Can a social network be an ad network at the same time? The answer to that varies on the type of business that you have, the products or services that you’re selling, and more importantly, your target audience. Do some research on how your customers use social media, and you’ll be able to determine if advertising on Facebook or Twitter will be effective for your brand.
The types of ads that you choose display are also crucial to the effectiveness of your campaign. Different social media sites have different ad products so be sure to determine which of the various types of ads are right for your business.
This post will give you an overview of the different ad offerings that you’ll find on the two most popular social networks on the web: Facebook and Twitter.
Like most online ad networks, Facebook also has its own self-serve ads platform where you’ll be able to build your campaign. Facebook allows you to target your audience (by location, interests, demographics, etc), customize the text and graphics of your ad, and set a daily budget. These ads will then be displayed on the right hand side of the page and will be seen by Facebook members that fall under the locations and demographics that you set.
Facebook has also begun releasing a tool called “Promoted Posts” for page owners. If your business has a page on Facebook, you can use this new feature to widen the reach of your updates and posts. Prices for Promoted Posts start at $5 and will go up depending on the number of fans that you have. For example, AdMedia’s Facebook page has over 5,000 fans. When we look into promoting our posts, Facebook’s tool indicates that $5 can extend the post’s reach to 2,200 more users while $10 can amplify the post’s reach to 4,300. Note that these numbers will vary from one page to the next and the amount of extra reach that you’ll get also depends on your fan count.
Twitter also has its own self-serve ad platform to allow business owners to promote their company on the microblogging site. The two main products that Twitter offers include Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts.
With the former, Twitter will examine your most successful tweets and promote them to your target audience. Promoted Tweets will appear on searches as well as on the Twitter feeds of relevant users. The latter on the other hand, promotes YOU instead of your tweets. If you choose the Promoted Accounts product, Twitter will put your account on the “Who to Follow” lists for relevant users.
Both Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts have a budget-friendly system wherein you’ll only pay for actual results. If you have Promoted Tweets, you’ll only pay if someone interacts with your posts (i.e. Retweets, replies, or favorites). The same goes for Promoted Accounts; you’ll only be charged for the followers that you gain. Additionally, you’ll be able to set a daily cap on how much you can spend to ensure that you don’t blow your budget.