Social media has become a viable channel for reaching a target market through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. The question is, which social network is right for your business? Different social networks deliver different results. Define your demographics, marketing goals, and examine your options; you may decide one or more social media advertising platforms work for your organization.

Combining Organic and Paid Marketing

Before you dive into the world of social media advertising management, ask yourself what you’re trying to accomplish. Are you going for more “likes” or more revenue? While building up likes might look impressive, it’s something that you can take care of organically through engagement. Social media should be viewed as more than an advertising channel. It can connect you with your target market on a daily basis and allow you to build your brand organically, just by sharing original content.

The combination of paid and organic marketing will strengthen your campaign, allow you to take advantage of serving your base, and reach deeper into your target audience. Consider platforms that already work best for building a marketing list and the quality of engagement that you already experience. For many businesses, the solution will be Facebook, the most popular social network and, in many ways, the most diverse.

Facebook is also the most popular platform for social media advertising. According to a July 2017 survey of 164 brand marketers by Hanapin Marketing, 93 percent said they spend some of their marketing budget on Facebook. Other social media mentioned in the study were Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and Snapchat. Nearly 75 percent of surveyed marketers said they spend most of their social media advertising budget on Facebook. Only about 10 percent of respondents said they spend very little to no amount of money on social media ads.

Differences Between Social Networks

Twitter stands out from the crowd of social networks for its 140-character limitations, making it more effective for brand awareness than for lead generation. The more information you can share about your products, the more likely you will be able to attract leads that convert to sales. Facebook seems to be the platform best suited for lead generation. LinkedIn works better for B2B lead generation than for attracting a consumer base. Since Pinterest is a visual site in which users share images, it’s an ideal platform for promoting fashion and design.

YouTube is considered a social network by some marketers, while others consider it a content marketing channel. Either way, it’s useful for giving your marketing a personal touch, which has become crucial in online advertising. YouTube allows you to tell your story visually, offer product demonstrations and give customer testimonials. Adding videos to your campaigns is important, because people like sharing interesting, funny, and dramatic videos on Facebook and other social networks.

Why Remarketing is Important

As social media grows in popularity, getting noticed is increasingly more difficult. But a process known as remarketing, which involves tagging site visitors with a cookie, allows you to continue reaching your target market, even when your potential customers aren’t on your site or social media page. Remarketing can be done with display ads, social ads, and Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA). It’s an effective way to capture qualified leads.

Using Metrics to Move Ahead

Pursuing PPC ads, particularly on social media, will provide you with a wealth of data about your target audience. You will learn about your visitor behavior, which can help you fine-tune campaigns. One of Google’s important metrics is “Quality Score,” which rates the quality of your keywords and PPC ads. Facebook offers a similar metric called “Relevancy Score.” The more you raise these scores, the more impressions you will generate with a lower cost per engagement.

Your Brand, Your Story

The key to determining which social media platforms work best as advertising vehicles is to figure out which can give you reliable engagement. Every PPC campaign requires experimentation to figure out what type of ads work best. Social media advertising and remarketing are techniques that can increase your conversions.