Being a marketer in the old days was all about TV spots, billboards, and doing in-person activations as a brand. This implied big budget requirements and the return on investment was not as efficient as we might have wished. The reason? We couldn’t reach the right people effectively but rather advertise to wide pools of people and hope we touch someone that might be suited to become a customer.
But then social media advertising came into the picture, following the rise of digital ads on search engines like Google. This switch to digital advertising shaped the marketing and business world as a whole forever. With social media ads, it’s like we’re going straight to the customer, instead of waiting for them to find us!
Without a doubt, advertising on social media and using social media ads has emerged as the most successful strategy for creating brand recognition and bringing our products and services in front of new potential customers. By using targeted advertisements on various platforms, we, as businesses, can reach a specific audience that ensures our social media ads are seen by the right people.
But with so many advertising options available, this begs to question…
Which social media channel should we incorporate into our marketing strategies?
Over the years, various platforms have dominated the social media landscape. But as of 2023, the battle for supremacy in the realm of social media advertising is between Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Before diving into our path to analyzing them, we have to acknowledge that all of them differ from each other. Whether it is the target audience, the platform’s advertising tools, or even the cost, we find it hard to choose a real winner. It all depends on you and your company’s needs!
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So we’ll start with the veteran - Facebook Ads
Realistically speaking, Facebook holds the crown for the social media platform with the highest user database. Being the creator of the first social media platform meant a lot for the company that is nowadays known as Meta. Because of that, it has a wider user pool than all the other social networks.
In fact, the platform holds more than 3 billion users, which is incredible. As a result, for many years, it has been considered the go-to advertising platform. But times have changed! While there are still a large number of people who are still active, we can’t deny the decrease in its popularity among younger generations. Everyone under 40 years old today is more likely to enjoy other social media platforms as their main go-to network and that means a lot in terms of potential audiences for brands that choose to advertise on Facebook
And the younger the generation, the less likely they are to be found scrolling on Facebook. But that’s just because Generation Z and younger ones have migrated to other social media platforms, which are more suitable for their needs. So, right now, if you plan on targeting young people, you might think twice before choosing Facebook. And soon, Facebook might be redundant for advertising purposes.
The Prodigy of Meta - Instagram Ads
As you might have guessed, Instagram is the place where you’ll find the most people from Generation Z and Millennials. Instagram was created in 2010 and just 2 years later Mark Zuckerberg acquired it for an astounding sum of $1 billion.
As time passed, Instagram became more and more appealing to people and it proved to be one of the best acquisition decisions ever made because if it wasn’t for Instagram, Meta would not be that relevant in today’s social media environment.
But is it rewarding to advertise on Instagram? As we know, Instagram is the platform with the biggest engagement rate, with almost 40% of its users opening the app daily. But on Instagram, the concept of Influencer Marketing was taken to different heights. Marketing through Instagram has evolved enormously once brands saw the potential that the newly formed influencers were bringing to the table.
These influencers had a wide range of followers who liked, trusted, and engaged with them. And it only made sense for businesses to try and work with these people that were becoming semi-starts on social media, to get access to their loyal followers base. When an influencer presented the item of a brand as something they used, followers were more likely to give it a try themselves.
Even more so, Instagram allows anyone with a business account to boost posts or start advertising using Ads Manager. The platform is so popular for its visually appealing content, so having a bunch of quality pictures taken showcasing your product and then boosting them with a sum of money directly in the app to reach wider audiences can prove highly effective. And when you think that Advertising through Ads Manager allows for a full campaign setup and optimization experience, plus it has cross-platform integration with other Meta products, like Facebook and Messenger.
Here are TikTok Ads
TikTok is a social phenomenon that took the world by storm during the 2020 lockdown. It’s incredible to see how fast the app went from a newly born social media app available only in China in 2016 to being the most used app daily 4 years later. In such a short time Tiktok has managed to gather more than 1 billion people as active users, and that brings huge potential for brands to market themselves.
On Tiktok we get the chance to create short-form engaging videos. And the good aspect of it is that no matter how many followers you have, you can go viral with a post. That is because on TikTok, using the For You section, users get the chance to see trending videos and recommendations from the advanced algorithm behind TikTok. And if you’re not satisfied with the results of organic reach, there is also paid advertising on TikTok.
Social media ads on TikTok are as easy to set up as it is to create a video and post it on the platform. With just a few taps on a phone screen, you can reach huge pools of potential customers. And we say huge pools because TikTok is not a social media app for edgy teenagers anymore. All demographics can be found on the platform.
LinkedIn Ads and its business-oriented audiences
On LinkedIn, topics of discussion, conversations, and opinions are shared constantly. But the special aspect of this social media app is that it’s oriented towards business. Every user profile acts as a little CV, while for companies a LinkedIn page is a perfect opportunity to interact from the position of an employer. On this app content is supposed to bring real value, to spark interesting and useful conversations, and business ideas and philosophies to be shared.
But is there room for advertising? In fact, there is! The app is mostly suited for advertising jobs, or services and products that are high more expensive. It doesn’t even make sense to advertise an average restaurant on LinkedIn, when the cost-per-click is higher than on other platforms, like for example on LinkedIn the average CPC is almost 6$ while on Facebook is less than 1$. But when you offer a digital marketing course that might actually be of interest to the business-oriented audience and sells for $200-300 it makes sense to pay more per click.
All in all, Social Media Advertising has grown so much that nowadays it offers the possibility for everyone to reach the right audience for their business. Social media as a whole offers brands the chance to shape and define their brand, engage with their customers, and be relatable, ending up with higher brand awareness. When you top it off with paid advertising it looks like Social Media Marketing is crucial for any business that wants to be relevant in today’s digital environment.
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