Nowadays, social media usage goes beyond communication and entertainment. There’s no doubt that it is now considered an effective advertising tool in the business world. And among the many social media networks with an advertising platform, Instagram and LinkedIn are two of the most popular and successful ones.
Instagram is an excellent photo-sharing site that millions of people love to use to communicate visually, while LinkedIn remains a strong and widely-used social and professional networking service. Business owners like you can benefit from the advertising platform that these sites feature. Here’s why you should use Instagram and LinkedIn ads for your business.
Instagram Ads
Target Niche Audience
Instagram uses Facebook’s very comprehensive and powerful advertising system, which has an effective targeting ability. With this system, you can specify the location, interests, behavior, and demographics of your target audience. You can also even target your past customers and others like them. This makes Instagram ads a valuable tool for businesses.
This glossy editorial Instagram ad from Fashion and beauty store Asos has a traditional TV spot feel. It appeals to its target niche audience—the millenials.
Increase Followers and Customers
With millions of users and advertisers, there’s no denying that Instagram is considered one of the fastest-growing social media platforms today. According to an Instagram study, 60% of users discover products or services through Instagram. Therefore, advertising on the site helps boost brand exposure and awareness. Consequently, this gives your business an opportunity to gain more followers and customers.
Wedding service brand, The Knot, has been successfully using Instagram ads, and its now 1.3 million followers is a solid proof!
Budget and Schedule Options
One good thing about Instagram’s advertising tool is that you can create a useful ad depending on your budget! You can set how much you want to spend on your ad and long you want it to run. You can also tweak your budget and schedule using its advanced options. But for starters, you can simply follow its recommendations by default.
Choose from Multiple Formats
So you wish to be creative and make ads that stand out. With Instagram ads, you can choose from four feed ads formats to use for your campaign. There’s Carousel – ads with two or more scrollable photos or videos; Single Photo – you can make up to six ads with a single image; Single Video – ads with a video or a GIF; and Stories.
Pick the format that you think works best for your ad objective. But whichever you choose, your ad will certainly promote your business and reach a wide audience!
Green Chef uses more than one of these formats for its Instagram ads, as shown below.
Boost Conversion
With Instagram ads, you can achieve one of the goals you want to achieve—increased conversion. This means more product sales and profits. If you have a mobile app, you’ll also likely see an increase in mobile app downloads and engagement. A lot of businesses have achieved their goals with the help of Instagram ads. Your brand can experience the same success, too!
LinkedIn Ads
Strategize
It’s important to plan a good marketing strategy before launching your ad campaign. Ask questions such as, “What is your goal for this campaign?”, “Will you run text ads or sponsored updates?”, and “What is the best outcome for this campaign?” You want your audience to trust your company, so you have to make sure that you have a professional campaign that reflects your company.
Choose your Ad Type
With LinkedIn, you have the freedom to choose the type of ad that you want. There’s the Sponsored InMail feature, which allows you to send an email message type of ad to your target audience. There’s also the Follow Company ad, which is a good for attracting more followers; the Recommendation ad for showcasing a product; and the Join-Group ad, which helps get communities to engage with your product or service.
Create an Engaging Ad
LinkedIn ads have certain parameters, but this doesn’t mean that you cannot make an engaging campaign. Make sure it contains essential elements, like your company name, an image or video, and your URL. Doing so increases your business’ credibility.
Make your ad’s copy easy to read, yet interesting. If your ad is about a promo, make sure that it clearly states the incentive, such as a free sample or a special discount. With all these things included in your ad, your chances of attracting your audience are higher.
Here’s a good example of an engaging LinkedIn ad from Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Set Ad Budget and Duration
LinkedIn ads are affordable, so it will be convenient for you to run a campaign. Depending on how much you want to spend on the ad, you can set your budget using LinkedIn’s budget feature. In case you’re having a hard time budgeting your campaign, try to think about your customer lifetime value instead of the ad outcome.
With a budget of $20, Bizible was able to run this ad and get 600% ROI.
Track Your Ad
Tracking your ad is important so you’re up to date on how much you are spending and you know if it is effective or not. To monitor your ad, you can create different landing pages for your ad groups and use custom parameters for each group. You can also use bit.ly links to track clicks, set up goals on Google analytics, and more. These tracking options will help you measure the success of your ad and make tweaks as needed.
Social media networking sites Instagram and LinkedIn play a big role in today’s business world. Their advertising platforms are excellent channels in promoting and boosting your brand. Follow these tips and steps to be able to run an effective ad that will drive your business to success!
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Check out these blogs for our social media advertising/ads series:
- Using Facebook Ads to Promote Your Business
- How to Leverage Twitter Ads for Your Business
- Infographic: Using Facebook and Twitter Ads for Business
Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.
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