It’s safe to say that social media has come a long way since the release of MySpace in the mid 2000’s.
Platforms once used to simply like and share photos, and keep in touch with connections have now transformed into a digital ecosystem that permeates every aspect of our lives.
In fact, the statistics speak for themselves.
Adults now spend nearly 2.5 hours per day on social media, immersing themselves in a virtual world of endless possibilities.
But what does this mean for businesses? How can they tap into this vast sea of potential customers and drive website traffic and sales?
But first, what exactly is social media advertising and why is it good for businesses to use this approach?
In its essence, social media advertising is the strategic practice of promoting products, services, or brands through paid advertisements on various social media platforms.
It involves leveraging the vast user base and advanced targeting capabilities of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others to reach and engage with specific audiences.
Unlike traditional advertising methods, social media advertising offers a unique advantage by allowing businesses to target their ads based on specific demographics, interests, behaviors, and even past online interactions.
This level of granularity enables marketers to tailor their messages and deliver them directly to the most relevant individuals, maximizing the chances of capturing their attention and driving desired actions.
Social media advertising encompasses a variety of formats, including display ads, video ads, sponsored posts, and influencer collaborations.
These ads can appear seamlessly within a user’s social media feed, integrating with the platform’s content and appearing alongside posts from friends, family, or accounts they follow.
This contextual placement helps ads blend in naturally and enhances the likelihood of user engagement.
The obvious uptake of social media is undeniable and is projected to reach 4.89 billion users worldwide by 2025.
No wonder 91% of retail businesses have an active presence on 2 or more social media platforms.
Want help maximising your social media advertising impact?
How to use social media advertising to drive traffic and sales to your website?
Complete your profile
It might sound simple but you’d be surprised by how many businesses have incomplete profiles on their social media platforms.
Filling in and completing your information is crucial because it is the first thing people see when they click on your social media page and will help them to get to know you and your business as well at how to get in touch.
Adding your website address will help drive people to your website and potentially lead to a sale.
Completing your profile will also enhance your discoverability as many social media platforms allow people to find businesses based on keywords, categories or specific criteria.
Doing this will ensure your potential customers can find you easily.
Blog posts
This is where you need to use your posts on social media to promote what’s on your website and blog posts are one of the highest ranking additions you can add to your website.
Studies have shown that companies with a successfully-run blog generates 67% more leads on a monthly basis, than those who do not have one.
Creating blogs and sharing them on your website and social media helps to develop industry authority.
By consistently creating high-quality, informative and valuable content, businesses can position themselves as trusted authoritise.
When this is then shared on social media, the blog content reaches a wider audience, boosting the business’s credibility and reputation as an industry leader.
Blogs also play a significant role in improving a business’s search engine rankings.
Search engines value fresh, relevant, and valuable content, and regularly publishing blog posts aligns with these criteria.
When businesses promote their blog posts on social media, they increase the chances of receiving backlinks, social shares, and engagement, all of which positively impact SEO efforts.
Post at your audiences peak time
It’s imperative that you are active when your audience is active.
By posting content during peak times when your target audience is most active on social media, you can maximize the visibility of your posts which increases the likelihood of the content appearing in users’ feeds, catching their attention, and generating higher engagement rates.
If you are running social media advertising campaigns, posting during peak times is crucial for optimizing ad performance.
By aligning your ads with the periods of highest user activity, you increase the chances of your target audience seeing and engaging with the ads which can lead to higher click-through rates, improved ad relevance, and ultimately better return on ad spend (ROAS).
It is also good to think about time zones. Is your business based in the UK but selling to people in America? You wouldn’t want your posts to go live when everybody in America is sleeping!
Add social share buttons to your website
You mustn’t forget to make it easy for people to share your content on social media and social share buttons are great that!
Social share buttons empower businesses to increase content visibility, enhance brand exposure, leverage social proof, drive website traffic, improve user experience, and gain valuable social media metrics.
By facilitating easy sharing of website content, you can tap into the power of social media and leverage your audience’s networks to extend your reach, build brand authority, and drive meaningful engagement.
An addition to this, by enabling this sharing functionality, you will expand the reach of your content beyond your immediate audience.
As visitors share content via social media, it becomes visible to their connections, potentially reaching a broader audience and attracting new visitors to the website.
Optimise your CTA’s (call to action)
Calls-to-action literally tell a user exactly what you want them to do.
They’re very useful to convince your audience to click-through to your website from social media.
Mastering and including effective CTAs in social media advertising is vital for businesses to drive conversions, direct user behavior, increase click-through rates, improve ad relevance and user experience, encourage social sharing, facilitate testing and optimization, and track and measure results.
Writing a compelling CTA encourages users to take a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, downloading a resource, or requesting more information.
By including clear CTAs in your social media ads, you can guide potential customers towards conversion and increase the likelihood of achieving their marketing objectives.
CTAs serve as powerful tools to guide users through the customer journey and achieve desired outcomes, ultimately contributing to the success of social media advertising campaigns.
Engage with your audience
Social media is all about being ‘social’.
You need to consistently engage directly with your audience to build your presence.
When you successfully do so, this could be very effective in driving traffic to your website and also improve your audience’s opinion of your business as a brand.
Being authentic in your engagement is also important – don’t try to type like a robot. People like to get to know your personality and more about who they are buying from.
Engaging with audiences on social media is important for businesses to build stronger relationships, enhance customer satisfaction, increase brand visibility and reach, encourage user-generated content, gain insights and feedback, manage reputation and crisis communication, and drive brand advocacy.
By actively participating in social media conversations, you can establish a positive brand image, foster customer loyalty, and ultimately drive business growth.
Improve your social media strategy today
There are many benefits to social media advertising, from brand recognition and audience engagement to customer service, competitor or industry analysis, and generating ROI.
Consider which points sound most helpful to your business, make a list of the top three, and prioritize the order of importance to get started right away.
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