Social media advertising doesn’t need to break the bank

For many small businesses, paid social advertising has always been aspirational. Quarterly ad spend and access to company ad reps who can help with best practices could potentially cost upward of tens of thousands of dollars.

But with organic reach shrinking by the day as the social space becomes more cluttered with brands sharing their messages, paid social advertising is suddenly becoming more important and almost necessary to make sure your messages get seen.

What you may not know, though, is the top three social ad platforms all offer self-service options without the hefty price tag. Simply select a budget, even if it’s as little as $50, and you’ll only pay for the engagements your ads receive.

Once you have a budget determined, what about access to those best practices? How will you know where to use those dollars? Here are some tips you may find beneficial to help you get started:

• Facebook (facebook.com/advertising): Popular ad units include page likes (acquire highly targeted and relevant followers), page post engagements (drive impressions, likes, shares, comments on a single post) and click-to-website (drive traffic to a website or landing page). Content that garners the highest engagement includes single posts, general awareness messaging and offers/discounts.
• Twitter (ads.twitter.com): Popular ad units include promoted accounts (acquire highly targeted and relevant followers) and promoted tweets (drive impressions, retweets, favorites, click-throughs of a single tweet). Content that garners the highest engagement includes press releases, articles, and rich media like videos or photos.
• LinkedIn (linkedin.com/ads): Popular ad units include web display/text ads (drive traffic to a website or landing page) and sponsored content (drive impressions, likes, comments, click-throughs on a single post). Content that garners the highest engagement includes blog posts and whitepapers.

Now that you’ve been let in on the secret, get started and good luck!

Sally-Anne Kaminski is manager, marketing communications, at Zebra Technologies Corp.