Hold up before you post up! Social Media Advertising and your budget

Before you take a chunk out of your marketing budget to pay for advertising on social media sites like Instagram or Twitter, consider these tips first. Paid advertising is a great way to gain followers, increase brand visibility, and most importantly, attract new customers. Business owners can use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for advertising. The prices may vary from $5.00 a day of upwards to $20,000 per campaign. Consider this before dipping into your marketing budget to pay for advertising on social media:

Research

Research the ads that come up on the various social media platforms you wish to use for advertising. You want to Pay attention to a couple of things; the formatting of the ads, what colors are used, the wording, what captures your eye when you look at the ad?

The Audience

Questions to ask yourself before purchasing ad space on social media: Who’s following the accounts? Is this where my target audience is? For example, while paying for advertisement on a gossip site may seem logical due to the number of followers the site may have, the audience may not fit your brand.

Advertise with a site comprised of an audience who share the same common likes and or interests as your brand. Read the comments section to determine if the audience members can truly benefit from your services.

“Promo advertisement”

There are literally thousands of personal accounts and business accounts on social media sites like Twitter and Instagram who offer “promo advertisement” on their pages. Here are a couple of suggestions to consider prior purchasing their ad space:

For personal accounts (note: this pertains to the operators of the personal accounts who don’t own a business but have a very large following. Because they have a large following they offer “promo space” on their accounts and charge a “fee”.)

Ask the operator of the account what days and times will they post the ad? Why? Remember, users are active at different times on various social media platforms. To maximize your marketing efforts, you want your ad to be promoted during that time-period.

Second, ask how often will the ad appear on the operators account? Will they advertise it once? Will they remove the ad after a certain amount of time? Don't fall for the large following "trap". You want to invest your advertising and marketing dollars wisely. Have you paid for advertising or "promo" ads on Instagram or Twitter? Please comment below.