20 Social Media Advertising Tips for Small Businesses

Are you a small business owner who is looking to start advertising on social media?

If so, you’re in luck! In this blog post, we will share 20 social media advertising tips for small businesses. By following these tips, you can create successful social media campaigns and have a social media strategy that will help your business grow.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!

1. Figure out where your target audience hangs out online.

Social media can be one of the best advertising strategies for small businesses when you find your target audience’s preferred platform. This is the first and most important step in effective social media marketing. If you don’t know where your target audience is spending their time, you’ll have a hard time reaching them with your social media efforts.

Do some research to find out which social media channels are most popular with your target demographic.

RELATED: What Social Media Platform Is Best For Small Businesses?

2. Create engaging content.

Your social media marketing will only be effective if you’re able to capture attention and hold interest. That means creating quality content that is relevant and interesting to your target audience. Brainstorm ideas for ad campaigns that will speak to the needs and interests of your target market and make your social media strategy a success.

3. Make sure your ad campaigns are visually appealing.

Visuals are key on social media, so make sure your ad campaigns and posts include images or videos that will grab the attention of your target customer. Hire a professional graphic designer to create visuals for your ad campaigns, if necessary, or try a free tool like Canva to design yourself.

RELATED: Graphic Design for Non-designers

4. Use effective calls to action.

Your ad campaigns should include clear and effective calls to action that encourage your target audience to take the desired action. Whether you want them to click through to your website or download a coupon, make sure your call to action is clear and easy to follow.

RELATED: Call To Action Examples You Need To Get More Customers

 

5. Target your advertising campaigns specific to each social network.

Each social media network has its own unique advertising opportunities and capabilities. Make sure you’re taking advantage of all the targeting options available to you on each platform.

For example, Facebook and Instagram allow you to target ads based on interests, demographics, and even behaviors. This means you can reach your ideal customer with laser-like precision.

Twitter also offers a variety of targeting options, including keywords, interests, and even locations. This makes it easy to reach your target audience on this platform.

LinkedIn provides yet another way to target ads through its use of professional networks and groups. This allows you to reach a highly targeted audience with your ads.

Each social media network provides unique opportunities for small businesses to target their ads. By taking advantage of all the targeting options available, you can ensure that your ads are reaching your ideal customers.

6. Take advantage of social media tools.

There are a number of social media tools available that can help you save time and money while running your campaigns. Utilize these tools to streamline your advertising efforts and improve your results.

To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best social media tools for small businesses. Whether you’re looking to boost your online presence or better engage with your customers, these tools will definitely come in handy.

🛠 Zoho Social

Zoho Social is a great social media tool for small businesses because it offers a suite of tools to help you manage your social media accounts in one place. With Zoho Social, you can create and schedule posts, track who’s talking about your brand, and measure your performance with analytics. Plus, Zoho Social integrates with over 35 business applications, so you can manage your social media accounts alongside your other business tasks.

🛠 Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a powerful social media management platform that lets you monitor and post to all of your social media accounts in one place. It’s especially useful for small businesses, as it can help you save time a lot of time by simplifying your social media workflow.

🛠 Buffer

Buffer is another great social media management tool that’s perfect for small businesses. Just like Hootsuite, it lets you post to all of your social media accounts in one place. But what sets Buffer apart is its ability to help you schedule your posts in advance. This can be a huge time-saver, especially if you’re running a busy social media account.

🛠 CoSchedule

CoSchedule is another great social media tool for businesses that want to save time by scheduling their posts in advance. But CoSchedule goes one step further than Buffer by also allowing you to manage your blog posts, email newsletters, and other marketing tasks from one central platform.

 

🛠 Meet Edgar

If you’re looking for a social media tool that will help you keep your content fresh, Meet Edgar is a great option. Meet Edgar is a social media management tool that allows you to recycle your content so you can easily repurpose it and share it across your social media accounts.

With Meet Edgar, you can schedule your posts in advance, and the tool will automatically publish them for you. Plus, Meet Edgar makes it easy to track your performance with analytics so you can see what’s working and what’s not.

7. Test your ad campaigns.

Always be testing and improving your ad campaigns for maximum effectiveness. Try different versions of your ads to see which ones perform best, then make adjustments as necessary.

Social media analytics will help you address which campaign is doing best, and you can make adjustments based on the data. This allows you to make changes on the fly, control your budget and prevent wasted time and money.

8. Keep an eye on your competition.

See what kinds of social media advertising campaigns your competition is running and take note of what’s working well for them. You can learn a lot from observing the successes and failures of others in your industry.

Follow their social media accounts so you can keep an eye on what they’re doing, or you can use social media management tools like Zoho Social to make this even easier.

9. Use relevant hashtags.

Hashtags can be a great way to reach new people on social media. Use relevant hashtags to get your posts in front of people who might not otherwise see them.

Some hashtag best practices are:

1. Use hashtags that are relevant to your brand or business
2. Use hashtags that are popular and trending
3. Don’t use too many hashtags
4. Use a mix of general and specific hashtags
5. Monitor your hashtag usage
6. Be creative with your hashtag usage
7. Have fun with your hashtags!

10. Offer discounts or coupons.

People love getting a deal, so offering discounts or coupons in your social media advertising can be a great way to attract attention and encourage conversions.

The best way to do this is to send your audience to a landing page where you exchange their email address for the coupon. This will allow you to grow your email list and integrate your email marketing with your social media marketing strategy. Win-win!

RELATED: Freebie Funnel Template for Coupons, Giveaways and Freebies

11. Host a contest or giveaway.

Contests and giveaways are another great way to engage potential customers and get them interested in your product or service. Brainstorm some creative ideas for contests and giveaways that will align with your advertising goals.

🛠 Use a tool like Woobox, EasyPromos, Gleam, or Wish Pond to make your contest easy to run and fun.

12. Collaborate with influencers.

Influencers can be a great way to reach new people on social media platforms. Find influencers who align with your brand and collaborate with them to promote your product or service.

13. Use Boosted / Sponsored Stories or Posts.

Many social networks offer sponsored stories or posts, which are essentially ads that get placed in a user’s newsfeed. These can be very effective, but they need to be well-targeted and relevant to the user in order to avoid being ignored or scrolled past.

14. Consistency is the name of the game.

The best strategy for social media marketing is consistency. The more you can be consistent, the better your social media strategy will pay off, the faster you will grow, and the more engagement you will get on your pages. There are several ways you need to be consistent:

1. With your style: Look like the same person, the same business, across everything you do.
2. With your frequency: Post in a frequent manner that you can uphold.
3. With your engagement: respond to your comments, reviews, and questions timely.
4. With your message: some social channels may be more casual than others, but your messaging and tone should still remain consistent.

15. Use retargeting ads.

Retargeting ads are a great way to keep your product or service top-of-mind with potential customers who have already shown an interest in what you have to offer.

These ads display to users who have visited your website or taken some other action that indicates they might be interested in your product.

16. Monitor your social media advertising spend.

It’s important to keep an eye on your social media advertising spend and make sure you’re getting a good return on investment. Track your results and adjust your budget as necessary to ensure you’re making the most of your advertising campaigns.

Social media platforms make it very easy to create your own ads and manage your own account and budget, but that also makes it very easy to accidentally spend more than you intended with little return.

I always suggest starting your budget low until you have an ad campaign that is working, and then scale it and spend more.

17. Optimize your ad campaigns for mobile.

With the majority of social media users accessing social platforms via mobile devices, it’s essential to optimize your small business advertising campaigns for mobile. Make sure your ads are properly sized and formatted for mobile devices and that they’re being delivered to mobile users who are most likely to convert.

18. Ask Questions.

With every social platform, the most important thing is engagement. Posts that get more engagement get shown to more people. And if you want more engagement, the easiest way is to ask for it. By asking questions or for opinions, many are likely to respond.

You can ask simple questions or even controversial ones (like whether pineapple belongs on pizza. if you said yes, we can’t be friends. 🤮).

Or a fun one is to show a close-up of an image related to your business and ask, “what is this (wrong answers only). These kinds of fun and engaging post can easily go viral, even if it’s just viral for you.

19. Create lookalike audiences.

Lookalike audiences are a great way to reach new people who are similar to your existing customers. These audiences can be created on many social media platforms and are typically very effective at driving conversions.

20. Keep your advertising goals in mind.

It’s important to keep your advertising goals in mind at all times and make sure every aspect of your campaign is working towards those goals. Track your results and adjust your strategy as necessary to ensure you’re on track to achieve your advertising goals.

Pay attention to which social media platform is getting you the best results. There may be a time when you want to put more effort into one particular platform and less into another. Social media marketing is flexible, so continue to pivot, test different strategies, and keep moving toward your small business goals.

Small business social media marketing works!

Social media advertising is a great way for small business owners to reach new customers and grow their business.

Keep these social media tips in mind to create successful social media advertising campaigns that will achieve business growth and social media success.

Social Media Marketing FAQs

1. How do small businesses advertise on social media?

There are many ways that small businesses can advertise on social media. Some popular methods include creating informative posts, using relevant hashtags, and partnering with influencers. Each network has its own advertising platform, so you can reach your target audience easily.

🎯 How to Advertise on Facebook or Instagram

🎯 How to Advertise on YouTube

🎯 How to Advertise on TikTok

🎯 How to Advertise on LinkedIn

2. What are the 5 key components for social media advertising?

The 5 key components for social media advertising are reach, engagement, conversion, leads, and sales.

✔️ Reach refers to the number of people who see your content. The more people that see your content, the more likely you are to get conversions and sales.

✔️ Engagement is the number of people who interact with your content. The more social media engagement you have, the more likely people are to remember your brand and convert into customers.

✔️ Conversion is the number of people who take the desired action after seeing your content. This could be signing up for a newsletter, purchasing a product, or downloading a white paper.

✔️ Leads are potential customers who have shown interest in your product or service but have not yet made a purchase. Nurturing leads can turn them into paying customers down the road.

✔️ Sales are the number of people who have made a purchase after seeing your content. This is the ultimate goal of social media advertising. By increasing reach and engagement, you can increase sales.

When planning your social media advertising strategy, keep these 5 key components in mind to create content that will reach more people, engage them, and lead to conversions and sales.

3. How can I make my business popular on social media?

There are a number of things you can do to make your business popular on social media. Creating interesting and engaging content on social platforms is a great way to start. You can also use relevant hashtags, partner with influencers, and run ads.

Using these advertising ideas for small businesses will help your business not only be more popular but, more importantly, it will be more profitable.

4. What social media platform is best for small businesses?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. It depends on your business goals and objectives. However, some popular social media platforms for small businesses include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

RELATED: What Social Media Platform Is Best For Small Businesses?

5. How do I promote my business on Facebook?

There are a number of ways you can promote your business on Facebook. Creating a Page for your business is a great way to start. You can also use relevant hashtags, post consistently, partner with influencers, and run Facebook ads.

6. What are the best Facebook advertising tips for small businesses?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best Facebook advertising tips for small businesses will vary depending on your specific business and goals. However, there are a few general tips that can help you get started with Facebook advertising:

1. Define your target audience.

Who do you want to reach with your ads? What are their interests and demographics? The more specific you can be about your target audience, the better able you will be to create ads that resonate with them.

2. Create compelling ad copy.

Your ad should have a clear message that speaks to your target audience’s needs or desires. Use strong visuals and persuasive language to make your ad stand out from the rest and will boost engagement.

3. Use Facebook’s targeting options.

Facebook offers a variety of targeting options that allows you to specifically target your ads to your target audience. Make use of these options to ensure that your ads are being seen by the people who are most likely to be interested in them.

4. Monitor your results.

Keep track of how your ads are performing and make changes as needed. Try different types of ads, different targeting options, and different ad copy to see what works best for your business.

By following these social media advertising tips, you can create effective social media posts and ads that will reach your target audience and help you achieve your social media marketing business goals.

Interested in learning more about social media advertising? Check out my digital marketing courses.