Social media advertising is a crucial element of modern branding and marketing endeavors, particularly for those seeking to increase brand awareness and cultivate a community of potential clients. The primary focus of social media advertising is on the upper funnel – the awareness and consideration stages – which serves to familiarize users with the brand, even if they are not yet ready to make a purchase.

There are several key advantages to utilizing social media advertising, including:

Enhancing brand recognition and increasing awareness: By advertising on social media, businesses have the opportunity to showcase their brand and demonstrate to users why they should consider choosing their brand over competitors.

Gaining insights about the target audience: Through social media advertising, businesses can gather data that can be used to improve their next campaign and optimize their performance.

Boosting engagement rates: In addition to increased reach, advertising on social media is an effective way to increase audience engagement rates. By presenting relevant content, businesses can attract the attention of their audience and guide them further down the sales funnel.

Increasing inbound traffic: Social media ads can significantly increase inbound traffic, particularly for users in the upper funnel who may not yet be ready to make a purchase but are interested in learning more about the brand.

Generating and improving brand loyalty: By building relationships with potential and existing customers through social media advertising, businesses can strengthen their brand loyalty and encourage customers to continue supporting the brand.

Cultivating a brand community: Social media platforms are an excellent venue for the development of a brand community, which can be particularly beneficial for businesses looking to nurture word-of-mouth marketing efforts.

In terms of trends in social media advertising, while broadly speaking (although it always depends on the brand at hand), Facebook and LinkedIn are currently the most commonly utilized platforms, TikTok and Twitter are also gaining popularity and offering new features and functions for modern digital marketers. TikTok, in particular, has seen impressive growth, with over 1 billion monthly active users and 62 million installs in January 2021 alone. Companies can leverage this platform by running branded challenges, collaborating with trending content creators, and partnering with influencers. Twitter is focusing on performance-based advertising and expanding offerings for small and medium businesses, and has already generated $1.05 billion in revenue from ads in the last quarter. Instagram is another popular platform, known for its focus on visual content and boasting 500 million daily active users.  

In summary, social media advertising is a vital component of modern branding and marketing efforts, allowing businesses to increase their brand awareness, engage with their target audience, and drive success for their brand. By utilizing advanced targeting options, tracking campaign success, and testing different ad formats, businesses can effectively reach their target audience and achieve their marketing goals.