Have you been scrolling on social media and stopped on an ad that really caught your eye? Every social media user is familiar with the ads placed on their feed. But have you ever wondered who is behind those ads and how they were created? Here’s all you need to know about social media buying.
What Is Social Media Buying?
Social media buying is the process of purchasing ad placements ads for clients. It involves paying to display sponsored content, such as advertisements, promoted posts, or sponsored videos, to a targeted audience on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others. A media buying agency identifies the social media channels best suited to place ads for the customer’s target audience.
The primary goal for social media buying is to find the right place, time, and context to deliver relevant ads to a target audience and increase conversion rates, sales, or brand awareness. These ads are strategically placed on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc., and when successful, can drive traffic to your social media page or landing page and bring new customers to your business.
Executing a Social Media Buying Plan
Some successful ways that social media marketing agencies use to buy social media ads include:
1. Manual Buys
Manual ad bidding is a strategic approach that empowers digital markers to take control of ad space bidding and bid management directly through an ad platform like Google AdWords. This method helps digital marketers optimize their ad campaigns based on specific goals, ensuring optimal results.
2. Programmatic Buying
Programmatic advertising relies on automation, analyzing a multitude of user signals to deliver targeted ads to the most relevant individuals at the right place and time.
3. Direct Buys
This process involves a media buyer engaging in negotiations with a specific advertiser to determine ad rates and run times on digital platforms, such as advertising websites or other highly visited websites.
Stages of Social Media Buying
The process of successful digital media buying can be broken down into the following stages:
Pre Ad Launch
This stage involves all the behind-the-scenes work done before a creative ad is launched on social media. A digital marketing agency must conduct thorough research and plan and develop a strategy that will supersede its client’s expectations and be relevant to the target audience. This stage is very time-consuming since it consists of going back and forth with the client to ensure that the selected media platform aligns with advertising objectives.
Important factors to promote a quick pre-launch process include:
- Identify your target market: With your client’s help, define who your target customer is and where they can be found.
- Identify competitor’s target audience: Once you have identified your target audience, it is important to understand who your competitors are targeting with their advertisements. Analyze their successful and unsuccessful strategies to gain insights and learn from their experiences.
- Choose your strategy: Create a strategy that corresponds with your audience and goals for the ad campaign.
- Choose a platform: There are numerous social media platforms today, so it’s crucial to determine which social channel will be most effective for your target audience. You have the option to run ads on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube or utilize multiple platforms to expand your reach.
After carefully planning the pre-launch phase, you can now start designing and executing your launch campaign.
Launching an Ad
This is the stage where you launch your paid social media ad. This might not be a one-hour task, as there are several key steps to take before your ads are up and running.
In a social media marketing agency, the first step will be to craft compelling content that meets the client’s approval. Secondly, a well-structured plan would be in place for content delivery and monitoring the performance of the ad campaigns. This helps to determine what is effective and what isn’t while making necessary adjustments.
Post Ad Launch
After launching your social media campaign, it is essential to reflect on its performance. Begin by assessing the overall effectiveness of the campaign. Collect all available data and insights from the campaign and analyze them to identify the trends that contributed to its success or failure. Remember, numbers provide objective feedback, and as a digital marketer, this data will guide you in determining the most effective methods and tools. It will help you allocate more effort where it is needed to ensure you reach your target audience and achieve the desired results.
Social Media Content Planning
The backbone of effective social media advertising is great content. Without engaging content, the audience will quickly lose interest in your brand and business. Therefore, a media agency needs to have a strong content plan to ensure that customers engage with their clients.
You have a bunch of content options for social media, including videos, pictures, blog posts, infographics, and more. These diverse content ideas serve as the fundamental building blocks for creating high-quality traffic for quick leads and would effectively support your advertising efforts on social media.
Some of the tips you can use to plan for your content marketing are as follows:
- Identify the best content for your platform: To determine the ideal content for your platform, it’s important to understand your target audience. Consider their specific preferences and requirements, and then create content that aligns with those needs. Whether it’s informative, entertaining, or uplifting, your content should be designed to actively engage your audience.
- Be consistent: Whether you’re creating blog posts, videos, or regular social media posts, it’s crucial to distribute them on a regular and consistent basis. To achieve this, it’s advisable to establish a fixed schedule for publishing your content.
- Avoid oversharing: Steer clear of falling into the oversharing trap. Refrain from overwhelming your audience with excessive content that demands a significant amount of their time and energy, as this may discourage them from engaging with your content altogether.
Looking for a Social Media Buying Agency?
If you are a business looking to gain more business by digital media buying, you can reach out to experts that will work with you to plan, develop, and implement your first successful social media ad campaign.
ContentFirst Marketing is a social media agency in Dallas that specializes in growing businesses through digital marketing and content marketing. Schedule a free business review to find out how we can partner with you to grow your businesses.
