What is social media advertising and why should you care about it
In the age of social media, social advertising has become extremely popular. A study from 2012 showed that social media was now a key component to how customers discover products and services as well as their buying decision. In other words, social ads are essentially product endorsements made by friends.
When social ads first emerged, they typically featured a brand’s social media page and encouraged social sharing. More recently, social ads have become interactive mini-campaigns that allow users to engage with a brand by endorsing products themselves or even entering contests for prizes such as free goods and services (and the chance to win these prizes is often the sole motivator of participation). This type of social advertising is what social media marketers call social advertising or social media advertising, and it can be extremely effective.
How Social Media Advertising Works
Social media advertising is a social campaign where friends endorse the same brand or product. The social ad campaign can be as simple as encouraging social shares from friends for a product post, to readers being invited to take part in a mini social contest for prizes such as free products and services. No matter what type of social ad you create, social ad campaigns are designed to encourage social proof. That is, social ads are meant to make potential consumers feel more comfortable in buying a product or service by showing that other social media users have already made the purchase.
A social ad campaign can take the form of an interactive advertisement where customers themselves are encouraged to interact with the brand via social media.
The social ad campaign can be as simple as encouraging social shares from friends for a product post, to readers being invited to take part in a mini social contest for prizes such as free products and services.
No matter what type of social ad you create, social ad campaigns are designed to encourage social proof. That is, social ads are meant to make potential consumers feel more comfortable in buying a product or service by showing that other social media users have already made the purchase.
Top 3 benefits of social media advertising
1. Their social nature makes social advertising more effective than other forms of marketing. The social aspect creates an opportunity for social selling, which is a type of selling that uses social media as the platform to build relationships and engage with prospects and customers.
2. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have large user bases, so social media advertising is useful for reaching a large audience. For example, social platforms have over 1 billion active users, so social advertising is likely to reach your target demographics.
3. Social media advertisements can be tracked and measured, which makes social media advertising an ideal medium for businesses that rely on digital marketing to report their social stats through social ads.