John SammonAuthor:John Sammon
Updated on 4/4/2023

If you have found success through traditional forms of pay-per-click marketing, or are looking for new channels to help bring in leads, paid social media could be the answer.

Our team of paid marketing experts have 25+ years of collective experience in monitoring, running, and managing campaigns on various networks to help your ads get in front of your ideal customer. Below we share some tips and strategies on how to make the most of paid social media channels. If you are looking for services to help you run or manage your paid social campaigns, please feel free to contact our team via the form on the right. We look forward to hearing from you!

What Is Paid Social Media Marketing and How Does It Work?

 

Defining Paid Social Media

Paid social media is a form of digital marketing that displays sponsored advertising content on popular social media platforms with the intention of targeting a particular audience.

PPC advertising, branded content, and display ads are all examples of effective methods of paid social media. Marketers use this form of digital advertising to obtain new subsets of customers and because it provides your ads with a guaranteed reach.

How Does Paid Social Media Work?

Now that you have a clear definition of paid social media, how does it work? Unlike traditional marketing platforms, social media gives you the ability to target your advertising in a much more efficient manner. These targeted ads are directed at custom audiences, which increases exposure for your brand. Paid social media requires the purchase of ad space to promote your business to broader audiences.

The Benefits of Paid Social Media

Implementing an effective paid social media strategy is crucial when it comes to boosting your marketing efforts. From increasing brand exposure to generating traffic and leads, a well-structured campaign can drive immediate results for your business. Here are some of the other benefits of a paid social media campaign:

  • Many impressions – Think about all the people who are on social media. How many people do you yourself know who are on social media in some way? What if you knew that all those people, and the people they knew, could see your ad? With a high volume of users, you can ensure your ads will be seen by many, and targeted to those who are relevant.
  • Expansive targeting – With a focus on interests, occupation, age, and more, you can reach a wide array of potential customers in social media marketing, which allows you to experiment with different groups to see which approach works best for you.
  • Low cost per click – One of the best parts about paid social media is that it is relatively cheap, with CPCs ranging between $0.68 and $2.50 (according to Hootsuite), meaning it’s a great place to market if you are on a budget.
  • Variety of usage – Most pay-per-click efforts are usually made with the goal of getting more leads. But with social media, you can use it as leverage to expand in other areas such as followers, page likes/follows, email subscribers, and more.
  • Unique ad types – When it comes to more traditional paid marketing, there aren’t many types of ads you can run. However, given that each social media platform is built differently, you have the ability to run unique ads, whether they are tweets, photos, videos, etc., all based off the platform you choose.

FAQs About Paid Social Media Marketing

Our team wants you to have a clear understanding of paid social media so that you can use it effectively to grow your business online. To help you understand our paid social media services better, here are some frequently asked questions we often receive:

I Get PPC and CPC Mixed Up – What’s the Difference?

PPC stands for pay-per-click, and CPC stands for cost-per-click. PPC is the overall term we use for paid marketing, while CPC is a part of pay-per-click marketing and denotes how much money it costs when someone clicks on your ad.

What If the Audience We Target Doesn’t Generate Leads?

Don’t fret – if we see that something isn’t working, we will be 100% transparent with you and give you our suggested strategy on how to move forward and how we should shift gears. Our goal is to bring you results, and it’s likely that adjustments will need to be made along the way, which is what our PPC specialists are trained to do.

How Will You Be Able to Show Results?

In our monthly reports, we not only will send you the most important metrics of your campaign, such as impressions, leads, conversion rate, and more, but we will also send you a list of the leads you acquired, which you can use to cross-reference with your sales team to see what has closed, showing your return on investment in our services.

Can I advertise on both social media and search engines?

Yes! Like we mentioned before, paid social media is a great way to visually show off your product or service. Additionally, pay-per-click advertising on search engines is a very effective way to produce leads and to expand your reach.

Paid Social Media Channels We Manage

We’d be happy to help your company expand its reach within:

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest

Tips to Consider for Creating Successful Paid Social Media Campaigns

When set up properly, paid social media can generate qualified leads for your business. With an effective strategy in place, results are seen almost immediately. If you want to increase the reach of your ads, enhance brand awareness, and gain detailed market insights, paid social media marketing is the solution for you. Check out some of our best tips below:

Outline Campaign Objectives and Goals

The first step is setting up a paid social media campaign is defining your campaign objective and marketing goals. Are you trying to increase exposure for your brand? Generate more traffic? Maybe improve your conversion rate? Determine your top goals and use the various social media platforms to establish your campaign parameters.

Know Your Audience

If you want to get the most out of your campaigns and budget, you’ll want to narrow down your audience. If the audience you’re targeting is too broad, your budget will be devoured by unwanted clicks and you’re likely to receive less-than-quality leads.

Start by researching your customer persona and interests. Who is your ideal customer? What are they searching for? Once you’ve found your optimal audience, you can use different audience targeting tools on your selected platform to refine the group of people that your ads reach. Targeting can be modified by geographic location, user interest and intent, age, income level, language, and more.

Choose the Right Media Platforms

Once you’ve outlined your objective and defined your target audience, you’ll be able to choose the best-suited media platform for your marketing campaign. Before choosing, make sure to research each channel so that you can be sure your choice aligns with your overall goals and audience.

Paid social media platforms can include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and more. When determining which you should utilize, consider your buyer persona and which platforms your intended audience most frequently use. For example, if you want to reach working professionals, especially those in senior-level positions, LinkedIn would most likely be the best way to do so.

Create Strong Media Content

If you want a user to click on your ad and eventually convert, you’ll need captivating ad content. Depending on the platform or platforms you decide to use, ad format will vary. Whether you’re running video ads on YouTube, images on Instagram, or using copy on Twitter, make sure that the content appeals to your intended audience and sends a clear message of what you are offering.

Pro tip: Try out A/B testing once the ads are running so you can determine which ad format or versions performs the best.

Set Your Budget

Paid social media is one of the most cost-effective forms of digital marketing. Like PPC, you’re only charged when a user clicks on your advertisement. A larger budget means a larger reach; however, campaigns with smaller budgets can also be successful if optimized correctly. Make sure to set a realistic budget that can stretch through the course of the month so that you are not overspending too quickly.

Ongoing Management

Once your paid social campaigns are active and optimized, regular maintenance is essential. This can include monitoring budgets, ad performance, traffic, and lead quality.

What’s Included in Our Paid Social Services

When you choose to partner up with our pay-per-click marketing agency, you can expect us to perform a variety of strategies and tactics to ensure your paid social media campaign brings in results. Here are some of the things you can expect:

  • Campaign management
  • Budget monitoring
  • Strategic targeting suggestions
  • Unique ad writing and design
  • Google Analytics integration
  • Conversion tracking
  • Monthly reporting on ROI
  • Much more

Who Is Sixth City Marketing?

We are a group of digital marketing professionals located in Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Pittsburgh who have 25+ years of collective experience helping businesses of all shapes and sizes get more leads through improving their online presence.

Paid Social Media for Any Industry

Over the 12+ years we’ve been in business, our team has had experience working with various diverse clients, providing successful paid social media strategies and campaign management. Some of the industries we have helped include:

Grow Your Business Through Digital Marketing

We are not only paid social media experts, but also have years of experience helping businesses find success through our other digital marketing services, mixing together a variety of strategies to find the perfect recipe for success.

We would be happy to also help you with:

“I recently consulted with Sixth City Marketing to learn more about internet marketing – especially search engine optimization, social media marketing and pay per click marketing. I found their experience and knowledge in these areas can turn my ideas into revenue and explained the execution in ways I clearly understood.” – Eric Gulledge, Sherwin-Williams

Meet – and Exceed – Your Company’s Goals With Paid Social Media Marketing

Now that you have a stronger knowledge of paid social media advertising and how it works, it’s time to start crafting your paid social strategy. If you have any additional questions on a potential campaign, reach out to us at Sixth City today!

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