Benefits of Paid Social Advertising
Paid social advertising is one part of a broader digital media strategy, using paid placements on social media channels to reach audiences beyond a brand’s organic followers.
But access to paid social doesn’t mean every advertiser should simply put more money into social media.
Paid social works best when it’s part of a larger media strategy, with the right audience, channel, objective, message and measurement approach working together.
Here’s what advertisers should understand about the benefits of paid social and how to determine the role it should play in the broader media plan.
What Are the Benefits of Paid Social Advertising?
Paid social advertising can help advertisers:
- Reach relevant audiences beyond their existing followers
- Build awareness and generate demand
- Support multiple stages of the customer journey
- Take advantage of visual and video ad formats
- Test audiences, messages and placements
- Measure performance against defined campaign objectives
- Complement search, streaming video, audio, programmatic and other media channels
The specific benefits depend on the campaign. Paid social is most effective when its role is defined by the audience, objective and broader media strategy.
1. Paid Social Advertising Helps You Reach the Right Audiences
One of the biggest advantages of paid social advertising is the ability to extend a brand’s reach beyond its organic social audience and use paid media to connect with people who align with the campaign’s goals.
Paid social can give advertisers ways to build audiences using characteristics relevant to their campaigns, as well as opportunities to reconnect with people who have previously interacted with a brand. Available targeting options vary by channel and can change over time.
But having more targeting options doesn’t automatically result in a better media plan.
The real advantage comes from starting with a clearly defined audience and then determining where and how to reach that audience effectively.
Understanding that audience is a foundational part of effective media planning, as we discuss in The Power of Knowing Your Market.
That might mean reaching a broad group to build awareness, focusing on a more defined audience with a relevant message, reconnecting with people who have already shown interest, or using different audience strategies at different stages of the customer journey.
Paid social can give advertisers considerable control over who they are trying to reach. The media strategy determines how best to use that capability.
2. Paid Social Can Build Demand, Not Just Capture It
Some advertising channels are especially effective at capturing existing intent. Someone searching for a particular product, service or solution may already be relatively far along in the decision-making process.
Social can play a different role.
People don’t necessarily encounter paid social because they’re actively searching for a particular product or service. That creates an opportunity for advertisers to introduce a brand, product, service, event or entertainment property earlier in the decision-making process.
Paid social can play different roles throughout the customer journey:
- Awareness: Introduce a brand, product or idea to new audiences.
- Consideration: Give people a reason to learn more, watch, visit or engage.
- Action: Encourage a desired response, such as a lead, registration, stream, download, ticket sale, subscription or purchase.
- Re-engagement: Reconnect with people who have previously interacted with a brand.
That’s why advertisers shouldn’t automatically classify paid social as either an awareness channel or a performance channel.
Its job should be determined by the campaign objective.
Advertisers often need to balance near-term response with longer-term brand building. A strong media strategy gives each channel a defined role in supporting those objectives.
3. Paid Social Supports Visual Storytelling
Paid social is often a highly visual advertising environment, making the assets available to a campaign an important media-planning consideration.
TEC Direct Media doesn’t develop creative, but the creative assets available can influence which channels, placements and formats make sense for the media plan.
When developing assets for paid social, advertisers and their creative partners may want to consider:
- Whether the asset is appropriate for the intended channel and placement
- Whether the primary message can be understood quickly
- Whether video communicates the message effectively from the beginning
- Whether important information works well on smaller screens
- Whether multiple versions are available for testing
- Whether the format and length are appropriate for the placement
- Whether the intended next step is clear
Depending on the campaign and channel, available formats could include video, static imagery, carousels and other channel-supported options.
From a media-planning perspective, the important question is less about which creative approach is “best” and more about whether the available assets, audience and media environment work together.
Understanding media requirements early can also help an advertiser’s creative team or agency prepare appropriate versions before the campaign launches.
4. Paid Social Provides Opportunities to Test and Learn
Paid social gives advertisers opportunities to test different approaches and learn from the results.
Depending on the campaign, testing might include:
- Audience segments
- Messaging
- Images or videos
- Calls to action
- Offers
- Ad formats
- Placements
- Landing pages
The immediate goal may be to improve campaign performance, but the value of testing can extend beyond a single campaign.
For example, one message might resonate more strongly with a particular audience. One video might hold attention longer than another. Different audience groups might respond differently to the same offer or call to action.
Those signals can help advertisers identify patterns that may warrant further testing or investment.
In that sense, paid social can function as both a media channel and a learning environment.
The key is not to overreact to every change in performance. Advertisers need sufficient time, investment and response data to distinguish meaningful patterns from normal campaign fluctuations.
5. Paid Social Can Support Different Campaign Objectives
There isn’t a single definition of success for paid social.
For an awareness campaign, success might be evaluated through reach, frequency, video completion or changes in brand awareness.
For a campaign designed to encourage consideration, qualified website visits or content engagement may matter more.
For other campaigns, the desired outcome might be leads, registrations, streams, downloads, subscriptions, ticket sales, purchases or another meaningful action.
The measurement approach should follow the campaign objective.
That sounds simple, but it’s easy to lose sight of when advertising platforms provide dozens of metrics.
A large number of impressions may look impressive, but if the campaign was designed to generate qualified inquiries, impressions alone don’t tell you whether it succeeded. Similarly, a high click-through rate may be interesting, but clicks shouldn’t become the definition of success when they aren’t the campaign’s actual objective.
Deciding how success will be measured before the campaign begins helps keep media decisions connected to the outcome the advertiser actually cares about.
6. Paid Social Advertising Is Measurable, but Measurement Requires Context
Paid social can provide advertisers with considerable campaign data, including impressions, reach, clicks, video views, engagement and conversions.
That visibility is useful.
But more data doesn’t necessarily mean better measurement.
Consumers don’t experience advertising in isolated channels. Someone might encounter a social ad, search for the brand later, watch an online video, visit the company’s website directly and eventually take action.
Trying to award all the credit to a single interaction can create a misleading picture of what actually happened.
For some campaigns, platform reporting and website analytics may provide the information advertisers need. More complex, multichannel campaigns may benefit from additional approaches, such as brand-lift research, attribution analysis, marketing mix modeling or incrementality testing, to better understand how different media contributed to the result.
The IAB Implementing Cross-Channel Measurement for Marketers Playbook emphasizes integrating data from multiple sources to provide a more unified view of campaign performance and understand how different channels contribute to overall results.
The appropriate measurement approach depends on the campaign’s scale, objectives, available data and resources.
The goal isn’t to give paid social credit for every action. It’s to understand the role it played in helping the campaign achieve its objective.
Campaign monitoring and reporting are also important parts of TEC Direct Media’s approach to media accountability and measurement.
7. Paid Social Can Strengthen the Broader Media Mix
Consumers rarely experience advertising one channel at a time. They may encounter a brand through social, search, streaming video, audio or other media before eventually taking action.
The path isn’t always direct or linear.
That’s precisely why the larger media plan matters.
Paid social may work alongside search, programmatic media, streaming video and Connected TV, digital audio, television, radio, out-of-home and other channels. The right combination depends on the audience, campaign objective, geography, timing and budget.
Different channels can also perform different jobs. One might help introduce the brand, another might reinforce the message, and another may make it easy for an interested consumer to take the next step.
The question isn’t whether paid social is better than another media channel. It’s what job paid social should perform within the overall media plan.
That’s where strategic media planning becomes especially important.
How to Know If Paid Social Is Right for Your Campaign
Paid social deserves consideration when you:
- Have a clearly defined audience.
- Need to introduce your brand or offering to new people.
- Want to reach particular audience segments.
- Have appropriate visual or video assets available.
- Want the flexibility to test audiences, messages or placements.
- Have a meaningful campaign objective you can measure.
- Have sufficient budget and time to generate useful performance information.
- Want social media to complement other parts of your media plan.
But simply having an organic social presence isn’t a reason to advertise there.
Neither is the fact that your competitors are doing it.
Start with the audience and objective. Then determine whether paid social is one of the right tools for the job.
If you’re working through those questions, TEC Direct’s Media Strategy Checklist can help you think through objectives, channel selection and performance measurement.
How to Choose the Right Paid Social Channels
Choosing where to advertise should start with your audience and campaign objective, not with a predetermined list of popular social platforms.
When evaluating paid social channels, consider:
Audience fit
Does the channel provide a meaningful opportunity to reach the people who matter to the campaign?
Campaign objective
Does the advertising environment align with what you’re trying to accomplish, whether that’s awareness, consideration, response or another outcome?
Available creative
Do you have assets that can work within the channel’s formats and placements? If not, can your creative team or partner develop the necessary versions?
Audience targeting options
Does the channel offer appropriate options for reaching the audiences you’ve identified?
Budget
Can you invest enough to generate meaningful reach, frequency, response or learning?
Measurement
Can campaign performance be evaluated against the objectives you’ve established?
Role in the media mix
How will the channel complement the other media being used?
The goal isn’t to advertise across as many social channels as possible. It’s to choose the channels that give the campaign the best opportunity to reach the right audience and accomplish its objective.
The question isn’t whether paid social is better than another media channel. It’s what job paid social should perform within the overall media plan.
What Should You Consider When Planning a Paid Social Campaign?
Paid social platforms make it relatively straightforward to launch advertising. Deciding how paid social should fit into a broader media strategy requires more thought.
We believe effective paid social media planning starts with five principles.
1. Start with a clear objective
Define what the advertising needs to accomplish before choosing channels, audiences or metrics.
2. Understand the audience
Use available research and data to determine whom you need to reach and where you have meaningful opportunities to reach them.
3. Match the channel to the strategy
Don’t select a channel based solely on popularity. Consider its audience, advertising environment, available formats, budget requirements and how it complements the rest of the media plan.
4. Make sure the available creative fits the media environment
Creative development may happen outside the media planning and buying team, but the assets available still affect media decisions. Understanding specifications and placement requirements early can help the creative team prepare the necessary versions before the campaign launches.
5. Measure what matters
Select measures of success based on the campaign’s actual objective rather than relying on whichever numbers look most impressive in a platform dashboard.
Media Strategy Checklist
Paid Social Is Powerful. Strategy Makes It Work.
Paid social gives advertisers a valuable combination of audience reach, audience targeting options, flexible formats, opportunities for testing and measurable performance.
But access to sophisticated advertising tools doesn’t eliminate the need for media strategy. Having more options makes good planning more important.
Instead of asking only:
“Should we advertise on social media?”
Consider asking:
Who are we trying to reach? What do we want them to do? Where can we reach them effectively? What assets do we have available? And how should paid social work with the rest of our media investment?
At TEC Direct Media, we believe media planning should start with the audience and campaign objectives, not a predetermined list of channels. Paid social can play an important role in that plan, but it should earn that role based on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Ready to See Where Paid Social Fits in Your Media Plan?
Talk with a TEC Direct Media media expert about building an integrated media strategy around your audience, objectives and budget.
FAQs
What is paid social advertising?
Paid social advertising is advertising purchased on social media channels to reach selected audiences beyond a brand’s organic followers.
Depending on the campaign, it can support objectives such as awareness, consideration, website traffic, lead generation and other desired actions.
What are the benefits of paid social advertising?
Paid social can provide targeted audience reach, flexible ad formats, opportunities to test and learn, and measurable campaign performance.
It can also support different stages of the customer journey and complement other advertising channels. Its effectiveness ultimately depends on matching the right audience, channel, objective, assets and measurement approach.
What’s the difference between paid social and organic social media?
Paid social uses advertising investment to reach selected audiences, while organic social relies primarily on unpaid distribution of content.
Organic social can help brands communicate with existing communities and maintain an ongoing presence. Paid social provides more control over audience selection, distribution, campaign objectives and investment. The two aren’t necessarily alternatives.
Depending on a brand’s objectives, paid and organic social can play complementary roles.
How do I choose the right paid social channel?
Start with your audience and campaign objective. Then consider each channel’s audience fit, targeting options, available ad formats, creative requirements, budget needs, measurement options and role within the larger media plan.
Don’t choose a paid social channel simply because it’s popular. Choose it because it offers a meaningful way to reach your audience and accomplish the campaign objective.
When should you use paid social advertising?
Paid social may be worth considering when you have a defined audience, a clear campaign objective, appropriate assets and enough time and budget to generate meaningful results.
It can be particularly useful when you need to reach audiences beyond your organic following, build awareness, test audience or messaging approaches, or complement other media channels. The decision should begin with the audience and objective, not with the assumption that social belongs in every media plan.
How do you measure paid social advertising performance?
Measurement should reflect the campaign objective. Depending on the goal, relevant measures might include reach, frequency, video completion, qualified website traffic, leads, registrations, sales or brand lift. For more complex, multichannel campaigns, additional measurement approaches may help advertisers better understand how different media work together.
