Social media has taken over the world in a lot of powerful ways. We look towards our social networks to tell us what's new, what's going on with our friends and family, what we should wear, and even what we should have for dinner. It only makes sense that companies be there too, ready to provide a solution for our search.
Setting up a social media presence is an excellent strategy for a company to create relationships and reach new customers. However, organic reach only gets you so far. At some point, you're going to want to start utilizing paid advertising to get real results. Read on to learn more about how to use paid advertising on social media to accomplish your restaurant's marketing goals.
One of the biggest reasons to use social media advertising is that that's where your customers are. In the U.S., 69 percent of adults use Facebook, 37 percent use Instagram, 27 percent use LinkedIn, 24 percent use Snapchat, and 22 percent use Twitter. Few other sites have this kind of broad reach available.
Social media also offers a unique opportunity to reach your potential customers when they're already in an impressionable mood. People go on social media when they're looking for something, have a question, or to see what's hot and new among their friends and idols. When you can target the right people and share your product at the right time- customers are usually more willing to spend their money on it.
There are two ways to do social media marketing: organic reach and paid reach.
Organic reach comes from the content you put on your business's page without any additional promotion. Organic reach can grow when people engage with your posts by sharing them, writing comments, or giving them likes. In general, organic reach tends to be limited to a percentage of your follower list.
Paid reach comes from advertisements that get promoted beyond your group of followers. Social media platforms use a set of demographics to target your potential customers and place your ads on their feeds. You can set a budget for your campaign and determine the number of people that see your advertisements.
Facebook is one of the most popular choices for paid advertising, and it's easy to see why. Facebook has the largest social media following of any platform, and its advertising system is affordable. You can spend $2, $200, or $2,000 or an ad, depending on your budget, and their target demographic system is very sophisticated.
Facebook can also blend organic and paid content. You have the option to create ads from scratch, or if you have a post that's doing especially well among your followers, you can choose to boost that post, spreading it to a whole new audience of potential customers.
Once we start getting into Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn, we begin to lose the universal appeal that Facebook holds. It's important to know your demographics and whether it's worth it to do paid advertising on Instagram. More women use Instagram than men, and more than half of adults under the age of 30, use the platform. If your target customers are young women, Instagram advertising can pay off.
Facebook and Instagram are now part of the same company giving you the benefit of both platforms. If you're already advertising through Facebook, you can link that same ad campaign to Instagram. You can also set up Instagram-only ads through the Facebook platform. During this process, you can also decide if you want your ad to appear in feeds or stories.
Twitter's audience is primarily comprised of men under the age of 30. It's one of the fastest-growing platforms for paid advertising. Your ads there will be subtle, blending into a user's feed. The only signal that it even is an ad will be a small "Promoted by ___" label at the bottom of your post.
With Twitter advertisements, you have three options for the type of ad you want to run: promoting your account, promoting a trending hashtag, or promoting a specific tweet. These options allow you to reach your audience in a way that works best with the type of content you've created. Like with Facebook and Instagram advertising, you can set your budget for Twitter ads as well.
Snapchat is overwhelmingly a young person’s game and is a notably important platform for those generations. According to one source, 39 percent of U.S. teenagers ranked it as their most important social media platform. Ninety percent of Snapchat users are under the age of 24, and most of them are women.
Like Twitter, Snapchat offers a few different options for paid advertising. You can create Snap ads that show up on Snapchat stories, geo-filters, and sponsored lenses. These last two options allow users to engage with your brand in fun ways that can boost their interest in your restaurant.
If more of your customers are business-driven professionals and not so much the selfie-snapping teen type, LinkedIn advertising can be an excellent option for you. The site is home to more than half a billion professionals, and advertising your restaurant on the platform can lend a sense of professional clout. Most LinkedIn users are men, and more than 70 percent of them live outside the U.S.
Set up your business showcase page on LinkedIn to show off specific products or services you offer. You can also create dynamic advertisements or sponsored content that specifically targets your potential customers.
Using paid advertising on social media is a smart move for your business. Most U.S. adults use social media, and the audience targeting capabilities are hard to beat. We’re in a new age of advertising, and social media is the key to success.
If you’d like to get help managing your social media ads, reach out to us! Targetable takes the guesswork out of advertising on Facebook and Instagram to give you professional campaigns that reach the right audience for your restaurant. Get a demo and learn how we can help take your advertising to the next level!
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