Social Media Advertising

What Exactly Are Social Media Ads?

What is the best way to invest in social ads? While you may think the answer lies in knowing which social media platform has the largest user base, there isn’t one correct answer. Truth is, it depends on the situation. When making your decision, you need to think about where you can find your audience on social media, what kind of campaign you’re looking to create, and how you can optimize your ad investment. Here’s a short summary of the different types of social media advertising options.

Social ads on Meta: Meta is the world’s largest social media platform, with one of the largest user bases. Its advertising platform is solid and reliable. Meta for Business is extremely visual and offers multiple and detailed segmentation options, from demographics to lookalike audiences.

Social ads on Instagram: To take maximum advantage of Instagram’s potential, find examples of Instagram advertising that you would like to emulate and focus on optimizing your images and videos.

Social ads on Twitter: Twitter lets advertisers create campaigns adapted to various different objectives, such as conversion, leads, and app installs. If you want to make the most of it, combine it with artificial intelligence. 

Social ads on YouTube: Make the most out of video marketing on YouTube by telling your audience stories they’ll connect with.

Social ads on TikTok: TikTok advertising is a new and exciting option, and it’s safe to say that the ads will be just as creative as the content on the platform. 

Social ads on Pinterest: Pinterest brings a largely female audience to social media and is an absolute hotspot for topics like weddings, cooking, or fashion. This makes it very useful for advertisements in these areas. 

Social ads on LinkedIn: This social media platform with a large professional user base brings an advertising solution for those looking to reach out to a corporate audience through B2B Marketing.

Facebook ads

Facebook ads help you achieve one of three broad types of campaign objectives:

• Awareness: Build brand awareness or increase reach.
• Consideration: Send traffic to your website, increase engagement, encourage app installs or video views, generate leads, or encourage people to communicate with you on Facebook Messenger.
• Conversion: Increase purchases or leads via your site or app, make cata, or drive foot traffic to offline stores.

Audience considerations: Facebook is popular across many demographics, with 2.45 billion monthly active users. Just as many teenagers use Facebook as their parents—and seniors are quickly catching up. With detailed targeting options for this huge pool of users, Facebook is a great platform to get started with social media advertising.

With ads, you can direct users to your Facebook Page or your website.

Photo ads
Facebook’s internal data shows that a series of photo-only ads can drive more unique traffic than other types of ad formats. In addition to a photo, Facebook photo ads include 90 characters of text plus a 25-character headline. Show and tell! These ads can also include a call-to-action button like Shop Now or Download. You can create your photo ad in Facebook Business Manager, or simply promote a post with an image from your Facebook Page. Pro tip: If you’ve got a tangible product, a Facebook photo ad is a great way to show it off. Show people using your product, rather than a simple photo of the product itself.

Video ads
Facebook video ad options range from short, looping video clips that autoplay in users’ feeds, to original 241-minute promoted videos for the desktop. You can also develop video ads that play within other videos (Facebook video ad Inception!), or even share 360-degree videos. With so many options, it’s critical to have solid goals and understand who your target market is and where your video will reach them. Pro tip: Short videos tend to have higher completion rates. However, if you’ve got a compelling message, you can go a little longer. Video can help clearly demonstrate your services—like a cool dance class—and stand-out in a mostly static news feed.

Stories ads
In this full-screen format, photos display for six seconds, and videos can last up to 15 seconds. One hiccup: You can’t specifically select Facebook Stories ads on their own. They’re included as a possible placement when you select Automatic Placements when creating your ad for the News Feed or Instagram Stories campaigns. Pro tip: Stories only last for 24 hours, so this is a great format for in-the-moment marketing like limited time offers. The majority of people Facebook surveyed said they wanted Stories ads to be “quick and easy to understand.” Keep things simple.

Carousel ads
No whimsical horses on this kind of carousel. A Facebook carousel ad lets you include up to 10 images or videos, each with their own link, all in one ad. Carousel ads work well to showcase different features of a product, or to explain a step-by-step process. They’re also a great way to present multiple products or services. For example, a Gap polo or a Gap t-shirt. Pro tip: Use the different elements in your carousel ad together to present a compelling, effective story or message. (That being said: if you need them to stay in a certain order, opt out of the automatic optimization feature.)

Slideshow ads
A slideshow is an ad that creates a video from several static images—your own or stock images that Facebook provides. Slideshows offer the compelling motion of video, but require no video-specific resources to create. The best of both worlds! If you’re not ready to try video ads but want to move beyond static photos, slideshow ads are a great option. Plus: fun music! Pro tip: If you don’t have professional photography on hand, stock photos can be a great option to help you express your brand’s vibe.

Collection ads
A collection ad highlights your products right in the Facebook feed. The ad includes a cover photo or video, plus four smaller product images with pricing and other details. Think of it as your digital storefront, or an instant peek into your catalog. This format allows people to learn more about your product without leaving Facebook. Pro tip: Collection ads work especially well for retail and travel brands.

Messenger ads
Messenger ads are simply Facebook ads placed in the Chats tab of the Messenger app. They’ll appear between conversations. You can use them to start an automated conversation with a potential customer right there on Messenger, or link out to your website to your website or app. Over 1.3 billion people use Messenger every month—many of whom aren’t even Facebook users. Get chatting. Pro tip: You can use Messenger ads to restart conversations that have trailed off. Use a custom audience of people who have previously messaged your business.

Playable ads
Facebook Playables are mobile-only interactive previews of your game or apps. This offers an opportunity for users to try before they buy (or download). These ads start with a lead-in video prompting people to play, via a “tap to try” icon. From here, users can click and instantly test-drive a full-screen demo version, without having to install anything. It’s a great way to showcase your game, with a low barrier to entry for someone scrolling by. Pro tip: Make sure you accurately represent the game in your lead-in video, and keep your tutorial simple: as little as two steps, ideally.

Instagram ads

Facebook owns Instagram. So it’s not surprising that Instagram ads support the same three broad categories of campaign objectives as Facebook ads:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Conversion

Audience considerations: Instagram is most popular with millennials. Plenty of Generation Z and Gen Xers also use the platform. Like Facebook, you can target your ideal viewer with custom targeting options. Create lookalike audiences, define your audience’s behaviors and activities, interests, and demographics.

The specific Instagram ad types also mirror four of the Facebook ads types:

• Photo
• Video
• Carousel
• Collection

You can create each type of ad for either the main Instagram feed, for Instagram Stories. Placing ads on IG TV offers a unique ways to reach your audience, too. Instagram Reels are a new content format for the platform, but so far, there are no paid advertising opportunities here. That being said: the novelty of Reels could make it a great opportunity to experiment with organic reach. Get in on the ground floor, and tell your grandkids you were there when it all began.

Photo and video ads
Your Instagram photo or video will look like a regular Instagram post—except that it will say Sponsored in the top right. Depending on your campaign objective, you may also be able to add a call-to-action button. Pro tip: Make sure your photo and video ads are consistent in style with the organic posts you share on Instagram. This helps viewers recognize that the ad is from your brand.

Carousel ads
In an Instagram carousel ad, viewers swipe to scroll through different images. Pro tip: Make sure the images you use in your carousel ad are visually similar and tied together by a common theme. It shouldn’t be jarring to swipe between the different photos in the ad.

Collection ads
Just like Facebook Collection ads, these feature a cover image or video plus several product shots. Clicking on the ad directs the user to an Instant Experience. It’s the perfect fit for a retail brand. Show ‘em what you’ve got! Pro tip: Instagram Collection ads don’t include a headline, but they do allow up to 90 characters of text.

Ads in Explore
Extend your ads into the Explore feed and reach an audience who is looking to for new and novel accounts to follow. It’s a way to place yourself next to the content that’s relevant and trending—and catch the eye of the 200 million-plus users who check out the Instagram Explore tab daily. (They’re brave explorers, out looking for new adventure on the Instagram frontier, and we salute them.) Pro tip: Your ad won’t appear in the Explore grid directly, but when a user clicks through on any photo, they’ll see your post in the scrolling news feed.

Instagram Stories ads
Instagram Stories ads can use photos or videos up to 120 seconds long. These ads display in full-screen format between people’s stories. Pro tip: Add interactive elements to Story ads for the best performance.

IGTV advertising
Users can post longform videos on a platform-within-a-platform called IGTV. This feature was introduced on Instagram back in 2018, and as of June 2020, you may now place advertising within user-created videos. IGTV video ads will only appear once a user has clicked over to IGTV from their feed. Ads need to be vertical (mobile optimized) and can be up to 15 seconds long. Pro tip: This feature is only available with certain Instagram accounts at this point, so you might be limited to working with content from influencers, rather than big-name media companies.

Twitter ads

Twitter ads work towards three different business objectives:

• Awareness: Maximize the reach of your ad.
• Consideration: Whether you want video views, pre-roll views, app installs, web traffic, engagement or followers, this is your category.
• Conversion: Bring users to your app or website to take action.

Audience considerations: Nearly two-thirds of Twitter’s advertising addressable audience is male.

Twitter offers two ways for brands to create Twitter ads:

• Twitter Promote automatically promotes Tweets for you. (Note: this service is no longer available to new users.)
• Twitter Ads campaigns allow you to set up campaigns yourself based on your marketing objective.

Twitter Promote
With Twitter Promote, the Twitter algorithm automatically promotes Tweets to your specified audience. It promotes your first 10 daily organic Tweets that pass the Twitter quality filter. It also promotes your account to attract new followers. You can focus on up to five interests or metro locations, and let Twitter do the rest. Unfortunately, with this feature, you can’t choose which Tweets to promote. (But maybe that’s part of the thrill?) Pro tip: Twitter Promote mode costs $99 USD per month. Twitter says accounts will on average reach 30,000 additional people per month and gain an average of 30 new followers.

Twitter ad campaigns
With Twitter ad campaigns, you first choose a business objective that aligns with your business goals. You can select existing organic Tweets to promote, or create Tweets specifically as ads. Pro tip: Run separate campaigns for mobile and desktop users to get the best conversion rates. Twitter recommends you avoid using hashtags and @ mentions in your ads. (These may cause your audience to click away.)

Snapchat ads

Snapchat ads can help you achieve three types of marketing objectives:

• Awareness: Reach a large audience to increase awareness of your brand and showcase products and services
• Consideration: Drive traffic to your website or app, increase engagement, and encourage app installs, video views, and lead generation.
• Conversions: Drive website conversions or catalog sales.

The Instant Create service is a simplified way to get your image or video ad up in under five minutes. If you’ve got a simple advertising goal—for example, getting a Snapchatter to call up your pizza parlor—this is a quick and easy way to get started. For more in-depth advertising goals, there’s Advanced Create. This is for advertisers who have more long-term or specific objectives and might need more control over budgets, bids, or optimization. Audience considerations: Snapchat is overwhelmingly popular with younger users, with 220 million users under the age of 25. Nearly three-quarters of 18- to 24-years olds use the app. Compare that to only 25% of 30- to 49-year-olds. About 60% of the audience you can reach with Snapchat ads is female.

Snap ads
Snap ads start with an image or a video up to three minutes long (though Snapchat recommends keeping things short and sweet at 3 to 5 seconds). The ads are full-screen, vertical format. These appear between or after other content. They can include attachments for app installs, landing pages, lead forms, or long-form video. Pro tip: Don’t try to do too much with a short ad: Feature one strong call-to-action and key message. Try experimenting with different forms, like gifs or cinemagraphs, and see what really catches people’s attention.

Story ads
This ad format takes the form of a branded tile in users’ Discover feed. The tile leads to a collection of three to 20 Snaps, so you can provide a detailed look at new products, special offers, and so on. You can also add attachments with a call-to-action, so that users can swipe up to watch a video, install an app, or buy a product. Pro tip: Write a powerful headline for your Story ad to encourage Snapchatters to tap.

Collection ads
Collection ads allow you to showcase a series of products with four thumbnail images in one ad. Each thumbnail image links to its own URL. Snapchatters can also swipe up to see your website. Pro tip: Keep the snap itself simple to focus attention on the thumbnails in your collection ad.

Filters
Snapchat filters are graphic overlays that users can apply to their Snaps. Snapchatters use them hundreds of millions of times per day. You can make your filter “smart,” so it includes real-time location, countdown, or time information. Pro tip: Snapchatters use filters to provide context to their Snaps. Make sure your filter is relevant to the time, place, and purpose of your campaign. Leave room for Snapchatters’ own images to shine. Only use the top and/or bottom quarters of the screen for your filter creative.

Lenses
Similar to Filters, Lenses are a way to layer your brand on to a user’s content. Lenses are a little more high-tech, however, using augmented reality for a more interactive visual effect. Face lenses, for example, can manipulate a user’s facial features on-screen to transform them. Using a branded Snapchat lens, a makeup fan could try a digital makeover, or become Colonel Saunders. World lenses work on the outward facing camera. These can map images onto the environment or surfaces around you—and find yourself seeing just how that Ikea couch would look in your living room. Pro tip: A cool lens is great; a shareable lens is better. Think about creating a visual experience that’s either beautiful or funny, to give your users a reason to share their video with friends… and tempt them to try for themselves. 

Commercials
In certain regions, Snapchat Commercials are another advertising option. These are non-skippable six-second video ads, and must be videos with audio. Pro tip: Focus on one simple message, ideally with a reveal or payoff at the five second mark to build a little suspense. Make sure your branding is crystal clear.

LinkedIn ads

LinkedIn ads help your business with three types of marketing objectives:

• Awareness: Create more awareness of your company or brand.
• Consideration: Drive website visits, increase engagement, or encourage video views.
• Conversions: Collect leads and drive website conversions.

Audience considerations: LinkedIn is much more business-oriented than the other social networks in this post. It offers targeting options based on professional qualifications like job title and seniority.

Sponsored Content
Sponsored Content ads appear in the news feed on both desktop and mobile. They’re used to get your content in front of a larger audience and showcase your brand expertise. Single images, videos, or carousel ads are all different options for sponsored content advertising on LinkedIn. Pro tip: Headlines under 150 characters have the best engagement. Larger images get higher click-through rates. LinkedIn recommends an image size of 1200 x 627 pixels. Make sure your CTA is loud and clear.

Sponsored InMail
Sponsored InMail is similar to email marketing, except that the messages go directly to users’ LinkedIn inboxes. Like a pen pal! That you pay for. However, Sponsored InMail has an interesting unique feature. Users only receive ad messages while they are active on LinkedIn. That means messages don’t sit around getting stale. You can send a direct message to your audience, or create a more conversational experience—sort of a choose-your-own-adventure, super simple chat bot. Pro tip: Short body text (under 500 characters) gets the highest click-through rate. But the sender plays a role too in setting you up for success. Ask yourself: who would my audience connect with?

Text Ads
Text ads are small ad units that appear at the top and the right of the LinkedIn news feed. They only appear to desktop users, not on mobile devices. Despite the name, text ads can actually include a thumbnail image of 50 x 50 pixels. Pro tip: Create two to three variations of your campaign, both for A/B testing but also to show your many sides to your audience.

Dynamic ads
Dynamic ads are automatically personalized specifically for each of your prospects. It’s either AI or magic at work. Don’t be afraid to get personal! You can target users personally and directly to encourage them to follow you, read your thought leadership articles, apply for your jobs, or download content. Pro tip: Enable your target audience’s profile photo to be featured in their own personal ad, to visually personalize the campaign. You can also pre-set templates with macros to feature every target’s name and company in the text.

Pinterest ads

Pinterest ads work with six types of business goals:

• Build brand awareness
• Drive traffic to your website
• Drive app installs
• Drive traffic to specific products
• Encourage specific actions on your website
• Drive video impressions

Audience considerations: Pinterest has significantly more female users than males. People use Pinterest to save ideas. That means the network naturally leads to shopping and purchases, but those purchases may not happen right away. Pinterest ads are called Promoted Pins. They look and behave just like regular pins. The only difference is that you pay to have them seen by a wider audience. Besides basic photo Pins, you can create Promoted Pins with video or a carousel of up to five images. Promoted Pins are identified as ads with a small “Promoted” tag. However, if users save your ads to their Pinterest boards, that promoted label disappears. These saves Pins earn you bonus organic (free) exposure. There are a couple of options for promoting your Pins.

Pinterest Ads Manager
Using the ads manager, you begin by selecting a goal for your Pinterest ads campaign. You can target your advertising strategy to align with your business goals, including whether you pay per click or per impression. Pro tip: Since Pinterest is used for planning and generating ideas, it has a longer lead time than some other social networks. Start running Pinterest ads tied to a seasonal or date-specific campaign about 45 days in advance. And try getting creative with the DIY nature of Pinterest as a social network.

Promote Button
Using the Promote button, you can create an ad from an existing Pin in just a couple of clicks. Promoted Pins created with the Promote button are always pay-per-click, so you only pay when someone clicks through to your website. Pro tip: This is a really easy way to get started with Pinterest advertising. Try promoting some of your best-performing Pins to get a sense of the kind of reach you can achieve with your desired budget. Make sure to track results over time to see the effects as people save your Promoted Pins to their own boards.

YouTube ads

YouTube ads can help you work towards the following business goals:

• Collect leads
• Drive website traffic
• Increase product and brand consideration
• Build brand awareness and extend your reach

Audience considerations: YouTube has more male than female users. The audience is well spread out among age groups up to 65.

Skippable in-stream ads
These ads automatically play before, during, or after other videos on YouTube. They can also appear in other places in Google’s display network, such as apps or games. Users get the option to skip your ad after five seconds. The recommended video length is generally 30 seconds or less. However, if you have a compelling story with great visuals, you can run longer. Pro tip: Seventy-six percent of viewers skip ads by default. However, a skipped ad still increases the chances someone will visit or subscribe to your channel by 10 times. Make sure to get your most important messaging and branding in those unskippable first five seconds.

Non-Skippable YouTube ads
These are short ads that appear either at the start, mid-point, or end of a video. The ads are a maximum 15 seconds long, and they can’t be skipped. Pro tip: Just because users can’t skip the ad doesn’t mean they’ll watch. Make sure your audio message is compelling in case they look away to do something else while your ad plays.

Video discovery ads
Video discovery ads appear next to related Youtube videos, in the results of a Youtube search, or on the mobile homepage. The ads appear as a thumbnail image, with a little bit of text inviting users to click and watch. Pro tip: Consider that your thumbnail may be viewed at different sizes, and make sure that static image is clear (and enticing!) whether large or small.

Bumper Ads
These ads are also unskippable, but they’re a maximum of six seconds long. They appear at the beginning, during, or end of YouTube videos. Pro tip: Don’t try to do too much in six seconds. Start with a strong visual, stick to one message, and leave enough time for your call to action.

Outstream ads
These mobile-only ads are not available on Youtube, and will only appear on websites and apps that run on Google video partners. Outstream ads might run in web banners, or within apps as interstitials or in-feed content. Pro tip: Outstream ads begin playing with the audio muted, so make sure your visuals can stand alone.

Masthead ads
This format really makes a splash, and is a great option for drumming up some publicity for a new product or service. On the desktop, a masthead ad will autoplay a preview for up to 30 seconds at the top of the Youtube Home feed. It includes an info panel that pulls assets from your channel—here you can add up companion videos as well. When the autoplay stops, the video reverts to a thumbnail. Users can click through to watch the whole thing from your page. On Mobile, Masthead ads play in full at the top of either the Youtube mobile site or the app. Here, you can customize the headline and description, as well as a call to action. Pro tip: These ads are only available via reservation basis, so you’ll need to contact a Google sales rep to learn more.

TikTok ads

TikTok ads can help you work towards the following business goals:

• Traffic: Grow engagement with interactivity and creative content.
• Reach: Connect with diverse audiences across the world.
• Conversion: Encourage app installs and sales.

Audience considerations: A survey by the Global Web Index found that 60% of TikTok users fall into the 25-to-44 age bracket worldwide. But in the U.S., 69% of users are between 13 and 24 years old. TikTok ads are only available in certain regions at this point in time, so depending on where you live, you might be stuck making organic content for now. But read on so that you’ll be ready when the time comes.

Self-serve option: Images and videos
There’s only one self-serve option for businesses on TikTok, and that’s in-feed video. Whether you choose an image or a video, ads will appear in a user’s “For You” feed. The ad will always be full-screen, just like user-generated content. After the ad shows for nine seconds, a card appears with your brand’s profile name and display name, plus text and a CTA button. You can also choose to place ads across the parent company’s other platforms (such as BuzzVideo and Babe), from within the TikTok Ad Manager. Pro tip: The ads run fairly often, so TikTok suggests freshening up your creative every week at least to avoid ad fatigue.

Other TikTok ad types
Options like Brand Takeovers, Hashtag Challenges, Branded AR Content, and Custom Influencer packages are available with the help of an advertising rep. At this point, it seems like anything is possible on TikTok, so reach out directly and see what you can do!