Facebook, Google Ads, & LinkedIn: Getting Started
Before discussing the top five best practices, check out these resources for a good starting point. Although there are a million articles on the topic of “how to do paid social ads correctly,” we’ve taken the time to curate the best articles and tutorial videos for you here. The articles below outline general best practices for sponsored ads.
Facebook
Google
LinkedIn
5 Specific Best Practices
Now, let’s get into 5 specific best practices to keep in mind when it comes to paid social ad creation. We’ve also gathered resources to help you dig deeper into social ad strategy. Let this information help guide your ad preparation as you reopen your business.
1) Set Your Goals & Objectives
Before you start creating ads, you want to make sure your next steps start off on the right foot. Ask yourself: what are my goals and objectives? Are you trying to raise brand awareness? Encourage interactions between you and your already-engaged audience? Or are you trying to convert any would-be buyers to become customers straight away? Isolate your goals, and then you can start pinpointing your target audience based on those goals.
2) Target Your Audience & Stay Local
Your social media target audience is the group of people that you’d like your practice to appeal to. Think of your most common customers and their demographics. What’s their age, job title, location, education, income level, etc.? These are the details that will help you identify the particular audience you’d like to reach through your ads — the ones who are most likely to seek your services. Keep in mind that, for your practice, thinking locally is probably best. That way, you stay in the minds of potential in-person customers from your local community.
The most popular platforms for social ads are Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google. However, a great rule of thumb for determining your target audience is seeing what types of followers your competitors have. Starting with LinkedIn and Facebook is the easiest way to target your audience locally, but you want to make sure you’ve updated your Google My Business Listing; otherwise, your potential customers won’t have a clue you exist. Once you’ve taken care of those, you can focus on Google Adwords for a more in-depth, locally targeted campaign. Now, here are some sources for targeting audiences on each platform:
3) Create a Smart Budget
A paid social ad budget is the average amount of money you’re willing to spend on an ad set or ad campaign, and you’ll never spend more than the budget you set. Any time you spend money on marketing, you want to do it with some restraint as you go — that way you know if your ad strategy is worth your money and your efforts. Your budget depends on how much you’re willing to spend, as well as the platform, type of ad, and demographics.
Paid social ads are definitely a great investment for businesses large and small. Still, we know it’s crucial for you to make smart monetary choices for your practice. Here are some resources that outline ad budgeting goals per platform.
4) Create Compelling Ad Content
You want your ad content to reach a good balance between compelling and informative, professional and punchy, and short and action-focused. Keep these particular tips in mind when you’re coming up with ad copy for each platform:
- Keep it short and sweet
- Follow character count guidelines per platform
- Use a punchy, energized, and professional tone
- Be informative, if applicable
- Use keywords
- Drive the reader “home” to your site
For more in-depth guidance on writing ad content that’s right for each platform, here are a few valuable sources:
5) Call to Action, Drive Conversions
Your call-to-action (CTA) is the whole point in having a social media ad. It’s made up of the words that will eventually have your potential customers click (or not click) to go back to your website or offer. Writing an effective CTA takes some time, and you can do it. Before the CTA, whether it’s to “Register” or “Share” or “Subscribe,” make sure to point out clearly what’s it in it for them. Best practices for CTAs are the same across all platforms.
See It to Believe It: Examples of Ads
In the end, sometimes it just helps to see what we’re talking about. Here are some great examples of each type of ad that can produce results.
Need a roadmap to grow the presence of your practice?
