Okay, so you’ve tried your hand at social media marketing, only to realize you have NO idea how to tell whether it’s really helping your business. Well, you’re not alone. This is tricky stuff, and according to some studies, as many as 61% of marketers struggle to measure ROI for social media marketing campaigns entirely.

But not all hope is lost. There’s another way to take your business social and measure success. You probably have already guessed where we’re going with this. Drum roll, please… paid social media advertising. Precisely why we want to talk about the 7 questions to ask before running ads on social media.

Depending on the budget you’re willing to have allocated towards your marketing efforts, you may be more or less inclined to spend money towards an ad without much thought given. If you want to make sure you’re doing your due diligence there are some questions you should ask yourself before running said ads.

Without further ado, let’s get into it!

Here are 7 questions to ask before running ads on social media.

The Pay-to-Play Social Game

BUT FIRST, let’s break down what exactly all of this means. Simply put, paid social or promoted social content is paying to have your social messages or ads play to a specific kind of group of social media users. This tactic really helps businesses target consumers, track costs and ROI, and measure responses. It’s relatively inexpensive, and personally, we think that it often gives Google Ads a run for its money.

To add to this, paid social ads tend to perform well because they:

1. Only look like other social posts-  they prevent what marketers sometimes call “banner blindness.”
2. They can be targeted precisely based on whatever criteria you choose.
3. They are surprisingly easy to set up and manage, and encourage engagement through comments, replies, and likes.

Okay, whew! Now that we’ve cleared that up, and to be sure you’re ready for pay-to-play social media, let’s take a look at the questions all small business owners should ask before launching a new social media marketing campaign.

Ask: Why Are You Launching This Campaign?

Before you even log into your social accounts, design an ad, or create a copy, you need to address the “why” of your campaign by defining your budget and goal.

Every successful and measurable campaign has a goal. Hey, sometimes it even has two goals. We know – don’t get crazy. But seriously, we mean it. For example, your primary goal may be to acquire more Instagram followers. The hope of turning those followers into customers later is your secondary goal. As you define your goals, be sure to note down how you’ll measure them.

Something important to remember is that your social campaign budget should account for the cost of designing social ads, writing engaging copy, and running those ads on a social platform. Keep in mind, the success of your campaign rides on the quality of your ads and their total ability to stand out from other posts your audience encounters.

Ask: Who Is Your Audience 

Hands down, one of the benefits of a paid social campaign is the ability to target the users you’re looking for. A social campaign often hinges on understanding your exact target audience. The more you know about them— what they want, who they are, what they’re looking for, what they need, etc —the more likely your social campaign will reach them.

If you want to reach prospective customers on social, start with your existing customers. Why do they do business with you? What need do you meet for them? How much money do they typically spend with you? What products are most popular among them? Where do they live? And what social channels do they typically use?

If you find yourself  struggling to answer these questions, ask your customers directly. You should be talking to your customers directly anyway, and this is a good opportunity to initiate conversation. You can chat with them as they come into your shop, or drop them a quick email survey. Alternatively, if you don’t despise the phone, you can call your most valuable customers.

Just be mindful that customers regularly experience survey fatigue, so figure out a way to reward participants or make your survey fun and quick, and painless.

Ask: Where IS Your Audience, Anyway? 

Fortunately for you, many of the social platforms most popular among consumers—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn—offer paid campaigns. Before you even decide which platforms to include in your campaign, make sure to check out the advertising rules and conditions of those platforms.

As you select your social channels, set measurable and realistic expectations for the channels you’re interested in.

Ask: How Can You Reach Your Audience? 

We hate to break it to you, but you’re not off the hook once you create a paid social campaign. It doesn’t end there – no sir, not even close. You should consider the following five tactics to make sure your campaigns have actually made an impact.

• You should have a landing page. What’s a landing page, you ask? It is a page that users reach when clicking the link in your ad that speaks directly to the population you’re targeting in the paid social posts you’re running. This is a great place to elaborate on the details of your product, promotion, or campaign. It can be something as simple as a page on your website or a unique page you build that sits outside your site.
• Speaking of a website and/or landing page, blog posts are quite effective for articulating more about your campaign, product, or service. One pro tip is to be sure that you have a writer at-the-ready to help you craft a post that engages your readers and cuts through the social content in an already saturated market.
• Oh, the power of the influencer. It’s a mighty one. If you don’t know, social media influencers are users who help customers like yours make decisions about products. This is oftentimes seen with food, wellness, or home and lifestyle. You should reach out, ask them to write about your product, or even participate in a promotional campaign.
• What’s one of the first things you think about when you think about search engines? SEO and keywords? Bingo. Many businesses often forget that social platforms also rely on keywords for searches. When you craft your paid social content, be sure to identify the major keywords users enter when searching for products, services, or businesses like yours and infuse those keywords into your written text.

Ask: What Time is Best? 

Timing is everything, and social media paid advertising is no exception. Whether you’re deciding on a one-time or an ongoing campaign, knowing the best time of day, day of the week, or even month to launch your campaign can change the entire game and mean the difference between a successful campaign and one that… doesn’t perform nearly as well.

The good news is, you can also coordinate with your own promotional schedule. For example if you’ve got holiday promotions coming up, it’s a great time to think about a paid social campaign. If you time it exactly right, it could be perfect for launching your holiday project!

Ask: What Should My Budget Be? 

No matter how much you hate to spend money, it’s worth noting that social media advertising is much cheaper compared to other traditional advertising methods you can be doing. Since these ads are flexible, they don’t require much money, and you can adjust the amount spent depending on the performance of your ad.

For Facebook and Twitter specifically, you can choose from two types of ad budget  – daily or a lifetime ad budget. The only difference is that a daily ad budget requires constant monitoring from your end and you will not be able to choose a particular time when you would like the ad to run. In the lifetime ad budget, you will be able to choose a start and end date total and set your budget plan accordingly.

Heads up, a thing to keep in mind is the choices you make. For example, as your target audience and the platform you choose will affect your overall budget requirement.

Ask: How will I evaluate the performance of the ads?

Just like any other form of advertising, evaluating the performance and results is important for ROI optimization. You should know for fact exactly how many people actually saw your ad and what was the result of them seeing it. One of the biggest advantages of social media is that you can track almost everything with the various tracking tools available.

Most platforms also have the option of real-time metrics that provide immediate performance review and feedback. Furthermore, Google Analytics is also there for evaluating the success of your social media advertisements.

Ready. Set. Launch.

Once you’ve ran through these questions and feel confident in your answers, it’s time to start the work on your campaign.

Before you do though, the most important thing you need to think about is security. Ask yourself who will have access to your social accounts? Make sure that it’s only trusted members and you can change their permissions if their behavior or employment status changes. Believe us, we have heard nightmare stories with Plenty of headaches for businesses with social media errors. This includes mistakes from accidental posts,  to having disgruntled employees lock their supervisors out of their accounts with password changes. Just be careful and mindful always.

Ready to launch your social media campaign? Rock and roll! We here at Dalex would love to help you with every step of your social media journey. Visit us at www.dalexsocials.com or www.dalexdesigngroup.com to learn more and get started!