Social media has evolved quite a bit over the past few years. Once about organic posting, social media marketing offers ways to interact with consumers on every step of the buyer’s journey.

Sometimes organic social efforts just aren’t enough. Paid ads allow brands to reach a larger and more targeted audience. The good news is that implementing paid along with your organic social efforts isn’t too difficult.

Whether you’re auditing your paid ads strategy or you are starting it from scratch, it’s a simple tactic to master if you tap into the following 9 ways to get more out of your paid social media ads.

Wondering if paid social media ads are truly effective? We think they are. Afterall, 75% of brands use them showing that it’s an effective way to reach consumers or else so many brands wouldn’t be doing it.

Ready to see how you can supercharge your paid social efforts today? Let’s thoroughly explore 9 strategies.

Get Rid of Everything You Know About Advertising

The first thing to note about paid ads is that they should come across organically and authentically.

Have you written promotional ads for your brand in the past? Get rid of this knowledge. Unlike self-promotional and “salesy” messages you may have used for other marketing strategies, your paid social ads need to come across as educational or they should display thought leadership.

Paid ads work best when they offer social proof. So putting budget behind testimonials, UGC, influencer-generated content, etc. is more effective because these social ads will come across as non-promotional. 

Utilize Influencer-Generated Content

Speaking of social proof, a lot of brands are realizing the value of working with influencers to earn engaging videos. These brands then dice up the earned videos and optimize them for social ads.

Consumers would rather hear from a third-party than from your brand and amplifying your earned influencer-generated content for paid ads is brilliant.

Keep in mind that in addition to an influencer’s fees, you will most likely pay a small fee in addition to licensing the content in paid social ads. 

Experiment with Video

Video gets more impressions and engagement than static social posts. In fact, video gets 10x the engagement than an image with text.

So if you want your social ads to stand out, you should consider making the majority of your ads video. 

Consult Your Buyer Personas

It’s crucial that you have a thorough understanding of your buyer personas before implementing paid social ads. 

This knowledge of characteristics pertaining to your customers will shape your strategy. For instance, which channels are they active on? Or what is their location? What pain points do they encounter that my brand solves?

You get the gist and buyer personas will get you on your way to crafting an amazing paid social ads strategy. If you haven’t created buyer personas yet, no worries! Here is a free template. 

Make a Time Sensitive Offer

Since the majority of consumers have made a purchase from something they saw on social media, it’s clear that utilizing paid ads to expose your products to new consumers works.

Sometimes social media users see a product on a platform and make a mental note to buy it later. In order to create a sense of urgency and speed up the customer journey, make your ad so that it displays a short offer.

Cater Your Ads to Each Platform

Not only are there different demographics on each social platform, there is also a unique vibe on each platform.

Take TikTok as an example. The audience is a little younger and the vibe is laid back and humorous. You wouldn’t put the same videos on TikTok and Facebook.

To learn more about catering your paid ads to each social platform, check out this post. 

A/B Test Your Ads

The beauty of social media ads is that you can put a small budget behind a few of them, see which one is converting best and then put the rest of your budget behind the top performing ad.

Create multiple ads experimenting with audience, CTAs, messaging, video, etc. 

Utilize “Look Alike” Functionality

Once you’ve analyzed data on your initial paid social ads, you’ll be able to identify the audience that your messages resonate with the most.

Using robust look alike functionality in your social ads, you can find new consumers to target by implementing filters pertaining to your best customers.

Instagram and Facebook offer very advanced look alike functionality on their platforms. 

Be Smart With Your CTAs

Your paid social media ads are meant to inspire new audiences to complete an action. This could be to download a piece of content, sign up for something or even make a purchase.

In order to steer audiences in the right direction, make sure your CTAs are well thought out and clear.

Do you have any tips for paid social ads? We’d love to read all about your input in the comments below!