When creating a marketing plan, it’s easy to stick with the familiar TV, print and online banner ads. While these are all essential components to reaching a target audience, there’s another type of ad that can greatly enhance a comprehensive plan: social media.  Facebook, Linkedin and Yelp are some of the top social media sites in which advertising can be used. Here at LimeGreen, three particular sections come to mind when planning an online marketing campaign with social media components.

1) Target - It is ideal to hone in on who you want to target (rather than have too large of a group). Even if this reduces the size of  your audience, it will almost guarantee that your message will be received. For example, if you are using Facebook advertising to promote a university fundraising event, you may choose to target a list of people who are alumni of the university, ages 25+, who reside in the city where the event will take place.

2) Ad Content - When designing an advertisement for social media, getting creative with language and images is crucial. You want your ad to be unique and to stand out. To accomplish this, create ads that prompt your audience to ask questions and learn more. For example, if you place an ad for a restaurant, including an eye-catching image of the venue or one of the dishes, combined with language that pinpoints the restaurant’s value, will grab your audiences’ attention.

3) Constant Optimization and Monitoring – Staying on top of your ad campaigns is vital. The goal is to reach as many people as possible and, in return, have a positive response. By constantly checking up on your tailored advertisements, you can ensure that your desired audience is being reached. If you notice you are not getting the response  you anticipated, change it up by either broadening your target or testing new language and content in the ads. The perfect ad campaign comes from constant tweaking and optimization until your campaigns have hit their sweet spot.

By following our three steps, integrating social media advertisements into your marketing plan can be a great step to increasing exposure to your target audience and ultimately increasing your business’ ROI.