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Social media advertisements provide new, exciting ways for brands to reach customers and potential customers. With granular targeting on platforms where your audience is already spending a great deal of time, you can now send the right message to the right people at the right moment. By taking advantage of this powerful advertising platform, you can more efficiently and more effectively spend your advertising dollars and receive an increased return on your investment.
There are a number of ways to use social media ads to further your business objectives. Much like our 100 uses of social media monitoring and 100 uses of social media engagement lists, we've divided this into 10 categories to help organize it by areas of interest.
Amplifying Content
1. Promote a Facebook post by purchasing an ad
2. Use a Twitter "Promoted Tweet"
3. Use a social hook – show who's played a game or used an app
4. Place ads on prime real estate available using premium Facebook ads
5. Distribute job openings to qualified candidates on LinkedIn
6. Showcase what content other community members like
7. Include your Instagram photos in your ads
8. Create videos just for your ads
9. Play up a meme
10. Include a funny animated GIF
Learn more about amplifying content
Automation/CRM Integration
11. Receive notifications when an engagement threshold is reached
12. Automatically purchase ads at certain engagement thresholds
13. Connect ad spend with CRM profile on consumers
14. Automate amplification of successful ads
15. Automate amplification of successful content
16. Run ads on multiple platforms in multiple formats
17. Modify content that isn't working and try again
18. Target ads to customers
19. Target ads to prospects
20. Tie ads into your CRM system
Learn more about automation/CRM integration
Targeting
21. Tailor messaging based on users' interests
22. Target specific gender and location on Twitter
23. Target job roles or companies on LinkedIn
24. Target by age, gender or geography
25. Target by language, education or relationship status
26. Target Facebook ads by friends or friends of friends
27. Target by actions taken by users (liking a page, using an app)
28. Target those who engage with competitors
29. Target those who mention your brand
30. Target those who mention your industry
Learn more about targeting
Reach/Awareness
31. Create a viral lift on content through increased reach
32. Target those not already fans of your Facebook Page
33. Choose a hashtag topic and place it at the top of the list of trending topics
34. Geo-target ads around new stores/locations
35. Use social ads as a component of your brand campaign
36. Build your likes with social ads
37. Build your Twitter followers with social ads
38. Grow your LinkedIn groups with social ads
39. Target social influencers to generate buzz
40. Create ads with brand badges for sharing
Learn more about reach/awareness
Lead Generation
41. Use a Facebook ad to drive traffic to your website
42. Use a promoted Tweet to drive traffic to your website
43. Link back to dedicated landing pages for conversion
44. Sponsor a form on another Facebook Page
45. Create an ad on LinkedIn linking to a lead generation form
46. Promote a strong call to action
47. Promote offer
48. Make it visual for Pinterest pins
49. Advertise on relevant forums
50. Organize ad distribution by target personas
Learn more about lead generation
Tracking/Metrics
51. Learn how your audience engages with your ads
52. Determine what works: color, placement, copy, images, size, etc.
53. Measure cost per fan
54. Measure cost per impression
55. Measure click through rate
56. Measure unique clicks
57. Measure cost per action
58. Measure cost per conversion
59. Measure total social spend
60. Add unique tracking code to each and every ad
Learn more about social media tracking
Community Building
61. Create ads that show recommended requests were implemented
62. Attract new users to a gaming community
63. Create a user-generated content campaign
64. Find/add followers by promoting your Twitter account in the search results
65. Find/add followers by promoting your Twitter account in "Who to Follow"
66. Crowdsource ad content
67. Advertise your other social channels
68. Purchase advertisements around a community forum
69. Purchase a sponsored poll for research
70. Sponsor a question to receive feedback on a new product line
Learn more about community building
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
71. Include key phrases in your Facebook ads
72. Link to your blog from your ads
73. Ask followers to link to your website
74. Use keywords on your LinkedIn ads
75. Include keywords in your ads' headline and body
76. Tag and name your images in the ad code
77. Have Twitter ads display based on key phrases users use or search on
78. Promote content using key phrases
79. Embed videos from YouTube (2nd largest search engine)
80. Encourage sharing with the G+ button on your ad
Learn more about SEO
E-Commerce/Sales
81. Place direct links to product pages within ads
82. Use past purchasing history from friends within ads
83. Use creative that highlights particular products
84. Purchase ads to display products on competitors' social sites
85. Partner with other ecommerce sites and direct social ads there
86. Work to reduce cost-per-click
87. Have the complete shopping experience within the ads
88. Target past shoppers to start or finish transactions
89. Display what friends' purchased and offer discount
90. Ask user to pin ad for promotional discount
Learn more about e-commerce/sales
Advertising and Marketing Effectiveness
91. Track advertising-specific keyword usage
92. Listen for social response to advertising messages
93. Gauge sentiment toward advertising campaigns
94. Monitor conversations around new ad content
95. Monitor unique URLs on your ads
96. Monitor unique phone numbers on your ads
97. Find social sites relevant to your brand for advertising
98. Learn the language of your community and use it
99. Monitor campaign or brand specific hashtags
100. Monitor results of user generated content
Learn more about advertising and marketing effectiveness
We covered a lot of the uses of social media ads, but we know we missed some. That's why we want you to help out and let us know how else you're using social media ads in the comments below! Also, thanks to Amanda Nelson for her help with the list!
Tags: automation, community building, content marketing, lead generation, SEO, social ad targeting, social CRM, social media ads, social metrics
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