Five Basics Steps to Creating Social Media Advertisements

Did you know that the average person is exposed to over 5,000 advertisements every day?

In today’s world, advertisements have saturated our society so greatly that we almost don’t even realize they’re there. They’ve woven their way into every corner of the physical and digital world: the billboards we pass on the highway, the videos we watch online, the feeds of our social media — everywhere.

Social media advertising in particular is becoming more and more popular — and it’s pretty lucrative, too. 

In fact, 27 percent of internet users said they find new products and brands through paid social ads, and 92 percent of Instagram users in particular said they’ve followed a brand, clicked on their website, or made a purchase after seeing a product or service advertisement in their feeds.

If you want to drive sales, create newfound connections with potential consumers, and grow your company to new heights, then you’ve got to work hard to break through the crowd and create the perfect advertisement to post on your social media platforms.

Because according to a study, weak social advertisements elicit a negative emotional response in less than a second — and negative emotional responses won’t lead to connections, sales, or anything besides consumers wanting nothing to do with your brand.

But don’t let that scare you! After you read the rest of this blog, you’ll be ready to run an advertisement that really resonates.

Step 1: Identify a Concrete Goal

The first thing you’ll want to do before you’re ready to dive into the world of social-media advertising is to identify the main goal of your ad campaign.

Ask yourself what you want the advertisement to offer: Is it to explain how to use your products? Provide a glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes? Share a customer story? Direct people to visit your website? Promote an ongoing sale?

After you’ve identified your concrete goal, give yourself a pat on the back — you’re ready to move onto the next step.

Step 2: Identify Your Target Audience

The second thing you’ll want to do is to identify your target audience. Demographics are super important where advertisements are concerned — you don’t want to promote your products to the wrong people.

To get started, focus on the ideal person you want to reach, considering age, gender, location, interests, or even things like job title and income. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram will have internal tools you can use to identify the groups you’re trying to target, but it’s important to understand who you’re trying to reach if you want to create content that drives action.

Step 3: Create the Content

After you’ve got your goal and ideal consumer in mind, you’re ready to tackle the fun part: content creation!

When writing your copy, make sure those first steps you took stay top of mind. For example: If you’re trying to promote an ongoing sale of beauty products to middle-aged women, don’t start your ad by writing something like, “What’s up, dudes?”

This might seem a little obvious, but it’s incredibly important to parallel your copy to your goals and ideal consumer. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on reaching them completely.

If you’ve done the work to properly identify who it is you’re trying to talk to, then all the right words should flow from your mouth like a coursing river.

But the most important thing you want to do in your writing? Incorporate a clear call to action.

A call to action is a short sentence or phrase directly tied to the goal of your campaign that will serve as the vehicle that elicits action from your viewers. Provide some background on whatever it is you’re trying to promote and bring it all home by using impactful phrases like “Head to our website to learn more!” or “Give us a call at (555) 555-5555 if you’ve got any questions.”

In addition, you’ll also want to include a visual element in your advertisement. You can create a graphic that outlines the details, post a short video explainer, share a photo of how your products are made, and so much more. There’s really no right or wrong way to incorporate visual elements — just make sure they push your goal forward instead of serving as a distraction.

A very important note: Advertisements on Facebook are subject to a review process, and posts with a lot of visual copy (re: text in a graphic or photo) are considered “low quality” and won’t be boosted. You can head to this link to upload your image to ensure the post you want to share will actually run.

Step 4: Set a Budget/Timeline for Your Ad Campaign

Now, you’ll want to think about your budget. You’ll have full control over how much you spend on your advertisements, with prices starting at just $1.00 per day — but the more you pay, the higher your reach. For each budget level and target audience, Facebook and Instagram will provide you with an estimated reach.

Here’s a little example of how this works: If you’re targeting people living in the United States over the age of 18, spending $2 will reach between 163 and 872 people, $5 will reach 432 to 2,070 people, and $15 will reach 1,506 to 6,834 people.

You’ll also want to think about how long you want your campaign to run. Is it a day? A week? Indefinitely? It’s entirely up to you, and if you ever want to cut it short, you can always go in and manually turn off your payments.

Step 5: Decide Which Platform to Use

Depending on all the above — and also in conjunction with the above — you’ll need to decide which social media platform you want to advertise on.

Facebook and Instagram are great places to start, and they make the whole process super easy for you. Facebook reports lower brand engagement, but video advertisements posted on this platform get over 8 million daily views. Instagram is great for photos and brings about more brand engagement, but doesn’t do so well with videos.

A great way to figure out what’ll work best for you is to try out different types of advertisements and track which bring about the most engagement. Spending time and money up front to really do a deep dive into how people respond to your advertisements will only make things easier for you down the line.

But if you think you could still use a little help in creating the perfect social media advertisement, our team here at OpticTour would love to lend a hand. Whenever you’re ready, give us a call at (512) 814-0270, and we’ll teach you how to cater paid advertisements, content creation, and all the best digital marketing tools directly to your growth.