Social Media Advertising 101: How to Get the Most Out of Your Ad Budget

According to Statista, a total of 4.59 billion people use social media. Users tend to spend 2 hours and 25 minutes daily (on average) on social media platforms.

If you own a business and want to quickly scale your business by reaching out to your potential customers, you must definitely turn your attention to social media advertising. For those who are not aware, social media advertising enables businesses to run paid advertisements on social networks. It is a digital marketing strategy involving spending money to promote content on social media platforms to reach people interested in your business and get them to explore it.

One of the significant benefits of a paid advertising campaign on social media is that it gives your exposure in front of a much larger audience as compared to the people who are currently following you.

We understand it may seem daunting when you decide to opt for social media advertising. Therefore, in this blog, you will get to know the different types of social media ads and how to use them in the most optimum way to attain results that pay off for your business, all while maximizing the amount you spend.

But first, let's understand which social media network to choose to place your ads on.

Which Social Media is Best for Advertising?

Every major social network provides advertising options. But you don't necessarily have to use each one of them. To choose the right social networks to place your ads on, check where your target audience hangs out the most and where they are the most engaged, concentrated, and accessible. Also, see which social media platforms perform well organically for your business. All of this information will help you determine your choice for your social ad campaigns.

Now that you know which social media platform will be the best for your business, it’s time to know the ad types of various social media networks as the first part of our social media advertising 101.

I. Facebook Ads

Facebook ads help you attain the following campaign objectives:

• Awareness: Expand reach or develop brand awareness.

• Consideration: Increase engagement, send traffic to your website, encourage video views or app installs, motivate individuals to communicate with you on Facebook Messenger, or generate leads.

• Conversion: Increase leads or purchases through your app or site or send foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar store.

According to the latest statistics, 1.9 billion daily users access Facebook. From teens to their parents to seniors, all actively use this popular social media platform. Given the precise targeting options offered for such a massive pool of users, Facebook is an apt platform for social media advertising. You can use different types of Facebook ads, such as:

1. Image Ads

Creating an image ad is an effortless process with just a few clicks. All you need to do is boost an existing post featuring an image from your Facebook Page, and you are all set!

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2. Video Ads

Video ads can run in Stories and the News Feed. They also appear as in-stream ads in Facebook videos of a longer length.

Tip: Use these types of ads to showcase a product in action.

3. Poll Ads

A poll ad is a mobile-only Facebook ad format that incorporates a two-option poll to a video or image ad. You can embed different links for the two poll choices.

4. Carousel Ads

A Facebook carousel ad allows you to put up to 10 videos or images to advertise your service or product.

5. Slideshow Ads

A slideshow ad is an ad that generates a compelling video from still images, video clips, and text. In case you are not ready to give video ads a try but want to move beyond static images, you can consider opting for slideshow ads. You can easily create slideshow ads in minutes using AI slideshow maker.

6. Messenger Ads

Messenger ads are the ads you find in the Messenger app (in the chats tab in between conversations).

7. AR Ads

These ads use features such as animation and filters to let individuals interact with your business.

8. Stories Ads

Ā Facebook stories ads are full-screen vertical video format (mobile-only).

9. Dynamic Ads

Here's an example to understand this type of Facebook ad. Suppose a person visited a product page or added a product to their shopping cart on your website. However, they didn't complete the purchase. This is where dynamic ads can prove to be highly useful. You can use dynamic ads to create retargeting ads specific to the product and show it in that person's Facebook feed.

10. Lead Ads

Lead ads are mobile-only ads that make it easy for Facebook users to provide you with their contact information without typing a lot.

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11. Instant Experience Ads

Instant Experience ads are full-screen ad formats that load 15 times faster than compared to a mobile site outside of Facebook.

12. Collection Ads

Applicable only to mobile devices, collection ads let you showcase five videos or images customers can click to purchase a service or a product.

Listen Up: Own a small business? Learn more about Facebook advertising for small businesses.

II. Instagram Ads

Owned by Facebook, Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users.

67% of individuals aged between 18 and 29 use Instagram.

When you talk about Instagram ads, they support the same categories of campaign objectives we discussed about Facebook ads, i.e., Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.

Let's take a closer look at the different types of Instagram ads:

1. Photo Ads

Photo ads feature a photo, description, and a call-to-action.

2. Video Ads

Video ads help provide a closer look at your offerings in a much more engaging way. You can create long or short format videos as per your requirement.

3. Carousel Ads

This ad possesses a series of videos or images users can easily swipe through. Use these ads to display a collection of related products.

4. Collection Ads

Collection ads look the same as a traditional Instagram post. The only difference is a little shopping bag at the bottom-left corner, which, when clicked, redirects you to the products showcased in the post.

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5. Shopping Ads

These ads are somewhat similar to collection ads. When you tap on the image displayed in it, a link shows up, which takes you to the page where you can purchase the item.

6. Explore Ads

These ads appear in the Explore tab, an area of Instagram where users can access fresh content and discover new accounts, all tailored according to their Instagram usage habits. These ads can be both videos and images.

7. Story Ads

A story ad is a full-screen-sized video or image that you choose. It also has a swipe-up call-to-action directing the user to your website or profile.‍

Tip: Get a good professional photo editing app for amazing photos to build an awesome social media presence or to promote your business through social media.

8. IGTV Ads

IGTV ads are video ads that play when people watch an IGTV video from their feed.

9. Reels Ads

These are the ads shown in between Instagram Reels and can be up to 30 seconds.

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Tip: Use Lightroom Instagram Presets to get the desired effect on your shots, that too, in a minimum amount of time.

III. LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is a platform that is far more business-oriented as compared to the other social networks discussed in this post. It provides targeting options based on job title, seniority, and other professional qualifications.

Let's understand the LinkedIn ad types in detail:

1. Sponsored Content

Also called Native ads, these show up on your audience's feed (both on desktop and mobile). When you advertise with Sponsored Content, you can opt for single image ads, carousel ads, or video ads.

2. Sponsored Messaging

Previously called Sponsored InMail, it allows you to advertise to users directly in their inbox.

3. Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads are the types of LinkedIn ads that are automatically personalized for each of your prospects. Here's an example of a dynamic ad:

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4. Text Ads

Text ads show up along the right-hand side or the top of a user's LinkedIn feed (on desktops only).

IV. YouTube Ads

YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world. The latest statistics share some interesting insights on YouTube users to help you make an informed decision whether to use it to place your ads or not:

• 81% of individuals aged 15-25 use it
• 71% of individuals aged 26-35 use it
• 67% of individuals aged 36-45 use it
• 66% of individuals aged 46-55 use it
• 58% of people above 56 years of age use it

Over half of YouTube’s users are female.

YouTube ads can help you reach various business goals, such as:

• Get more website traffic
• Increase brand and product consideration
• Develop brand awareness
• Collect leads

The types of YouTube ads include:

1. Skippable In-Stream Ads

These play before or during a video, and the viewer can opt to skip them after the first 5 seconds.

2. Non-skippable YouTube Ads

These are brief ads appearing either at the start, end, or middle of a video. The maximum length of these ads is 15 seconds, and they can't be skipped.

3. Video Discovery Ads

Video discovery YouTube ads appear on the YouTube search results pages, homepage, and as related videos on YouTube video watch pages.

4. Outstream Ads

These ads aren't available on YouTube. These mobile-only ads appear on apps and websites that run on Google video partners. Outstream ads might run within apps or in-feed content, or in web banners.

5. Bumper Ads

Bumper ads are regarded as the subspecies of non-skippable in-stream ads. You can expect bumper ads to be less than 6 seconds.

6. Masthead Ads

This ad type works great for publicizing a new service or a product. Take a look at this image, and you will understand the positioning of masthead ads and the impact they can make:

Learn more about how to use YouTube Ads to grow your business.

V. TikTok Ads

TikTok is a social networking service that focuses on video. 18% of international internet users aged between 16 and 64 use TikTok (GlobalWebIndex).

TikTok ads enable you to achieve different business goals, such as:

• Increase engagement with creative content and interactivity.
• Connect with a variety of audiences worldwide.
• Encourage sales and app installs.

Now let’s talk about the types of TikTok ads.

In-feed ads are ads you create yourself. Types of in-feed ads are video ads (similar to a commercial), image ads (similar to a billboard), and spark ads (boosting your existing content to reach more users).

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There are also carousel ads (these run only in TikTok’s News Feed apps) and pangle ads (placed via TikTok’s Audience Network).

Ads formats for managed brands (those who work with a TikTok sales representative) include:

• TopView ads: Video ads that run on full-screen for 5-60 seconds upon opening the app.
• Branded Hashtag Challenge: It is a 3- to 6-day ad campaign format for engagement.
• Branded Effects: Branded filters, stickers, and special effects to get app users to interact with your brand.

VI. Twitter Ads

Twitter is a popular social network on which users post and interact with tweets (messages). The largest age demographic on this platform is 25 to 34-year-olds. Twitter ads can help you reach three objectives: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.

Let’s dive straight into the types of Twitter ads:

1. Promoted Accounts

The suggested accounts that show up beneath the “What’s happening” section and under the “Who to follow” section are promoted accounts. Based on the user interest, your profile gets suggested to the right users.

2. Promoted Trends

Sponsored by advertisers, promoted trends show up in a section called “Trends for you.” Brands can promote a trend for one day with promoted trends.

3. Promoted Tweets

Promoted tweets is an option you can consider for making a crucial status update stand out on the feed of your potential customers.

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VII. Pinterest Ads

Pinterest is a social site where you can collect as well as share images of anything that intrigues you. As per the latest statistics, six out of 10 Pinterest users are females.

When you talk of Pinterest ads, they help you with various business goals, such as building brand awareness, driving app installs, and driving traffic to your website.

Here’s what you should know about types of Pinterest ads:

1. Promoted Pin

Promoted Pins show up in users’ feeds the same way as a regular Pin would. The only difference between the two is a “promoted” tag.

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When you run these types of ads, you enhance the exposure of your pin and get discovered by people who may want to purchase from you.

2. Promoted Video Pins

The sole difference between promoted video pins and the other ad options is that the multimedia used is a video. These ads are used to grab the attention of your audience more effectively.

3. Promoted Carousel

Promoted Carousel is one of the Pinterest ad types where you can have more than a single photo (2-5 images).

4. Buyable Pins

Buyable pins allow individuals to shop straight from the pins you post. All the user needs to do is click on the white dots and visit your product listing page.

5. Promoted App Pins

You can use Promoted app pins to promote your business app.

VIII. Snapchat Ads

Snapchat is a sought-after multimedia instant messaging app and service. A lot of young adults are known to use it. When you talk of the different ad types of this platform, they can help you attain several marketing objectives, such as increasing your brand awareness and driving catalog sales or website conversions.

Here's what you should know about the different Snapchat ad types:

1. Single Image or Video

These are full-screen ads where you add an attachment (such as a link to your site) and users swipe up to take action.

2. Story Ads

Story ads help you get in front of your potential customers with a branded title in the Discover feed. Snapchat users can visit your ad and check out a complete collection of snaps (ranging from 3 to 20). With story ads, you can showcase any product launches or a new fashion collection. Users can also swipe up to complete your goal, such as purchasing something on your site.

3. Collection Ads

These ads contain four tappable tiles that allow users to browse and purchase your products.

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4. Lenses

Snapchat allows you to run interactive, memorable AR ads in its Ads Manager. With the help of Lens Web Builder, you can choose from a variety of animations, 3D objects, and effects to create your personal branded AR lens. After you are done, you can launch it in the form of an ad for Snapchat users to play with as well as share with their pals.

5. Filters

Filters let brands participate in millions of snaps sent between friends every day. When Snapchat users take a snap in the location you select beforehand, they are able to view your filter and use it to tell when, why, and where they took the snap.

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6. Commercials

Commercials are the ads that Snapchat users cannot skip for 6 seconds and can be up to 3 minutes long.

Social Media Advertising Tips

Some social media advertising tips can always come in handy when you are trying to get the most out of your ad budget. Let's begin:

1. Know the Goals You Want to Achieve

Start by reviewing the business objectives a social media ad can help you achieve. You can't attain your goals when you don't even know what they are in the first place. Precisely knowing your business objectives ensures you are selecting the correct social media platform to advertise on. It also helps you choose the suitable advertising solution in the social media platform you choose.

2. Know Your Target Audience

Before you decide to advertise on social media, ensure you have thoroughly understood and learned about your target audience. In this blog, we have discussed the different types of audiences that hang out on popular social media networks. Keeping this information in mind, you can develop audience personas to know which audience segments to concentrate on.

3. Design Your Ads Keeping Mobile in Mind

As per the latest statistics, about 99% of social media users access apps or websites via mobile. So, we can say that social media ads reach a lot of eyeballs on mobile.

Do you know what this means? You must put those images in your ads which your potential customers can easily view on a pocket-size device (except when you want to go for desktop placement).

4. Test Your Ads to Know What Works Best

Do you know the advantage of using social ads? You get feedback in an instant!

You can know how effective a sponsored post is performing and that too in minutes. You are even presented with an advanced analytics report.

Test multiple ads with tiny audiences and use the best one in your primary campaign.

5. Measure Results and Report on Them

Measuring results holds critical importance because it will let you know what worked out and what didn't. You can then make the improvements accordingly if any. The social media giants, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, provide analytics to let you measure and analyze the results of ads.

Social Media Advertising Cost

Now, you may wonder how much do paid social media advertisements cost? The answer is: It varies based on your business and your ads.

When you talk of social media advertising, a lot of networks require a minimum daily budget. This rate differs from platform to platform, with some basing their required budget on the bid type, such as clicks, impressions, views, or likes.

Here's the lowest possible ad spend spread across famous social media networks:

A. Average CPC for Social Media Ads

With social media advertising, your business can use different bidding options, such as CPV (cost-per-view) and CPL (cost-per-like). A universal bidding option you should also know of is CPC (cost-per-click).

See the table below to know about the average CPC for the social media networks in your ad campaign:

B. Average CPM for Social Media

Leading social media networks also offer CPM or cost-per-thousand impressions as a bidding option.

Here's a breakdown of the social media advertising costs by CPM:

Conclusion

Now that you know what social media advertising is, the different types of social media ads, social media advertising tips, and how much do social media ads cost, you are more informed to get the most out of your ad budget.

Hope this social media advertising 101 helps you achieve real business results when you use different types of social media ads.