive How-To for Paid Social Ads

Do you want your business to become a household (or industry) name? If you're in it for the long-haul, then chances are your answer is, "Yes!"

Enter your marketing department stage right.

The definition of marketing: a process through which consumers become aware of your company's goods or services so that they turn into customers - and hopefully evangelists for your business.

If you have "marketing" somewhere in your title, then pay close attention to that emphasis on "aware." If a consumer doesn't know your company exists, then there's no chance they'll become a customer. That is why companies spend so much time, money, and effort on branding, and probably also why you have your job. Heck, that's why I have my job, so you and I can agree that branding is important.

How to Create Brand Awareness

One of the best ways to create brand awareness is through content marketing. Blogging, emails, and infographics are all impactful ways to engage your audience and sell your brand. But the benefits of content marketing are limited to the audience you conjure up. Sure, strategic SEO is invaluable, and, when applied to your content marketing, SEO can reel in the right leads for your company. But if one of your objectives is to raise brand awareness, then you need to strive for more consumer eyes.

Where are all the consumer eyes these days? Here's a hint, it's where over 2 billion people spend 28% of their day on average.

If you said social media, then you would be correct. So, now you're thinking, "No problem, my company tweets all the time!" But unless you're a huge, international company, or you hit the viral post jackpot, it is unlikely that your social content is engaging thousands of people. Engaging is the key term there, because having 1,200 followers does not equal 1,200 post views. Plus, if you're not getting retweets or shares, then you're not reaching new audiences.

Using Paid Social Ads to Create Brand Awareness

Social media is a great way to share your brand with the masses, but if you want to maximize the audience, then you have to be willing to put a little cash behind your posts. Most social media platforms offer paid advertising options; everything from boosting posts to selling actual ad space. Entire books have been written on social media advertising. For the sake of time, let's narrow it down a little bit and focus on how to get social media users to your website.

Sponsored posts are one of the best ways to increase your website traffic from social media. A sponsored post will look similar to a regular post, but will include elements like a CTA that encourage users to engage with the content.

To get started, step one is always to choose the right platform. In order to do that, knowing your buyer persona is key. Determining the demographics of your target audience will allow you to choose a social media platform where your ad will be successful.

Sprout Social offers an in-depth breakdown of each platform's demographics. In general, though, the younger audience will be on Twitter and Instagram, most adult consumers use Facebook, and LinkedIn is used by working professionals and business executives.

Once you decide which platform to use, it's time to set up your ad. If you've never tried setting up a paid social ad before, it can be daunting. To strategically create your ad, you should first plan out what you want your ad to look like and what message you want your audience to receive. Get a feel for ad setup on various platforms using the guide below.

How to Set Up a Facebook Ad

To set up a Facebook ad, you'll need to be made an ads manager for your company's Facebook Business Manager account.

In Ad Manager:

  1. Choose your objective - For the purpose of creating a sponsored post, click "Send people to your website" and give your campaign a name.
  2. Choose your audience - Options for setting your target audience include location, age, gender, interests, and even what they buy on and offline.
  3. Choose the placement - You can select "Automatic" and Facebook will display your ad where it is most likely to reach your audience, but if you don't want to advertise on Instagram (more to come on that later), then you can manually choose your placements and deselect Instagram.
  4. Set your budget - You can either set a "Daily" budget, which allows your campaign to be continuous or for a set number of days, or you can set a "Lifetime" budget, which determines how much your ad spend will be over a specific period of time. When setting your schedule, the advanced "Ad Scheduling" option even allows you set specific hours and days of the week.
  5. Choose your format - There are two format options: single image and carousel. The carousel option lets you use 3-5 images or videos for displaying multiple products, more brand info, different product features, or step-by-step processes.
  6. Upload your media - Images should be 1200 x 628 pixels and text should cover no more than 20% of your image.
  7. Enter your ad text - This includes:
    • Connecting your Facebook page
    • Entering the website URL
    • Creating a headline
    • Creating the post text
  8. Preview your ad
  9. Place the order

How to Set Up a LinkedIn Ad

In Campaign Manager:

  1. Choose company account
  2. Select "Sponsored Content" - This ad will reach LinkedIn members right in their feed.
  3. Enter your campaign name
  4. Choose the update to sponsor - You can either choose content that has already been shared on your page or you can "create new Sponsored Content." If you choose content that has already been shared, skip steps 5 and 6.
  5. Create the post text - Include a link to your website content in your post.
  6. Upload an image - Images should be 1200 x 627 pixels, while maintaining a title safe space of 1000 x 586 (this just means it will be cropped to that size for desktop).
  7. Choose your audience - Options for setting your target audience include location, company, industry, job title, gender, age, and group membership.
  8. Set your budget - First, you'll have to decide between CPC and CPM. With CPM, your ad will get shown more often, but you pay a set rate. If you choose CPC, LinkedIn will automatically set your bid rate to reach the majority of your audience, or you can set it yourself. Next, you will set your "Daily" budget, and, finally, your ad schedule.
  9. Enter your payment information
  10. Review your order
  11. Launch your ad

How to Set Up an Instagram Ad

Most people overlook the value of Instagram, but it is becoming one of the best digital marketing tools. Now, through a partnership with Facebook, you can use Instagram for paid social advertising. Instagram is the perfect platform for branding. It's image-oriented, which helps people put a name to a face and makes your company easier to remember.

In Facebook Ad Manager:

  1. Choose your objective - For the purpose of creating a sponsored post, click "Send people to your website" and give your campaign a name.
  2. Choose your audience - Options for setting your target audience include location, age, gender, interests, and even what they buy on and offline.
  3. Choose your placement - Facebook will recommend "Automatic" placement, but if you want to advertise only on Instagram, then you will need to manually choose placement and deselect everything but Instagram.
  4. Set your budget - You can either set a "Daily" budget, which allows your campaign to be continuous or for a set number of days, or you can set a "Lifetime" budget, which determines how much your ad spend will be over a specific period of time. When setting your schedule, the advanced "Ad Scheduling" option even allows you set specific hours and days of the week.
  5. Choose your format - There are two format options: single image and carousel. The carousel option lets you use 3-5 images or videos for displaying multiple products, more brand info, different product features, or step-by-step processes.
  6. Upload your media - Images should be 1080 x 1080 pixels.
  7. Enter your ad text - This includes:
    • Connecting your Instagram account
    • Entering the website URL
    • Creating a headline
    • Creating the post text
  8. Choose your CTA button - This step is important on Instagram because it is how the user will click through to your site.
  9. Preview your ad
  10. Place the order

How to Set Up a Twitter Ad

From your company's Twitter profile, open Twitter ads:

  1. Create new campaign - For the purposes of creating a sponsored post, click "Website clicks or conversions."
  2. Give your campaign a name
  3. Set the schedule for your ad - It can either start immediately and run continuously, or you can set it for a specific time period.
  4. Add your site domain - This should be your main domain, not the final destination of your ad.
  5. Choose the category to describe your website
  6. Choose your audience - There are many options for setting your target audience, including location, gender, keywords in Tweets, and interests. Also, unique to Twitter, "Tailored Audience", which is a list of people you've created or a list created from people who have visited your website.
  7. Set your budget - You are required to set your "Daily" budget. You can also set a "Total" budget, which will end the campaign once the spend limit is reached.
  8. Create your Tweet text - Like a regular post, there is a character limit, but of only 116 characters.
  9. Upload an image - Image should be 800 x 320 pixels.
  10. Create a headline
  11. Enter website URL - This URL will be the final destination when users click.
  12. Publish your Tweet

As far as budget goes, there isn't a magical number, but the amount you pay for an ad will determine how many people see it and how often. As a general rule, $5/day is the minimum you can spend while still seeing impact.

Just remember, paid social advertising is not a stand-alone marketing strategy, and it should be used in addition to your overall strategic marketing plan. By creating relevant content and using social ads to promote it, you will take your marketing to the next level.

Still overwhelmed by the magnitude of paid social advertising? Check out our digital advertising chops and let us help you develop a paid social ad strategy that complements your current marketing.

We are excited to welcome our newest team member to The Squad, Allison Taylor! She has joined our team as an Account Manager. From strategizing and implementing social media and email campaigns to managing email, newsletter, and blog content, Allison will be working closely with others on the team to delight clients.

Allison brings with her a love for SEO and analytics and passion for all things social media. And we can't wait to see these interests in action! Read more about Allison and help us welcome her to The Squad.

How did you get connected with The Squad?

Joel and I go way back. When a job came available he let me know and the rest is history!

Tell us a little bit about the type of work you do here.

I am managing content marketing for clients. In other words, I manage the creation of blogs, emails, and social content, as well as creating the content myself. I also will have a hand in the ongoing SEO for our clients.

What's one thing you love about working here so far?

Everyone is so very genuine and nice! It is refreshing to work with such a great group!

We are total foodies here at The Squad, and we heard you have an interesting degree background, can you share a little bit about that?

Ha! Well what seems like a million years ago, I went to school for culinary arts. I had a catering company for a short time and worked in restaurants. *My passion is baking, so don't be surprised if I bring in a batch of brownies or a cake.

*Editor's note: You can't see it, but people in the office are jumping for joy!

What do you like to do for fun?

For fun, I love to blog. In fact I have my own family travel blog. I also love to read and hang out with my kids.

What are your passions as far as your career is concerned?

I have a passion for Social Media. I absolutely love it! I dig through industry articles and keep up with the latest changes!

Any other fun tidbits you want the world to know?

I was recently in People Magazine! That was a surreal moment.

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