Starting your paid social media strategy can feel like quite a big step for many businesses. Spending your hard-earned money on a platform we have become so accustomed to being completely free can feel counterintuitive. But paid social media ads are crucial for businesses, and it’s more of a question of when you should implement them than if you should.

Paid social media strategies can be very effective for a range of businesses. Whether you want to drive traffic to your site, raise brand awareness, or do anything in between, having an effective paid social media strategy can really make all the difference.

If you’ve been considering investing in paid social media strategies for your business but are unsure if it’s the right time, this is your guide to everything you need to know when beginning to implement your paid social campaigns.

Firstly, Why Is Paid Social Media So Important?

Like anything, social media as a free marketing tool can really only take you so far and implementing paid strategies alongside your organic campaigns is vital. Paid social media campaigns help to give your business guaranteed reach. Whilst organic campaigns may mean some of your posts go gangbusters and others get lost, paid social media ensures that your campaigns get seen by the right people.

In addition to ensuring your campaigns get seen, paid social media also means you can accurately target your most relevant audience so that you are guaranteed the best results. Paid campaigns take the guesswork out of your strategy; they allow you to reach who you need to reach when you need to so that you can convert viewers into loyal customers.

How Do I Know If It’s The Right Time?

There really is no cut-and-dry answer to when it’s the right time for your business to undertake its paid social media campaigns, but there are a few things you’ll need to consider before you jump straight in.

If it’s been on your mind for a while, these are some of the factors you should keep in mind when deciding whether the timing is right.

1. You Need A Following

You’ll want to already have an established following on the platform on which you’re looking to run paid ads. If that’s Instagram, make sure you’ve organically grown your profile enough to signify that you’re a legitimate business. Working with a team of experts or a Facebook advertising agency can really help you grow your organic reach before you set up your paid ads.

There’s nothing worse than seeing an ad on social media only to head to the business page and see their organic interactions are entirely silent. Whilst you don’t need tens of thousands of followers for a successful paid strategy, having a robust organic presence is definitely a crucial aspect.

2. Allocate Your Budget

You need to ensure you have the budget to justify running a paid social campaign. It can be hard to estimate exactly how much you need in your budget for social media as the end cost relies on a number of different variables. You should be overestimating the amount required so that you know you aren’t going to leave yourself short on cash.

3. Know Your Audience

Paid social ads are great for targeting your most relevant customers, but to do this effectively, you really need to know your audience inside and out. You can use paid social media ads to target those who follow you, people who have purchased from you in the past or individuals who have already visited your website before.

Target your paid ads to your most relevant audience, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for an effective paid social strategy.

Track and Retarget

When it comes to ensuring the best results, you want to make sure you’re using analytics tools to track the performance of your campaigns so that you can find areas for improvement. When these possible improvements arise, it’s important that you retarget your campaign to show your ads to the most relevant users, especially those who are already familiar with your business.

There’s no right or wrong time to implement paid ads into your marketing strategy; it’s important to keep these factors in mind before you dive straight into the world of paid ads on socials.

Seeking advice from social media marketing experts may help you decide when it’s the right time to expand your strategy to include paid social media ads.

https://thegoodmarketer.co.uk/what-we-do/facebook-advertising/