There are tons of different growth marketing strategies and customer acquisition channels, but today, social media advertising is one of the best methods to use when it comes to driving sales and acquiring customers.
Social media advertising or social media targeting is when advertisements are served to users on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and Snapchat to name few. Social networks utilise user information in order to provide highly relevant advertisements that are based on interactions within specific platforms.
Doing so by way of social media ads is highly targeted, meaning if audience research is done properly and personas are designed and built wisely, social media advertising can provide high ROIs, increase conversion rates and generate sales with a lower customer acquisition cost (CAC).
Benefits of Advertising on Social Media Channels
Social media advertising is the best form of advertising when it comes to quick and decent ROI (if done it correctly). This is down to the fact that many other marketing channels require a lot of input, time and effort to see the results.
For example – SEO or content marketing. This calls for a lot of time, effort and resources to see a decent result. While some channels give quick results and can be scaled, some cannot – it depends on your niche, such as influencer marketing.
A lot depends on the stage of your business or startup. If your online business or ecommerce store is new or in its early days, it’s better to start with paid advertising or social media advertising in order to establish which audiences and personas your online business or ecommerce store is resonating with.
Once you know your target market and audiences, you can start bringing in new channels such as SEO, content marketing and referral marketing.
When it comes to social media advertising, you can have consistent sales coming in from day one. You can also A/B test multiple aspects, optimise and increase your overall conversion rate.
For many online businesses and ecommerce websites, it’s extremely important to have the ability to immediately (and consistently) bring traffic in and acquire new customers. Using a robust sales funnel, marketing infrastructure and an omnichannel strategy approach, these businesses can make margins over time.
Another benefit of advertising through social media? You can grow user-generated content for your ads – such as video testimonials or product reviews.
Need Help?
Here at GrowthRabbit, we’ve been working on a marketing model that enables small companies to reach their target audience at a fraction of the amount they’re currently spending. For instance, we were able to reduce one startup customer’s acquisition costs by 53.96% in under 90 days.
Is this something you think you could improve on?
If yes, please book a free consultation and we’ll gladly give you a call to explain further.
3 Best Types of Social Media Advertising
As you can see, there are quite a few paid social media advertising channels within each social media advertising types. Here, you can serve your ads – but before you dive in, you must understand your audience, niche and where they hang out.
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3 Best Social Media Channels for Ecommerce Advertising in 2019
With these paid social ad channels, there is no limit when it comes to scaling. You can scale paid ads, campaign crazily and of course, generate a positive ROI.
Let’s look at all 3 social media advertising channels in more detail, with a focus on KPIs and some example ads.
Facebook Advertising
There’s no two ways about it – Facebook is a big deal. It’s got around twomonthly users, and it’s a potential gold mine for advertisers and business owners who are looking to generate leads and sales. Ultimately, you can reach anyone, anywhere in the world.
It’s one of the best social media advertising channels for ecommerce businesses. No matter what niche or industry you are in, your target market and audiences are there on Facebook.
Through Facebook advertising, you can zero in and carry out laser targeting. Advertisers can target users by way of filters that allow them to specifically aim by location, job description, interests, behavior activities, travelling activities and special days (such as birthdays and anniversaries) to name a few. The real sauce? Lookalike audiences and retargeting ads.
, a Lookalike Audience is a similar audience to your current choice of users – using a Lookalike Audience is a smart way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they have similar interests to your best existing customers.
Retargeting ads: This is online advertising that brings back website visitors who haven’t converted on their first visit to an ecommerce store. When a person visits your ecommerce shop, a cookie is placed on their browser. This cookie allows you to place an ad when these visitors check out other websites on the internet.
KPIs for Facebook Advertising
KPIs help you determine whether your ads are successful or not. They help you measure the success of your paid Facebook ad campaigns, and your overall social media advertising strategy.
Some Facebook Ad Examples For Inspiration
Here are some examples of Facebook ads we designed and managed for our clients 🙂 Enjoy!
Instagram Advertising
As you might know, Instagram advertising falls under the Facebook Ads network. It was acquired by Facebook, and is now part of the Facebook family. It’s very much a photo and video heavy platform.
Key things to note about Instagram – it has around monthly users and it has a higher engagement rate than Facebook.
On Instagram, advertisers can do carousel, video, single image and Instagram story ads – pretty much the same as what you can do with Facebook Ads.
You can also create a Lookalike Audience and use this especially for Instagram. The same goes for retargeting ads – you can create a custom audience of people who visited your ecommerce store or engaged with your Instagram ads but are yet to make a purchase.
KPIs for Instagram Advertising
It’s the same as Facebook advertising – in fact, you can apply these four KPI measures to any social media advertising channel.
Need Help?
Here at GrowthRabbit, we’ve been working on a marketing model that enables small companies to reach their target audience at a fraction of the amount they’re currently spending. For instance, we were able to reduce one startup customer’s acquisition costs by 53.96% in under 90 days.
Is this something you think you could improve on?
If yes, please book a free consultation and we’ll gladly give you a call to explain further.
Some Instagram Ads Example For Inspiration
Check out some examples of Instagram ads we designed and managed for our clients!
Pinterest Advertising
Much like Instagram, Pinterest is visual and very image heavy. Pinterest could be described as a visual search engine. Users intentionally use the platform to find and purchase creative products.
The unique thing about Pinterest is its audience. Did you know that it’s highly targeted towards women? are female! Addtionally, 50% of Pinterest users are based in the USA.
, Pinterest ads and Pinterest-Promoted Pins help you reach people while they actively decide what to do or buy next.
Promoted Pins don’t interrupt or distract Pinners. If anything, they make the Pinterest experience even better, because they help people find new products and inspiration.
Use Pinterest advertising to build awareness, drive consideration and generate sales – all of these activities will help you grow your ecommerce store.
KPIs for Pinterest Advertising
It’s the same as Facebook and Instagram advertising, and, as previously mentioned, you can apply these four KPI measures to any social media advertising channels.
Some Pinterest Ad Examples and Promoted Pin Examples For Inspiration
Here are some examples of promoted pins – enjoy!
Final Thoughts
Now you know why social media advertising is one of the best ways to move forward if you want to grow your ecommerce store or online business faster. However, it is important that you implement your social media advertising strategy in the right way. Meaning, you validate your audiences, personas and even social media advertising channels.
Bear in mind that most store owners are not marketing experts, professional advertisers or customer acquisition experts. This is completely fine, but leads us to a very important question – how do you start when it comes to paid social ads or social media advertising?
It really depends on the individual situation and if you, as a business, have the resources to start driving traffic, leads and new sales. If you do have a marketing budget and need immediate results and want to make your ad campaigns profitable from day one, then hiring an expert or marketing agency specialised in social media advertising is your best bet.
Need Help?
Here at GrowthRabbit, we’ve been working on a marketing model that enables small companies to reach their target audience at a fraction of the amount they’re currently spending. For instance, we were able to reduce one startup customer’s acquisition costs by 53.96% in under 90 days.
Is this something you think you could improve on?
If yes, please book a free consultation and we’ll gladly give you a call to explain further.
