With the end of summer quickly and sadly approaching soon, it’s time to shift back into business mode and rethink your marketing strategy. If your business has been struggling with advertising, gaining new customers, or if you’re in the mood to completely change things up, paid advertising might be the missing piece to the puzzle.

Many people are familiar with traditional Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, but today, social advertising are dominating the internet marketing and advertising industry. There are multiple social media platforms, so how does your company decide which platform to run their ads?  Ultimately, it depends on the company’s budget, goals, ad content and industry, but even without basic knowledge it can be difficult knowing where to begin.

Pros and Cons: Advertising on Google AdWords, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn 

Google AdWords

Google AdWords are similar to an auction and ads from Yellow Pages back then. You choose keywords that you believe people will search for, decide how much you want to spend, and end up bidding on these words.  If these keywords are in high demand, it can be very pricy. It’s important to think of words that may be searched in relation to your business or product, for a lower Cost Per Click (CPC).

PROS:

• Able to reach specific customers who are searching for a product/service
• Flexibility to set your own budget
• Monitor and track results easily
• Search or Display Option for Ads (Text vs. Graphic)

CONS:

• Could be costly with minimal return
• May not reach targeted audience or customers
• Size of ads aren’t ideal
• Search engine ranking diminishes once the Google ads are terminated

Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads have recently become very important for business owners and Facebook Business Pages.  This is because due to the latest January 2015 algorithm, most businesses’ promotional content will be viewed less frequently by their audience than ever before.  Facebook Ads can help with this issue by pushing content to the top of news feeds and reaching specific demographics.

PROS:

• In-depth targeting for ads (can base ads off interests, locations, pages liked, demographics, etc.)
• Low pricing with flexible budgets and targeted demographics. An ad can start at a price of $15 per week.
• Increase awareness and branding of product/service for new customers
• Users can create multiple types of ads to see which works best for them

CONS:

• It’s constantly updating and it can be difficult to learn
• Facebook’s overall lack of organic views can limit the visibility of your ads that your fans can view
• Deciding which strategy works best may be too timely & costly for some

Twitter Ads

Twitter recently caught up with Facebook and added advertising to their platform. Their major focus is on mobile ads through the Twitter app, which isn’t a bad idea. Twitter doesn’t follow the usual CPC pricing model, but rather an engagement and auction-based model.

PROS:

• The ads are designed and placed well within the newsfeed
• Users can interact with the ads (Retweet, Reply, Open, or Favorite)
• Target audience is based on interests as well, which helps strategically place ads.

CONS:

• Because of the auction pricing, it can be more expensive, so making sure content is high quality and worth sharing are important factors.
• Twitter in general doesn’t have that many users compared to other platforms, so reaching people may be difficult.

LinkedIn Ads

If you’re seeking employees, new business partners, or provide a business related service, LinkedIn Ads could be a perfect tool for you. Since the platform is solely for business professionals, any other type of industry wouldn’t be worth it.

LinkedIn has two types of Ads available, but has a minimum budget of $10, unlike other platforms.

PROS:

• Ideal spot to reach business professionals
• A wide variety (and a lot!) of users

CONS:

• Expensive – $10 minimum budget
• Tough to choose target audience
• Difficult to setup

 

In summary, social advertising can help increase your branding and boost your business if you choose the right platform, demographics and keywords. Since ads are time sensitive, it is a very useful call-to-action marketing tool for limited promotion or special events.  Call us at 978-253-4922 or email us for more information