Ads are called different names on most social channels, but in the end they are fulfilling the same purpose. On each platform you can set up an advertisement directly from the post to increase engagement, or set up a more advanced ad through the social channel’s advertising platform.
Facebook & Instagram
A “boosted” post is the most basic advertising you can do on Facebook. They are created by allocating advertising budget to a post already on your business page. When you choose to “boost” an already existing post, more people will see it in their news feed. Boosted or promoted posts are typically used when the goal is to increase audience engagement such as post likes, shares and comments. If you’re looking for a more customized approach to advertising, Facebook Ads are the way to go.
Facebook Ads are a more advanced way to advertise on Facebook, and require a Facebook Ads Manager account - also known as Facebook Business Manager. Facebook ads offer you the greatest number of ad options; and the style you choose will depend upon your marketing objective. These options include:
- Brand awareness
- Reach
- Traffic
- Engagement
- App Installs
- Video views
- Lead generation
- Messages
- Conversions
- Catalog sales
- Store visits
Twitter
Like most social media platforms, Twitter allows users to promote Tweets directly from a post that's already been sent out. Another easy option to get better engagement for your Twitter account is to use Twitter Promote Mode so each Tweet will automatically be advertised to other users.
Our team prefers advertising through Twitter Ads, which offers the most detailed targeting options of all of the social advertising platforms; you can reach people by location, keywords, followers, behaviors, interests and more. Twitter Ads let you promote already-posted tweets, scheduled tweets or create a new Tweet on the spot. To do so all you need to do is visit Twitter Ads Manager.
From there you will be prompted to select the objective of your campaign. These include:
- App installs
- Followers
- Tweet engagements
- Promoted video views
- Website clicks or conversions
- App re-engagements
- In-stream video views (pre-roll)
- Awareness
Next, you can set up your daily (or lifetime) budget and targeting criteria - namely, if you want to target by interests, followers or keywords. The difference? Targeting by interest and followers allows you to create a list of Twitter usernames, and then target those users whose interests are similar to the interests of those users’ followers. Targeting by keywords allows you to reach people that search, tweet about, or engage with specific keywords.
LinkedIn
Similar to Facebook, you can advertise on LinkedIn through their specific advertising platform, or simply by sponsoring a post from your page. Their Campaign Manager is a great tool and works best when your goal is to target professionals in a certain area or specific field since LinkedIn offers detailed information about careers. We mostly use LinkedIn advertising to promote our job openings or when we have industry-specific blogs we want other digital marketing professionals to see.
Pinterest
A promoted Pin is simply a Pin that you pay to promote so more people will see it. Although Pinterest doesn’t offer as specific targeting options like other social media channels, it’s still important to narrow down your audience as much as you can. You can get to the ads option through the plus icon at the top right-hand corner, or by promoting a pin right after pinning.