Social media advertising is a hyper-direct way of targeting potential customers by running paid ads on social media platforms, and today it accounts for 33% of all advertising spend by brands. If your aim is to reach a targeted audience quickly and efficiently in a cost-effective manner, social media advertising is a must-have in your digital marketing toolkit.
But how exactly do you get started with social media advertising and how can you use it to grow your brand? These are the questions that we will tackle with this blog and guide you towards creating an effective social media advertising strategy for your brand.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
1. What is social media advertising?
2. 5 types of social media ads
3. Top social media advertising platforms
4. How much does social media advertising cost
5. How to create your social media advertising strategy
6. 5 pro tips on social media advertising
Pro tip: If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you must focus on video ads as a part of your social media advertising strategy. You can easily create these using InVideo’s online ad maker.
1. What is social media advertising?
Social media advertising allows businesses and creators to target prospective buyers and relevant audiences through laser-focused ads. It's one of the fastest and most direct ways to get in front of entirely unaware prospects and retarget people who are already a part of your marketing funnel.
As compared to traditional advertising methods, social media offers greater control over who will see the ads because of more targeted data collection and analysis algorithms. These ads can therefore help you:
- Build and boost brand awareness
- Expand the reach to broader audiences
- Maximize traffic and generate quality leads
- Enhance brand recall and visibility
- Get a better Return On Investment (ROI)
With that, let’s take a look at the different types of social media ads you can create for your advertising strategy.
2. 5 types of social media ads
All social media platforms allow you to share content and ads in multiple formats. For an effective strategy, you need to figure out which formats work best for your brand and then double down on those. Here’s a round-up of the five most common types of ad formats and what makes them important:
1. Video ads
With a relatively lower barrier to entry as compared to traditional advertising channels and an increasingly high return on investment, video ads promise a stronger connection with the audience and deliver a less disruptive experience. That explains why the two top social media platforms—Instagram and Facebook—are expected to rack up $136 billion in advertising revenue in 2022 alone!
The dynamic nature of video ads makes them one of the most effective choices in a landscape where attention spans are shortening by the day. Effective video ads are ones that grab attention and then clearly communicate the intended message to the intended audience. For a better understanding of the various kinds of video ads you can make for your social platforms check out this blog.
This ad by Oreo shows what an effective video ad can look like. This new product release ad is aimed at spreading the word about a new variety of Oreos. It works great as a top-of-the-funnel ad because, in 5 seconds, the video spotlights Oreo’s new product and its main selling point—the biscuit’s thinness. It also comes with a catchy caption and a clear CTA.
You too can create similar video ads using InVideo’s online ad maker where you get access to a diverse range of fully customizable templates to create scroll-stopping ads in minutes.
2. Image ads
Till the advent of video advertising, image-based ads were and probably still are the most popular types of social media ads you will find. Photo-only ads are the most uncomplicated format that promises better results than any other ad type, according to a Facebook study.
The key to unlocking these results lies in the design and copy of your ads. Instead of creating friction in a user’s social media browsing experience, create ads that blend into their feed. Show more human faces using your product/services and present your USPs using the most natural yet impactful language.
This photo ad by Disciple shows how it’s done with this intriguing ad. The company featured one of its employees in the ad and on-brand visual elements to make the design pop. The one-line caption and compelling CTA work well to make the users click.
3. Story ads
Story ads became popular first with the advent of Snapchat and then later Instagram and Facebook stories. More than 500 million daily active users browse through Instagram stories. Let that sink in for a while.
When it comes to social media advertising, story ads, particularly on Instagram, are one of the fastest-growing avenues for ad placement. The good news: story ads haven’t reached saturation yet. Plus, story ads can easily blend into organic content that users watch. They don’t stand out as ads and as a result, do not create a jarring experience for the viewers. So, brands have untapped real estate on Instagram and Facebook stories to run ads and expect better visibility and click-through rates.
Sleepyhead shows how it's done with this story ad. The ad places the product right in the center with its top features mentioned at the bottom. The photo includes a homely setting to merge this ad between organic stories. It has a short CTA button at the end to drive traffic to the product page.
You can easily create video Instagram story ads for better impact. It’s super easy to do using InVideo’s Instagram ad maker.
4. Carousel ads
Carousel ads merge video and photo ads into a single swipeable post. If you aren’t already aware of the massive popularity of carousels, this might come as a happy surprise—carousel ads enjoy a 72% higher click-through rate than most other ad formats.
These interactive ads create a showcase for multiple products in a single ad. Alternatively, brands can also highlight different features of a single product in multiple slides. This ad format also works best for sharing multiple testimonials.
Iluvia Pro’s Instagram carousel ad perfectly exemplifies this format. The brand uses a combination of video and photo posts to highlight its shampoo’s USPs, including a CTA.
5. Interactive ads
Interactive ads are the most unexplored format on social media platforms today. The ads essentially bring your design to life and encourage users to interact actively and engage with the ad content instead of only consuming it passively.
Interactive ads solve the challenge posed by decreasing the value of static ads. People want more activity on their social media feeds. Using this format, brands can efficiently deliver an entertaining experience and win the viewers' attention. These interactive elements positively impact the users and work in your favor.
Take these poll ads as examples of interactive ads that engage the audience. Both brands added a graphic, caption, and CTA in their ad along with a simple poll that makes the viewer think for a second.
3. Top social media advertising platforms
Now that you have an idea of the different ad formats you can use, let’s look at the most popular advertising platforms for your social media ads because the choice of platform has a direct impact on the success of your advertising strategy.
A. Facebook
Facebook is one of the first and the biggest social networks for advertising. With close to 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook is a jackpot for marketers to experiment with ads for different funnel stages.
Facebook’s micro-targeting capabilities make it a great platform for running ads. You can narrow down your target audience based on multiple factors. Besides, 41% of marketers consider FB’s return on ad spend (ROAS) the highest among all social media platforms.
The variety of ad formats to choose from is another big factor behind its popularity, giving marketers the flexibility to experiment with different formats. Here are the five ad formats available on Facebook:
1) Feed ads
The photo or video ads on the FB feed are called feed ads. Since these are standalone ads with a lot riding on the creative itself, marketers have to pour in their imagination to produce something out-of-the-box.
Semrush’s short video ad shows the impact a great video can make. The brand uses a minimal motions coupled with a short copy that genuinely speaks to the intended audience.
How to create feed ads?
Designing a feed ad is the easiest of all ad formats. Decide the type of ad you want to create—photo or video—and chalk out the ad’s central message. Once you’ve finalized the basic details, create a compelling design or video optimized through A/B testing to ensure that it resonates the most with your prospective buyers. Learn more about making a Facebook ad here.
If you want to work your magic with video ads, InVideo has a massive collection of pre-made templates to make life easy for you. Search for a relevant keyword, theme, or industry to find tens of templates, pick a template you like the best, and you're all set to create a scroll-stopping video ad.
2) Story ads
Full-screen mobile ads are all the rage. With Facebook story ad placement, you can capitalize on the growing popularity of stories to boost brand visibility. These ads also drive conversions since 62% of people are more eager to buy from a brand after seeing a story ad.
Story ads allow you to deliver a more immersive experience with a full-screen view. Plus, they can also generate customer interest and consideration lift for your brand. Take inspiration from KFC and Kettle Brand’s story ads on Facebook.
How to create story ads?
Marketers can run Facebook stories for boosting traffic, conversions, app installs, lead generation, and a few more objectives. While you can go for single-image ads, videos work best on full-screen stories. Create a short but compelling video about your product/service that hooks the viewers’ attention. You can also use this space to offer a teaser to your branded videos and increase visibility. Here are some story ad templates from InVideo to help you get started.
Remember to not place any text or brand logo in the 14% area from the top and bottom. You should also reduce the amount of texts in your ads, keeping it under 20%.
3) Carousel ads
Carousel ads allow up to 10 images in a single ad. It’s best for eCommerce businesses to highlight an entire catalog of products. Product or service-based companies can use a carousel ad to highlight different value propositions.
Convosight, for instance, created a four-slide carousel post highlighting its product’s key features and customer testimonials. Each slide has a unique CTA copy with the sign-up button to increase product sign-ups.
How to create carousel ads?
Marketers can use carousel ads to advertise a wide collection of products or present different USPs of a single product/service. You can use a combination of images and videos to make your carousel ads more interactive.
Setting up a carousel ad is easy on Facebook Ads Manager. You have to first choose the objective for your ad. Then you can add the specifics for the campaign, such as A/B test, budget, placement, and audience. Go on to complete the ad setup by selecting the creatives or products and add the links for each CTA. With that, you’re done!
If you want to create attention-grabbing carousel ads with effects, text and music, use one of InVideo’s readymade templates and get professional-looking ads ready in minutes.
4) Slideshow ads
Slideshow ads use micro animations to make the content more appealing and eye-catchy. Unlike a full-fledged video, slideshows combine different images into a slow-moving video, like this one by Felix Gray.
This ad presents different images for the same pair of glasses in a slideshow format. So, it's not exactly a video but includes subtle motions to make the ad look like one.
How to create slideshow ads?
Marketers create a slideshow ad to show a product from different angles. You can also use slideshows to highlight various features of your offering and combine different images.
Visit the Facebook Ads Manager and start a new campaign by selecting your objective and audience. Once you define your budget and audience, add the images you want to include in the slideshow and arrange them in the right sequence. Then add text and music, if required, and you’re all set to publish the ad.
You can also use slideshows to highlight various features of your offering and combine different images. You can easily begin by using this simple yet intriguing, carousel ad template by InVideo:
5) Shoppable ads
The shoppable ad format works best for eCommerce businesses to present a catalog of products and give users a quick and convenient option to buy—taking them from the awareness to the purchase stage as seamlessly as possible.
Take a look at this collection ad by The Spruce to create your own. The furniture brand paired a simple caption with a collection of its products to nudge people down the funnel. Its CTA encourages people to learn more about the subscription and visit the website.
How to create a shoppable ad?
Marketers can make a shoppable collection ad in three template styles:
- Storefront: includes one main video and three photos to drive traffic to the website
- Lookbook: includes multiple photos or videos to replicate a print catalog and share the brand story
- Customer acquisition: focuses on lead generation and conversions by increasing the click-through rate
Once you finalize a template, add your products and photos, include relevant links, and set the campaign details to publish the ad.
B. Instagram
81% of Instagram users discover new products and make purchase decisions via ads. That figure shows how Instagram is no longer just a photo-sharing app; it’s a marketer’s goldmine. With a wide range of ad formats for brands to experiment with, IG is a level ahead of most other social network platforms.
Since Instagram ads are integrated with the Facebook ad manager, all the micro-targeting options are available on IG as well. Besides, Instagram users are 58 times more likely to engage with branded content than Facebook and enjoy a 2.8 times higher ad recall value, making it the perfect place for marketers
Here are the five ad formats available on Instagram:
1) Feed ads
Feed ads are photo or video ads paired with a caption and a CTA. Instagram offers seemingly endless CTA options to add to photo ads for different objectives, such as app installs, catalog sales, store traffic, and reach.
Marketers can use these ads to create these single-image ads with a minimal creative that blends into a user’s organic feed. This would increase the impact of the ad without creating a jarring effect on the viewers.
Consider this ad by Dip Your Toes as an example. The ad includes a simple collage of three products with a minimal copy and caption.
How to create feed ads?
Feed ads work best for driving awareness and increasing the reach. Marketers can capitalize on this ad format to retarget website visitors and maximize brand recall.
To create a stellar IG feed ad, first select your campaign objective and target audience. Analyze your audience to see what ad type resonates the most with them. Design a graphic or produce a video ad based on your audience’s preferences, then pick a good caption and CTA before hitting publish.
InVideo can do the heavy lifting for you to create scroll-stopping video ads. Browse through thousands of ad templates to create a unique ad with interactive animations, text, elements and music.
2) Story ads
Instagram stories enjoy massive popularity and can do wonders for advertising. These full-screen ads can produce better engagement and click-through rates since viewers have to simply swipe up to act on the CTA.
Besides, since story ads are more immersive, they hold a viewer’s attention for longer. Here’s an example from Bodywise with a simple stop-motion animation video to draw the user into the ad and make them pause the screen to view the entire video.
How to create story ads?
Marketers can create story ads directly from IG's native editor or design a separate creative. Videos tend to work best on story ads. So, focus on short and snappy videos that reflect your brand personality.
Before you start designing your ad, decide the objective and what you want people to do once they view the ad. Since users tap through stories really quickly, design your ad in a way that it delivers the message. Place your branding up front to improve the ad recall value and add punchy music to create a great viewing experience.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to produce videos for this ad format, InVideo has you covered. You can choose from a range of story ad templates with text animations, great music, and product placement to start driving conversions.
3) Video ads
Video is another wildly popular ad format on Instagram. Video ads allow you to show your products or processes in action to convey the core value propositions. Videos conveying a story also capture and retain viewers’ attention.
Marketers mostly use IG reels and stories for video ad placement, like this ad by British Airways. The 10-second ad quickly highlights the airline’s central message with a simple CTA to book now.
How to create video ads?
Instagram is gradually becoming a video-first platform, and video ads work like a charm in any format. When creating a video ad, remember to include human faces more than design elements to create a more natural viewing experience.
Make sure your video starts with an irresistible hook in the first few seconds for viewers to see the entire ad. Instead of making your videos too sales-y, build a rapport with the viewers and offer them the promise of solving their pain points. Put this content in the right aspect ratio and you’re ready to hit publish!
Use InVideo’s range of readymade and fully-customizable templates to get professional-looking video ads ready in minutes.
4) Carousel ads
Carousel ads present a compilation of up to 10 images and videos in a single swipeable post. You can add a unique caption and CTA for each image/video to direct traffic to the correct webpage.
Marketers create carousel ads to spotlight a collection of products, primarily for eCommerce—like this ad by Creatures of Habit. The ad includes a collection of 10 products with a different caption to specify each product’s name.
How to create carousel ads?
Instagram carousels enjoy the highest engagement rate among all content formats on the platform. So, a carousel ad can bring higher visibility and boost brand awareness. eCommerce brands can also run carousel ads to promote a sale for particular products or launch a new catalog.
Creating a carousel ad is the same as making a multiple-image post. Select up to 10 photos or videos that you want to include in your ad, customize the caption for each media, and edit them if required. You can also pick catchy and uncommon CTAs to intrigue the viewers.
5) Shopping ads
While Instagram introduced its shopping feature only in 2020, it's been a massive hit among users, with 44% using IG to shop weekly. This popularity of the shopping feature makes IG shopping ads a worthy investment.
These shoppable ads come with a product tag and checkout options to enable a quick and smooth shopping experience. So, brands can drive engagement, re-engage existing shoppers, and reach net-new shoppers through this ad placement.
This ad by H&M shows how it's done. The ad shows a catalog of four products. When a user clicks on it, the ad opens up a gallery of products, leading them to the H&M website.
How to create shopping ads?
Shopping ads are ideal for ecommerce businesses. Brands can create a catalog of their best products and send the user from the discovery to the purchase stage in only a few clicks. Since these are photo-only ads, create high-quality images to appeal to maximum viewers and compel them to hit that shop now button.
Before you start running these ads, set up your IG shop to allow users to check out easily. For starters, you have to select the business objective and specify the ad budget. Set up the instant checkout options to let potential buyers quickly place their orders. In the end, you can select your metrics for these ads.
C. Twitter
Twitter is a booming hub for marketers, mainly in the B2B domain. The social network offers unique targeting options based on keywords and engagement levels.
The best part: you only pay when the users take action—the engagement and impressions are completely free! So, if you run an ad to get more traffic on your product page, you'll only pay for the number of clicks on your ad.
Twitter ads perfectly complement your organic content marketing strategy for social media. It enhances brand interaction and allows new audiences to discover your brand. Besides, Twitter enjoys a wide variety of demographics, suitable for brands targeting different age groups.
Here are the three ad formats available on Twitter:
1) Promoted tweets
When you promote a tweet to expand its reach and boost engagement, it becomes a promoted tweet ad. This tweet works like a regular tweet with the option to like, retweet, and comment. However, it comes with a promoted tag at the bottom.
This tweet by GitHubIndia is a great example. The tweet includes an announcement for a workshop with a video about what the workshop will include. The tweet’s CTA is to visit the workshop’s website to register and block your calendar.
How to create promoted tweets?
Promoted tweets work best for the awareness stage of the funnel. It spreads the word about your company and enhances brand recognition.
When promoting a tweet, cut the fluff and jump straight to the point instead of confusing your audience. Pair up your text with strong visuals to make the tweet more appealing. Don’t add any unnecessary hashtags and focus strictly on delivering your message.
InVideo has many fully customizable tweet ad templates that you can use. Simply shoot or compile your footage, replace it in the template, enhance the ad with text, music and animations and you’ll have it ready in minutes!
2) Promoted accounts
If you want to increase your number of followers, Twitter allows you to promote your brand account as well. The promoted account ad reaches people who aren’t following you and spotlights the main parts of your profile, like the display and cover images, the account name, username, and bio.
Promoted accounts come with a prominent follow button and a promoted tag, like this tweet by The Barista Bar. This ad will pop up on the users' feed and in the "Who to follow" section.
How to create promoted accounts?
Promoted account ads are best-suited for brands just starting their Twitter marketing strategy. It can put you in front of a broader audience and build some stable momentum as you scale. Since these follower ads will pop up in several places, make sure your account has a catchy headline, display picture, and cover image.
3) Promoted trends
Another way to maximize engagement and increase the ROI from Twitter advertising is to run promoted trend campaigns. A promoted trend appears in the top 10 list in the “Trends for You” section.
Promoting a trend can drive conversations around the hashtag and improve brand consideration. For instance, The Barista Bar promoted a trend with its hashtag to encourage people to talk about the coffee brand and tweet using this hashtag. The brand created a lot of buzzes and significantly increased its following as well!
How to create promoted trends?
Marketers can promote a trend to highlight a unique brand initiative or generate buzz around a new launch—people are 3x more likely to click on this ad format. Come up with a creative and unique hashtag that instantly clicks with your target audience and attracts a high number of tweets.
These trend ads run for 24 hours, bringing significant traction from the intended audience. Use trend takeovers before a big announcement—like a product launch or a new seminar. You can also pin a relevant tweet on top, followed by user tweets. Use creative swapping and Tweet Engager targeting to maximize the ROAS.
D. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a platform for decision-makers, especially for B2B players. Every four in five LinkedIn users has the power to make buying decisions. So, if you’re not running ads on the platform, you’re leaving money at the table. Plus, LinkedIn ads are comparatively simpler to make.
Here are the three ad formats available on LinkedIn:
1) Sponsored content
Sponsored content on LinkedIn works similarly to a promoted tweet. When you boost an organic post to reach a wider audience and get more engagement, your post will appear the same as usual, only with a promoted tag under the brand name.
Here’s an example from Forbes to see this ad format in action. Forbes published a blog with a short snippet in the caption. This promoted post garnered hundreds of likes and views for the blog.
How to create sponsored content?
Sponsored content works equally well for company pages and personal profiles. This ad format maximizes your usual traction, profile visits, and follower count. So, it's best suited for brands looking to amplify awareness and visibility.
Remember to add an image or video in your sponsored posts to improve performance. A headline <60 characters using the word ‘you’ to address the audience can produce better results. You can focus your message on sharing advice, educating the viewers, or presenting interesting offers.
2) Text ads
LinkedIn also offers text ads that require minimal effort and work on a cost-per-click model, similar to Google ads. These text ads are visible on the right side of your feed when using the desktop version.
Brands can add a uniquely creative, pick a clear heading, and add a short description for these ads. While they don't promise excellent results, they're worth the investment for small or medium-sized companies.
How to create text ads?
Creating textual ads on LinkedIn is easy. Visit the campaign manager and create a new ad campaign. Add your text and graphic for the campaign and include the right link to redirect users. Make your text as enticing as possible to get people to click. Then hit publish to make your ad live.
3) Graphic ads
Like all other platforms, LinkedIn also allows companies to run photo-only ads with a creative, caption, and CTA. These are the most common ad formats on the platform since they advertise a brand while working as an organic post. So, users can engage with the ad and click on the CTA to maximize the results.
Here’s how Trello used this ad format to expand its reach. The ad contains a clear design that showcases the product and promotes its primary value proposition. Coupled with a short and punchy caption and a powerful CTA, the ad does its job perfectly well!
How to create graphic ads?
When posting a graphic ad on LinkedIn, create an appealing design that strikes the right chord with your audience. You can also use rich media to level up your ads. Once you have the design ready, focus on clear and crisp messaging that can potentially convert the audience.
Add a shortened URL with the caption and top it off with a strong URL to produce the desired results.
Also, LinkedIn, just like other social media platforms allows you to run video ads. You can either promote an organic video post or run a separate video ad through the Campaign Manager. It’s best to create short-form video ads on LinkedIn as reportedly, videos under 30 seconds reported a 200% increase in completion rate. To know further, check out this article by LinkedIn on best practices to create video ads.
You can also easily create LinkedIn video ads using InVideo’s online ad maker, and create visually-attractive ads that convert, even if you’ve never created a video before.
E. Snapchat
Snapchat is a big hit among millennials and GenZ, with nearly 20% of app users under 35 years. Snapchat has lucrative opportunities for brands targeting the younger generations, given this demographic profile. Plus, marketers can get started with Snapchat advertising for as little as $5 and skyrocket their visibility.
Here are the four ad formats available on Snapchat:
1) Snap ads
A snap ad includes a single image or video that works the same way as an IG story full-screen ad, asking viewers to swipe up. You can create a snap ad video of up to 180 seconds and add a CTA to drive action.
This ad by Blinkit shows a minimal creative with a CTA to install the app. The ad highlights Blinkit’s biggest selling points and sells an offer at 75 off on the first order.
How to create snap ads?
Marketers can replicate Blinkit’s snap ad by creating an on-brand ad graphic or video. Since it’s only six seconds long, make the creative as innovative as possible to hook the viewers’ attention from the very first second.
InVideo can make your job easier with a fantastic video ad template. Select, edit, and publish ads using any templates. Try this one for starters.
2) Collection ads
Snapchat collection ads present a catalog of products for users to view and buy instantly. Like Facebook collection ads, this ad format includes many product images that redirect the user to the product page to finish their purchase.
Nykaa used this format to convert an influencer video into a collection ad by making a collection of all the products used in the video. A viewer has to only click on any products to land on the product page and place an order.
How to create collection ads?
eCommerce brands can make the best use of collection brands. Add photos and videos for multiple products or highlight various USPs for a single product using collection ads.
Focus more on the hero message—the main photo or video in your ad. Make it convincing enough for viewers to click on the product links. Pair up your design with a strong CTA. To ensure that your ad gets maximum clicks, try not to include multiple products and keep the safe zones (~450px) clear of any text or logos.
3) AR Lenses
Augmented reality lenses were first introduced on Snapchat and have since become a great feature for advertising. Businesses can design unique face lenses that promote their offering or brand. When Snapchatters posts pictures and videos using a branded lens, it directly increases brand recognition and creates buzz.
FabFitFun created this fun lens to sell its offer of $10 off for the first box. The beauty brand designed a cosmetics-related filter to give users a virtual feel of its box.
How to create AR lenses?
Marketers can follow FabFitFun's lead to get creative with Snapchat lenses. It's one of the unique ad formats that drive organic visibility for a brand.
One of the first things to consider when designing branded AR lenses is the experience you want to deliver. Focus on your product and create lenses that best depict its user experience. You can also consider gamified lenses that boost engagement. Other styles include makeup, face paint, and accessories.
4) Commercials
Commercials come with a six-second window before a viewer can hit the skip button. These snap ads show on a user’s curated feed and can easily blend into other stories, like this ad by Liberty Mutual Insurance. The ad features real humans going about their daily lives to create a more natural appeal for the video.
How to create commercials?
Commercials are great for brands with a video production team. You have to come up with an irresistible hook that entices people within the first six seconds and retains their attention till the end. This would ultimately nudge them to take the desired action. Use linear storytelling in your commercials to sustain the viewers’ attention till the end. Reflect your brand personality in your creatives that makes people share the ad with more users. And if you want to create videos for these ads instead of using images, you can do so using InVideo’s online video editor.
F. Pinterest
With a monthly active user count of 433 billion, Pinterest has endless results to offer social media ad teams. Its use as a search and discovery tool means Pinterest users come to the platform with commercial search intent. So, running ads can naturally translate to more conversions.
Here are the three ad formats available on Pinterest:
1) App Install Pins
App install ads show CTA-driven pins that redirect people to the App Store or Google Play Store. These ads show a clear install button and serve only one purpose—to boost app downloads.
This ad format is designed for brands with a mobile app. So, if you're an eCommerce brand or a SaaS solution offering a mobile app, use the app install pins to multiply app downloads.
2) Shopping Pins
Shopping pins are one of the most shared ads on Pinterest. Since most Pinterest users come to the platform for inspiration and research, brands run shoppable pins to convert this research activity into sales.
You can add different tags on a pin for various products. When users click on any tag, they're redirected to the product page to place an order.
How to create shopping pin ads?
Shopping pins are the same as Instagram shoppable ads. You only need to add a tag for each product and link the product page to take the viewers to the desired web page—swiftly completing their journey from discovery to purchase.
You can create buyable pins from your Pinterest Business account. Add your products in a hidden board first and add a descriptive copy with a CTA to these pins. All you need to do is promote each pin as shopping pins.
3) Video Pins Ads
Pinterest users consume over one billion videos in a single day. Creating video ads can bring an additional boost to your brand reach and bring more potential buyers into the funnel. These ads work the same way as standard pins with a promoted tag to differentiate them from the organic feed.
Kohl's video pin ad focuses on educating the audience to ultimately drive sales. Unlike a traditional ad, this video pin shares tips on a brand-centric topic to inform the viewers about Kohl's products.
How to create video pin ads?
Marketers can create video ads for Pinterest from virtually any type of video—whether it's promotional or informational. Aim to meet your video's search intent, and users will automatically take action if they find it helpful.
You can recreate Kohl’s educational ad tactic and make a scroll-stopping video ad using InVideo templates. Here’s a great template to get started with
4. How much does social media advertising cost?
Ads can be heavy on your pocket. The costs with social media ads can add up depending on how big you want the reach to be. So, before you start drawing out a strategy for social media ads, it's crucial to understand how much a campaign might cost and estimate a realistic budget.
A report by The Content Factory estimated the range for social media advertising to be within the range of $1000 and $20,000 per month. This cost varies for different platforms, such as:
- Twitter: $2,000-$4,000 per month
- Facebook: $2,500-$5,000 per month, highest being $9,000
- Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest: $1,000 or more individually
Another report by Falcon calculated the average cost per impression for different platforms. Here are the insights:
- Twitter: $6.46
- Facebook: $7.19
- LinkedIn: $6.59
- Instagram: $7.91
Multiple other factors come into play when you're fixing up your advertising budget. However, these figures would give you an estimated range, to begin with.
5. How to create your social media advertising strategy
Your advertising efforts might fall flat if you don’t have a solid strategy to guide your campaigns. A start-to-finish advertising strategy outlines all tactics and techniques required to achieve the expected results.
Here are six steps to chalk out the perfect roadmap for advertising through social media:
Step 1: Prepare the right groundwork
Create a proper foundation for your ad strategy by answering the most basic questions. Start by defining your ad campaigns' what, why, and how. Consider these questions:
- Why do you want to run this campaign? What are the goals you want to achieve through this campaign?
- Who are you targeting? What does your primary target audience look like in demographic and behavioral traits?
- What does your audience want to see? What are your ideal buyer’s likes, dislikes, and shopping preferences?
- How do you want to portray your brand? What is your brand voice and personality that these ads should reflect?
Answering these questions will create the foundational framework you need to produce stellar ads that increase the return on ad spend.
Step 2: Define your biggest selling points
The trickiest part of strategizing social ads is the content you'll present. Once you've completed the first three steps, your research will guide you towards ideas that can potentially produce significant results.
To ensure that you’re capitalizing on the best material, do this simple exercise:
- List down your buyers’ biggest pain points
- Identify your value propositions for each of these pain points
- Write down your brand differentiators that set your apart from the competition
You can convert any idea for these three points into an ad that offers people a unique, must-have solution.
Step 3: Create compelling ads
The success of your ad campaigns boils down to your ad creative’s overall appeal. If your photos or videos fail to hit the right chord with your audience, your ads will not produce the best results.
Here’s how you can create convincing ads that persuade people to take action:
- Decide the main goal and messaging for your ad
- Choose the platform, ad format, and media type to create tailored designs
- Create quirky visuals that align with your brand personality and campaign goals
- Decide on a powerful CTA that maximizes clicks
If all these steps seem like too much work, use InVideo’s social media video maker. Select a relevant template from the massive template library, tweak the templates to match your ad’s message, and resize the video for any platform in a few minutes.
Step 4: Spy on your competition
Competitor analysis is a crucial step in chalking out your social media ad strategy. Take this opportunity to see what your competition is up to and create a plan to one-up their social advertising game.
Follow these proven strategies for competitor benchmarking:
- Conduct a competitor analysis to identify gaps in their strategy and find opportunities
- Leverage social listening to monitor their ad activity for relevant keywords
- Stay on top of all social media advertising platforms to understand which competitor is doing well on which channel
Spying on your competition is the easiest way to discover what resonates with your target buyers without spending a penny from your ad budget.
Step 5: Audit your existing social media performance
If you think social media advertising is wildly different from organic marketing, think again. Ads on social media are increasingly becoming an extension of organic marketing because brands don't wish to disrupt a user's average browsing experience.
So, marketers turn to their organic feeds to pinpoint what kind of content gets the maximum engagement. Once you find out the type of ideas your audience likes, convert them into any ad format and experiment!
This collection ad by Sephora perfectly complemented the beauty brand’s organic feed and created a stand-out experience for the viewers. The brand used Custom and Lookalike Audiences for this collection ad. This snappy ad resulted in a 41% higher click-through rate than any other Sephora ad.
Step 6: Track, review, iterate, repeat
Testing and optimizing your ads for the best performance is a no-brainer. However, most brands forget to track this performance once their ads go live.
Once you start seeing some results—good or bad, document them from scratch. This is important to visualize your campaign’s progress over time and understand the factors leading to success or failure.
All social media platforms offer in-app analytics to measure ad performance. However, you can also consider tracking UTM parameters for your website traffic to get granular insight into each platform's contribution.
6. 5 pro tips on social media advertising
So, you’ve prepared a fail-proof strategy for social media marketing ads. You’ve also assembled a dream team to execute the campaigns from start to finish. But despite all this preparation, success might not come easy in the face of fierce competition.
So, how do you set your ad posts apart from the streams of advertisements flooding social media feeds? Here are five easy tips for creating the secret sauce for success:
Tip #1 - Double down on video ads
Video grabs attention, eases comprehension, and boosts retention. A video ad combines all these benefits with a higher click-through rate on social media channels. So, increase video content production to create the right impact with your paid marketing strategy.
The best part is that video advertising is increasingly gaining momentum as more social media platforms incline towards video content. So, brands can quickly capitalize on video ads with the right resources to produce good content.
Here are a few best practices to level up your video advertising game on social media:
- Create a script and storyboard for your video before jumping into production
- Test videos on the phone to identify the ideal placement of the caption
- Accurately size your videos for the platform where you’ll post them
- Focus equally on the thumbnail for in-feed ads to capture viewers’ attention
If you want to scale your video advertising efforts, you can quickly create video ads through InVideo’s readymade templates. Simply shoot your video, replace it in the template, add music, effects, overlays, and text to make your ads more engaging and clickable.
Tip #2 - Prioritize mobile-friendly design
Almost all social media platforms are mobile-first. This is evident because over 3.25 billion users access social media apps from their phones. So, creating mobile-friendly ad designs is the only way to deliver a frictionless viewing experience.
Keep mobile in mind at every stage of your strategy, from ideation and scripting/writing to designing and optimization.
Follow these tried-and-tested practices to ace mobile advertising:
- Pick media over text to convey the message quickly
- Keep your copy crisp and concise irrespective of the space you get
- Aim to match content consumption patterns for video ads
- Create videos with subtitles or text animations for non-audio viewers
Most social media activity happens on a small screen. So, your designing and testing process should be on a mobile instead of a desktop.
Tip #3 - Show more human faces
You’d be surprised to know that nearly 92% of ads with human faces get more attention than ads without humans. It all boils down to building an instant connection with your audience and winning their trust in your brand.
A human face literally humanizes your brand and gives viewers something familiar to relate to. Besides, human photos can also increase memory retention and help with brand recall.
So, whether you’re creating a brand story ad, a static ad, or a slideshow, including human photos to promote your product can produce better results. Sleepy Owl’s video ads went viral on social media because of their interesting take on advertising. Their mute ads featured their marketing manager making coffee and promoting different products.
You can follow Sleepy Owl’s lead and make intriguing ads using InVideo’s diverse range of readymade templates with sound effects, music, text and overlays to stop the user from scrolling without taking action from your ad.
Tip #4 - Be crystal clear about targeting
No two ad campaigns are the same. Each campaign on every social platform will target a different audience and keywords. So, your advertising strategy has to clearly map out the target users for every single ad you’re planning to run based on:
- Ad format
- Platform
- Content type
For instance, if you run a story ad on Instagram, buyers from younger generations are more likely to come across it. On the flip side, a collection ad on Facebook is more suited for older buyers.
So, jot down the micro-targeting specifics for each ad to enhance the outputs from your campaign.
Tip #5 - Create custom audiences
A custom audience goes beyond the boundaries of your primary audience filters to reel in more people who might be interested in your offering. Instead of confining to the social media channel’s filters, a custom audience factors in website visitors, email subscribers, and people in similar brackets.
You can build warm custom audiences to rope in people who have previously interacted with your content or profile. Here are a few criteria to create this custom audience set:
- Users who have engaged with any of your posts in the last 2-3 months
- People who visited your brand profile in the last one month
- Users who visited your website in the last one month
- A list of users who have subscribed to your email but do not engage with your social media activity
Custom audiences are the key to unlocking massive reach and engagement for your ads on social media. So, create a custom audience for each platform to optimize your ad performance.
Wrapping up
Social media advertising can supercharge your marketing strategy to amplify brand reach and skyrocket engagement, ultimately resulting in conversions. Bookmark this guide to come back to when you’re creating your social media ad strategy from the ground up.
To know more about video advertising, give this post a read. And if you’re more of a visual learner, our YouTube channel is filled with sharp video editing tips and tricks so you can level up your video game.
This post was written by Komal and edited by Adete from Team InVideo
