Because paid social media advertising is one of the least expensive types of advertising in the digital market, the opportunities to use it to its full extent are endless. Opinions, however, on the value of social media advertising versus organic posts have changed over time.
When I worked as a Digital Content Producer at my local CBS station, I was vehemently against paid advertising because I felt that our work should speak for itself. I thought that if we worked hard enough, people would visit our website and click our links. But working as a reporter in the Public Relations Department of two different school district for the last six years, I’ve seen firsthand the power paid social media advertising has on followers, especially on Facebook.
Though, not every post requires paid-for-click advertising. If you’ve built a strong and loyal community, social media managers can let most posts live their life out on the web for free. So, like most everything, there are pros and cons to paid social media advertising.
Pros
Paid social media is a way to show sponsored content through different social media content, regardless of the platform. These ads have the power to target specific audiences, certain demographics and can be as specific as age, interests, and even geo-fence particular locations.
Additional advantages of paid social media advertising include increasing brand awareness. Even when a user does not click the ad, it’s still a great way to boost awareness and eventually create potential customers and consumers. If a brand’s content appears in news feeds regularly, users will begin to recognize the brand more often. Paid social media advertising is also cost-effective. When using a pay-per-click ad, a brand will only have to pay when users engage with the content.
For both new and existing followers, these ads can also ensure that the brand is constantly in the audience’s mind. And, because social media ads can be used in different formats like video, images and stories, a brand is able to ensure that their content is always engaging and easily digestible.
Cons
Though there are various pros to paid social media advertising, that’s not to say it doesn’t come with its disadvantages as well.
Because it won’t break the bank, most every brand, company or entity is doing some form of social media advertising. This competition creates a very cluttered social media feed, which can also lead to users to ignore the ads by either not believing it’s relevant to them, or getting frustrated with the numbers of ads they’re seeing.
While it can create and sustain brand awareness, too much of it can also be an issue. If an audience is exposed to the ad or campaign too many times, it can quickly become something they tune out, which results in a smaller audience engaging with the paid content.
Successful Paid Advertising Campaigns
With thousands of companies on social media, it’s interesting to see the brands that stand out and successfully execute their paid social media advertising plans. The following examples are a few of my favorite paid social media ads done right.
Spotify #Wrapped Campaign
Back in 2017, Spotify launched a campaign where users could watch their musical highlights of the year on their account. They then used social media ads to celebrate their users through music. During their campaign, subscribers received a video highlighting their own personalized listening data over the course of the year.
Users could discover their top artist, top song through each season, top podcasts, genres and total minutes streamed throughout that year. Spotify made it easy for each user to share their own Wrapped video to their respective social media accounts directly from the Spotify app. This user-generated content also made its way to the artists, who shared their own streaming numbers.
The data-driven approach created a campaign that leveraged user-generated content. Spotify then used it for advertising, which drove both existing and new users back to their app for more data.
The Numbers
- The campaign was mentioned in at least 1.2 million posts on Twitter alone in the month of their launch
- More than 60 million users engaged with the in-app story experience
- Nearly 3 billion additional streams happened directly through the Wrapped playlist
This paid social media ad campaign worked because the brand was able to optimize personalization for each user, as well as create additional brand awareness from both users and non-users.
This campaign not only spread greater brand awareness, but it also encouraged non-users to join in and create an account. Every December since then, Twitter users will find their timeline flooded by those posting their top streams, artists and songs, and what it means to them.
National Geographic #YourShot Instagram Campaign
In 2019, National Geographic made the pivot from its exclusive “Your Shot” print community to social media, specifically Instagram. They debuted @NatGeoYourShot on the platform and encouraged both professional and amateur photographers to tag the page for the chance to be featured. Photographers loved the idea because it meant getting the opportunity to showcase their work to the page’s 5.7 million followers.
The campaign was successful because it became a powerful tool to bring in authentic user-generated content. This also worked for the brand because it increased its public awareness on social media. In the 14 years Your Shot existed before social media, National Geographic received about 10 million photos. Since the writing of the blog post, the #NatGeoYourShot hashtag on Instagram has garnered 8.6 million tags alone.
When adding their #YourShotPhotographer hashtag in the mix, social media has helped National Geographic collect more user-generated photos for their campaign in three years than the website earned in 14 years. With 5.7 million followers and 8,460 posts, National Geographic shows the impact a community of people with a common interest can have.
Paid social media advertising offers a way to make an additional impact online, as well as target a brand’s customer persona. Knowing where your target audience is and how each platform works can also offer different ad formats that allow more room for creativity. The goal in the end should be to produce authentic, quality and engaging content that allows your brand to stand out.
References:
A, N. (2017). Paid media: Advantages / disadvantages. FutureLearn. https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/online-business-success-digital-marketing/0/steps/24485.
A, N. (2020, October). 10 genius social media campaigns in 2020. Digivizer. https://digivizer.com/blog/10-genius-social-media-campaigns/.
Rudy, E. (2021, June 11). The benefits of paid social media marketing. AZoNetwork.com. https://www.azonetwork.com/marketing-science/blog/the-benefits-of-paid-social-media-marketing#:~:text=Paid%20social%20media%20advertising%20is,brand%20recognition%20will%20naturally%20increase.&text=All%20platforms%20offer%20a%20pay,users%20engage%20with%20your%20content.