Social ads: What you need to know before launching a social ads campaign

How to Define Social Ads

What Are Social Ads?

Social ads, or social media advertisements, are promotional content distributed on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and others. They're designed to reach and engage a target audience, often billed on a performance basis through CPC (cost-per-click).

These ads can take various formats—images, videos, carousels, stories—depending on the social platform used. The creation and deployment of these clickable ads are initiated by brands looking to increase their visibility and promote their products or services.

Advantages of Social Ads

Social ads offer several key advantages for brands and businesses.

First, they provide tremendous flexibility in terms of formats and targeting. Whether you choose images, videos, or carousels, you can adapt your content to your audience's preferences.

Additionally, thanks to precise targeting tools, you can reach specific audiences based on demographic, geographic, behavioral, and interest criteria.

• Precise Targeting: Social ads enable precise audience targeting based on demographic, geographic, behavioral, and interest criteria

• Cost-Effective: Compared to traditional advertising channels, social ads are often more affordable, allowing businesses of all sizes to broadcast their messages

• High Engagement: Social ads drive user engagement, generating high interaction levels between brands and their target audiences

• Measurable ROI: Thanks to integrated analytics tools from social media platforms, brands can measure the effectiveness of their social ad campaigns and adjust their strategy accordingly

• Extended Reach: Social ads can significantly expand your content's reach beyond your subscriber community

These advantages make social ads an essential digital marketing tool for businesses.

Potential Constraints of Social Ads

Despite their numerous advantages, social ads also present certain constraints to consider:

• Management Complexity: Social ad platforms often have complex interfaces requiring certain expertise to handle properly

• Budget Requirements: While social ads are generally less expensive than traditional channels, they still require investment. Budget management can be delicate, especially when optimizing ROI

• Increased Competition: The growing number of advertisers on social networks can make it difficult for your ads to gain visibility. Engagement and audience responsiveness are factors considered by platform algorithms, which can affect your ad reach

• Compliance with Rules and Standards: Each social media platform has its own advertising rules. Non-compliance can result in ad deactivation or even account suspension

Social Ads Examples

Facebook Ads - Industrial Equipment: An industrial equipment company launches a Facebook campaign to promote its new machinery line. It uses demonstration videos and high-resolution images showing equipment features and benefits, accompanied by satisfied customer testimonials to reinforce credibility.

Instagram Ads - Dietary Supplements: A dietary supplement manufacturer sold through e-commerce creates an Instagram campaign to promote its natural products. It uses stories and posts with attractive product images, user testimonials, and health benefit information, targeting an audience concerned about wellness.

LinkedIn Ads - Cybersecurity: A cybersecurity company uses LinkedIn to target IT professionals and business decision-makers. It creates sponsored ads featuring case studies and reports on the latest cybersecurity threats, aiming to establish expertise and generate qualified leads.

Twitter Ads - Wellness: A wellness center launches a Twitter campaign to promote its spa and relaxation services. It uses sponsored tweets with soothing images of its facilities and special offers, targeting local clientele seeking relaxation.

Social Ads: Which Networks to Choose for Your Campaign

Facebook / Instagram Ads

Facebook and Instagram are two major platforms for social ads. Thanks to their shared management via the Meta Ad Account, it's possible to simultaneously run ads on both networks.

Various advertising formats are available: images, videos, carousels, stories, etc. These formats enable achieving diverse marketing objectives, whether increasing brand awareness, generating traffic, or converting prospects.

To launch a campaign, simply add Instagram in the "Placement" section of an existing Facebook campaign's ad set, or create a new campaign including both platforms.

Note that to run ads on Instagram, you need a professional Instagram account. Additionally, choosing the advertising format and message should be based on your target audience and campaign objectives.

Finally, to optimize your Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns, it's recommended to control your budget and effectively target your audience.

Here are some key points to consider:

• Precise Targeting: Facebook and Instagram targeting tools allow reaching specific audiences based on demographic, geographic, behavioral, and interest criteria

• Budget Control: Performance tracking tools enable budget control and ROI optimization

• Reach Optimization: By running ads on both platforms, you multiply your chances of reaching more customers

In summary, social ads on Facebook and Instagram offer remarkable flexibility and efficiency for reaching and engaging your target audience.

Pinterest Ads

Pinterest is an inspiration-oriented platform, which is why Pinterest ads are ideal for promoting innovative and creative products or services. They appear as sponsored pins that are promoted to a wider audience through funding.

To launch a Pinterest ad campaign, you need to define the campaign objective, which could be brand awareness, video views, traffic (formerly interest), or conversions. Next, you must target the audience, determine the budget and campaign schedule, and create attractive advertising pins.

Here are some best practices for optimizing your Pinterest ads:

• Choose High-Quality Images: Since Pinterest is a visually-focused platform, it's essential to choose attractive, high-quality images for your ads

• Use Relevant Keywords: As Pinterest functions like a search engine, using relevant keywords in your ad title and description can help reach a wider audience

• Test Different Ads: Don't hesitate to test different versions of your ad to see which performs best

Finally, Pinterest offers the Ads Manager tool, which allows creating and managing your Pinterest ad campaigns. With this tool, you can create individual ads or complex campaigns, and even duplicate or modify existing campaigns to save time.

TikTok Ads

TikTok is a rapidly expanding social network, particularly popular among younger generations. It's an entertainment platform where users primarily come to have fun. To run ads on TikTok, you need to create a TikTok Business account.

Launching a TikTok Ads campaign generally requires a daily budget commitment exceeding €50 per campaign. For specific formats like hashtag challenges, brand takeovers, or Top View, TikTok offers personalized quotes.

To create a campaign, visit TikTok Ads, create an account, then follow instructions to define your objective, target your audience, and create your ad.

Key points to remember:

• Understanding TikTok's Spirit: More than a social network, it's an entertainment platform

• Budget Commitment: A minimum of €50 per day is generally required

• Creating a TikTok Business Account: Essential for launching ad campaigns

• Precise Targeting: Essential for reaching your target audience and optimizing ROI

• Respecting Platform Tone: Ads must seamlessly integrate into TikTok's creative and entertaining content flow

Twitter Ads with X

Twitter, in its dynamic as a platform focused on real-time conversations and concise content, offers unique advertising opportunities, particularly relevant for X. Twitter Ads allow X to target an engaged and responsive audience, based on criteria such as interests, location, user behaviors, as well as hashtags and accounts they follow.

The advertising formats available on Twitter, such as sponsored tweets, sponsored videos, sponsored Moments, and sponsored trends, offer X various options for achieving its marketing objectives. Whether increasing X brand awareness, generating traffic to its website, or promoting app downloads, Twitter Ads presents tailored solutions.

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn, focused on the professional world, offers interesting possibilities for businesses seeking to reach a B2B audience or recruit. To launch a LinkedIn Ads campaign, you need to create an account on Campaign Manager, LinkedIn's advertising management tool.

LinkedIn offers several types of ads, including Sponsored Content, Document Ads, Message Ads, and Dynamic Ads. Each ad type offers advantages and can be used to achieve specific objectives. For example, Message Ads can be effective for generating leads or driving conversions.

YouTube Ads

YouTube, a video-sharing platform, is a prime channel for online advertising, particularly thanks to its large audience and video's growing popularity as content format. With YouTube Ads, you can run video ads that appear before, during, or after videos on YouTube and other Google Display Network sites and applications.

To launch a YouTube Ads campaign, you must connect your Google Ads account to your YouTube channel and define your promotion objectives. You can choose from several ad formats, such as InStream ads (appearing before, during, or after videos), Discovery ads (appearing in YouTube search results), or Bumper ads (short 6-second ads that can't be skipped).

How to Launch a Social Ads Campaign

Choosing Your Audience: Who Do You Want to Target?

Choosing your audience is a crucial step in setting up your social ads campaign. It involves precisely determining who the people likely to be interested in your product or service are.

To define your target audience, several criteria can be considered:

• Demographics: age, gender, location, etc.

• Behavioral: consumption habits, interests, etc.

• Professional: industry sector, position, company size (for B2B audience), etc.

It's also possible to create custom audiences from your customer database or website visitors for remarketing campaigns.

Finally, some social networks offer tools to help refine your targeting, like Facebook Pixel, which tracks user actions on your website and adapts campaign targeting accordingly.

Setting Objectives: What Do I Want to Achieve with This Audience?

Once you've targeted your audience, it's crucial to clearly define your objectives. These should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound—what we call SMART objectives. Your social ads campaign objectives can vary based on your needs:

• Brand Awareness: The goal is to increase visibility and recognition of your brand among a wider audience

• Lead Generation: You can aim to increase the number of prospects interested in your product or service

• Conversion: You want to encourage users to take specific action, like purchasing a product or signing up for a service

However, these objectives must align with your overall business goals. It's also essential to establish performance indicators to measure your campaign effectiveness and optimize your strategies accordingly.

Selecting Channels: Which Social Network Makes Sense Given My Target Audience?

Choosing which social network to run your ads on depends largely on your target audience.

Each social network has its own characteristics and attracts specific users. Facebook and Instagram are often preferred for targeting young audiences, LinkedIn is ideal for B2B, while Pinterest attracts inspiration-seeking audiences.

• Facebook: With nearly 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the essential platform for reaching a broad audience

• Instagram: Ideal for visual brands, Instagram is primarily used by 18-34 year-olds

• LinkedIn: The professional network par excellence, LinkedIn is perfect for targeting B2B audiences

• Pinterest: Pinterest users seek inspiration. The network is ideal for creative brands

Understanding your audience profile is essential for choosing the network best suited to your objectives.

Crafting Messages: What Should I Say and What Messages Should I Convey?

In creating your social ads campaign, the messaging you convey is fundamental. The messaging must align with your brand's values and image while being adapted to your target audience. It's about determining the tone and communication style that will capture and engage your audience.

For messaging, consider these points:

• Clarity and Precision: Your message should be concise and direct to avoid confusion

• Call-to-Action (CTA): Encourage users to interact with your ad, whether visiting your site, purchasing a product, or contacting you

• Value Proposition: Explicitly present what users will gain by following your call-to-action

• Personalization: Try to personalize your messages based on audience segments to increase engagement

Setting a Social Ads Budget: How Much Should I Invest? What's the Cost?

Determining your social ads campaign budget is a crucial step requiring strategic thinking. The amount to invest varies based on numerous factors such as your objectives, target audience, and chosen social media platform.

Generally, two budget types are distinguished:

• Daily Budget: The average amount you want to dedicate to advertising each day

• Total Campaign Budget: The overall amount you plan to spend for the entire campaign

It's recommended to start with a modest budget to test and optimize your campaigns before gradually increasing your spending.

Don't forget to consider cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM), which can vary from campaign to campaign.

It's essential to regularly monitor and analyze your ad performance to optimize your budget and maximize ROI.

Working with a Social Ads Agency

Choosing a social ads agency requires finding experts who understand your brand and audience. An ideal agency combines web marketing expertise with budget management and isn't limited to just social ads. Costs vary based on campaign complexity and duration, and it's crucial to discuss financial details to ensure the agency offers the quality and expertise needed for campaign success.