5 Ways to Make Smarter Social-Ad Buys in 2020

Social media continues to be a marketer’s best friend; remaining one of the most effective channels marketers can use to reach and convert audiences at every stage of the funnel, particularly video marketing. 64% of consumers are more likely to buy a product or service after watching a video about it.

But many marketers still make critical mistakes when they fail to place social ads that influence customers and prospects. At a time when most online advertising channels have become oversaturated and make it more difficult than ever to get noticed, it’s more important now than ever before to stand out.

If your social ads suffer from little notice, remember these five points as you close out 2019 and head into 2020.

Placing social ads on Facebook still makes marketing sense

That’s especially true for small businesses. It’s easier than most think to run a social ad on Facebook. For example, you can use your iPhone to shoot a video, run a simple ad on Facebook, and spend $2 to $3 per day to reach prospects in your local market. If you know your audience and set clear goals, a simple, low-budget campaign is well within reach.

For example, my partner and his wife operate a small ax-throwing business. Whether it’s a video or picture of someone throwing an ax, every time they launch video ads, they put $5 to $10 behind them, and see 3 to 5X in daily reservations coming through in.

A lot of marketers mistakenly believe that you can’t drive business growth from a couple of ads at $5 to $10 a day, but we’ve seen our ads drive positive impacts on prospects and customers; if set up correctly.

I actually made this ad for a travel destination on my iPhone that ended up driving $250k in revenue on a $50k spend and this thrown together ad cost virtually nothing.

The key with social advertising is not to put your eggs in one basket. Beyond Facebook, other primary platforms to focus on in 2020 include Snap Ads, Instagram stories, YouTube, and TikTok.

Don’t Overlook Snap Ads

Snap Ads, also known as Snapchat’s advertising platform, holds massive potential for marketers; especially if you’re targeting a demographic below 40 years of age. At first, Snapchat probably doesn’t strike you as a primary ad platform to advertise on. But Snap Ads deserve more attention; as of recently, Snap Ads changed the time limits on their ads. Time limits that once maxed out at 10 or 15 seconds are now up to 3 minutes. And Snap Ads are relatively inexpensive; you can run Snap Ads at $5 per day.

If you are already familiar with setting up Facebook Ads, you will find Snap Ads to be very similar. You can still do geo-targeting, demographics, interests, etc to make sure those seeing your ads are the right people.

Include Instagram Story Engagement in Your Social-Ad Buys

Compared to the costs for Instagram Feed or Facebook Newsfeed; Instagram Story ads are a lower-cost, effective form of advertising. The best part is that Instagram stories are typically watched with the sound on.

When they view the video in the news feeds, the sound is automatically off. Your viewers are more emotionally connected when they watch Instagram stories than they are when they view news feeds. And an Instagram story can be 15 seconds long; which is plenty of time to capture an audience.

Don’t Forget About Tik Tok

Tik Tok has recently taken the social media world by storm. Although TikTok currently has no readily available advertising medium, with the right content you can get thousands and thousands of views that can translate into massive social proof.

The way Tik Tok’s algorithm is set up, it’s much easier to make an organic splash on the platform then say Instagram or Facebook. Go in and create an account, and begin to play around with content that resonates with your audience. With humor being the anchoring theme, it’s a fun, interactive platform that isn’t going away any time soon.

YouTube – The Unwavering Video Mecca

Many marketers don’t consider YouTube a social platform. But you can comment, like, and share just like any other social media platform. And, like the other platforms we’ve laid out, you can also run ads on YouTube for as little as $5 a day. There is significant potential on YouTube – don’t turn a blind eye.

Dipping your toe in the water with one, two, or maybe even all of these platforms will help you set the stage for readying your 2020 social media ad strategy. The key here is to constantly be testing different variables like creative, deliverables and audience to see what works best for your brand. Happy marketing!