Social Surge: How Small Businesses Win Big with Paid Social Ads

As a small business owner, you may be brainstorming techniques on growing your reach and engagement on social media. This can be a daunting task when deciding where to start and what content should be displayed to reel in potential customers. Paid social ads are advertisements that businesses pay to display on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to reach a specific, targeted audience. Let’s dive into how you can create a game plan to grow your small business.

The Strategy (Setting the Stage)

The first step you can take in the process is to set SMART goals that align with your business goals. This may be “increasing website traffic by X% or generate Y Leads”, These goals are important because they can provide a framework that turns vague ideas into clear, actionable plans, that can increase success. This will help you identify and define your audience, go beyond your standard demographics (e.g. age, gender, geography) and understand psychographics (e.g. interests, behaviors, pain points) this will capture a larger audience that is looking to satisfy their needs.

Photo By MileIQ

Choose The Right Platform

When determining which platform to use for your advertisements, be sure to analyze your target audience, the platform users, and what content will be shared. Focus on where your ideal customer spends time, not just where your business wants to be. Each platform offers different audiences and ways to advertise.

Platform	Types of Users
Instagram	Visual, inspiration, aesthetic seekers
Facebook	Broad, diverse, relationship keepers
X	News, opinion, real-time conversation
YouTube	Video content, long-form learners
TikTok	Short-form, entertainment, trend followers

Build the Ad Campaign

You may be thinking, “how much will this take of my budget?”. It is fine to start small possibly testing a small ad campaign. Prices do vary between platform; some may offer ads by the hour/day and other platforms offer CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per mile/thousand impressions).

When creating videos make sure you have a compelling hook that grabs attention in the first 3 seconds. Use high quality visuals (video vs. image) that is seamless on the timeline and packed with information on the product/service that you are offering. End off the visual with a clear, single-minded call-to-action (CTA). It may also be helpful to drill down on specific interests and behaviors that are relevant to your niche to ensure your ads show up on the feed your targeted audience.

Launch, Monitor, and Optimize

When launching your campaign be sure to double-check to ensure your content is optimized to run successfully.  Always focus on metrics that matter for your audience growth like reach, frequency, and engagement rate. Remember the goal is conversion, ask yourself “did the ad achieve the business goal?”. While your first time may not produce the results you are looking for, it doesn’t hurt to incorporate A/B testing that includes different products, hooks, and graphics to see what creates the most conversion.

Your Social Surge Awaits

Paid Social Ads are great ways to scale your audience as a small business owner. Outline your strategy, choose the right platform, build your ad campaign, and launch, monitor, and optimize. Launching an ad campaign is not an easy task, but with a solid game plan and an allocated budget, you are on your way to becoming a campaign connoisseur.