If you’re not on social media these days, does your business even exist? Because no matter which audience you’re targeting – mature, young, and everything in between – you’ll find them all on social media. Social media become so engrained in our lives now that if you want your business to succeed, you need to grab people’s attention online – and keep it!

And the best part about social media advertising? You don’t need a multi-million dollar budget to create strong brand messaging or catch your audience’s eye. Just by allocating a small sum to social, and putting the effort in to creating fun, engaging ads, you’ll be able to find a whole new marketing strategy that’ll do your business wonders!

Check out these hot tips to building better social media ads, and if you’re keen to get a bit more guidance on the whole shebang, just give this little link a whirl! You’ll be a digital advertising guru in no time.

Know what you’re trying to say

If you can’t communicate your brand message in 30 seconds, you need to start again. Social media might be a great way to grab attention, but unless your ads are punchy, to the point, and smart, you’ll lose attention as quickly as you got it.

Ask yourself, ‘What’s the goal of my social media advertising strategy?’ Prioritise the goals you want to achieve, and start with the most important one. It might be to get sign-ups to your newsletter, boost website traffic, or generate sales leads. Either way, start creating your ad with this single, clear goal in mind.

Think hard about your social platform (H2)

Are you targeting people in the 40+ age bracket? Then, keep Facebook front of mind. It might’ve once been the home of the youth – and still is – but they’re far more likely to scroll straight past your ad than the inquisitive, slow-scrolling generations before them.

You’ll find younger audiences over on Instagram and Snapchat, primarily, with a smattering of Twitter for more instantaneous users, while professionals and corporates tend to lurk on LinkedIn. But there are a few questions to consider before nailing down the platform you’ll use. Do your competitors advertise on this platform? How does your ad (video, photo gallery, GIF, etc.) fit with the format of the platform? Has this channel worked well for you in the past? Once you have these answers in mind, the choice will become much easier.

Get the targeting right

When deciding who you’ll target with your ads, it’s always best to try and find a middle ground, where your reach will be wide and well received. Working on Facebook, for example, you can get really good at learning how to target your audience. They use features like Interest Targeting, where you can build your custom audience and zone in on people with specific interests.

On top of that, you can use the Audience Behaviors feature to narrow down on users who have demonstrated specific purchasing habits, travel intentions, or engaged with relevant patterns that make them the perfect target audience. But essentially, it comes down to knowing the core demographics. Age brackets, locations, gender, and languages are all key starting points to make sure you’re actually speaking to relevant people.

Keep it organic

When you’re paying for social media advertising, you don’t want it to stick out like a sore thumb compared to your organic content – that is, not paid advertising. So if you’re usually posting fun videos or listicles from your blog, suddenly sharing an ad that directly calls for consumers to ‘sign up’ or ‘buy now’ might come off a little strong.

You want to keep your brand consistent, so keep using GIFs or pretty images if that’s your style. And stick to the language typically seen in your social media content. Ads don’t have to be boring or obvious, so get creative with your message!

Research, research, research!

We can’t stress this point enough, because research will make or break your social media ad. If you just slap any old thing onto a platform where it clashes with the format, then you’ve wasted your money and you’ve damaged your brand image. Before hitting ‘post’ on your ad, be sure to spend some time on that platform. Which ads stand out to you – for both good and bad reasons, what are your competitors doing so you can make yours unique, and how are other brands calling consumers to action?

For example, Facebook has at least six variations of Facebook video ads that businesses can use on the platform. Know exactly what you’re doing before spending the $$ and all will be ok.

Have a strategy

We can’t tell you how many businesses just jump right in and start posting any old ad just to get their name out there. But if you’re new to social media advertising, it’s important to stick to a specific funnel. Sprout Social shared a brilliant one recently, and it starts with Awareness, moves on to Consideration, and ends with Transaction. So rather than diving straight in with a call to purchase, perhaps educating consumers on your brand might be a better start. In the Consideration phase, be mindful of how the customer fits with your brand; are they a repeat customer? New to your brand completely? Be sure to build ads that speak to every level of consumer to give you more chance of boosting your audience reach.

So there you have it, some handy little tips on creating a better digital advertising strategy on social media. It doesn’t have to be difficult, but just because you can post anything on your personal account, doesn’t mean business posts are quite as simple. Be considerate, plan, and expand the parameters for your typical advertising to maximise your overall reach. And if it all sounds a little overwhelming to tackle solo, there’s help out there. Check out True Local’s genius Digital PowerPack features to give you and your business a headstart in the social media game.