Social Media Ads- (Here’s How to Increase Sales)

Social media ads can pay off! You can use them to engage your online audience, grow your brand, and, most importantly, increase sales. In fact, Akus digital solution found that social media ads are one of the top digital marketing strategies with the highest ROI. 

In this article, you’ll learn some of the most effective tips for using social media ads to drive sales and revenue. 

Before we dive into social media ads, we need to understand the difference between social media marketing and social media advertising.

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to engage with your audience, build your brand, drive web traffic, and increase sales. This involves uploading good content on social media, applying strategies to grow your following, and running ads.

Social media advertising, on the other hand, is paying for your social presence by promoting content on social platforms. Over the years, digital marketers have noticed a decline in organic reach for brands due to changes in Social media algorithms, prompting marketers to invest in online ads to meet organizational goals.

A social media ad campaign is paid for content on social platforms. Social media ads such as, Facebook ads for eCommerce are intended to achieve a particular goal such as page likes, engagement, or conversions like web traffic or event registrations. However, while all social media platforms offer advertising options. Furthermore, it does not mean that you should use them all. Your business goals should help you determine what platforms are best to set up ads on. Otherwise, you’ll end up overspending on ads without getting the desired results.

Ways to increase sales on social media 

You’ll need to implement different social media marketing strategies in order to make sales online. Here’s how you can get started.

• Create content that your audience will engage with.

This involves taking quality pictures that will prompt your customers to take action. Every like, share, retweet, or even a follow goes a long way in creating brand awareness and generating sales leads.

• Setting up Ads.

Boost your best content so that it reaches a wider relevant audience. Social media ads have proven to turn visitors into leads and customers.

• Influencer marketing.

Influencers have become a vital part of online marketing, especially on leading social media platforms. Partnering with either top influencers or micro-influencers or who have a large presence and authority within your industry can help influence customers’ purchasing decisions.

Can social media marketing boost sales?

With the right social media ads sales strategy in place, your business can attract visitors who convert to purchasing customers. Social media is a free and easy way to increase brand awareness. Prospective clients get to know about you and see your work before making a purchasing decision. To an extent, it acts as a portfolio of you and what you’ve done. If you want to get more conversions from social media, it’s advisable to set a budget for social media ads. However, creating a successful social media ads campaigns requires digital marketing skills to ensure you achieve intended goals without overspending.

How social media marketing increases sales

Social media marketing increases sales by putting your business in front of millions of people who become purchasing customers. You’ll need the right tools and strategies to make sure your content reaches the right people, those who are most likely to interact and take action on your business.  Consider social media advertising which is beneficial on both direct and indirect revenue.

For instance, online shopping has become second to nature for a lot of consumers and businesses. Setting up an ad can put your content in front of the right audience.  Exploring different marketing strategies such as collaborating with brands and influencers increase visibility and solidify brand authority.

For example, you can create social media ads for restaurants with sales incentives such as discounts and giveaways as a way to attract more new customers.

Strategy for Social Media Sales

In order to make sales on social media, you have to be proactive with your efforts. Here are some social media strategies you can implement in order to boost sales.

• Identify your target market.

Do some research and identify your target audience. Conducting a competitor analysis helps you identify who your competitors are selling to. You can also get insights about who your customers are and where they spend their time online using inbuilt social media analytics tools like Facebook Insights.

• Curate quality content

Content is king. Create content that your customers will want to engage with. Most importantly, make sure the content is great, and the captions are catchy complete with calls to actions and value prepositions. For example Social media ads for musicians can include images and videos of the artist in a concert optimized with relevant keywords and trending slogans. 

• Promote content 

Set a budget aside for social media advertisements. Be sure to promote content that has already performed well organically.

• Work with influencers 

Identify top influencers in your industry and engage them to help you increase business sales.

Types of social media sales

There are a lot of businesses that can make sales through social media marketing: Below are some example for business that can hugely benefit from social media ads.

Consumer Goods

Restaurants, Hotels, Coffee Shops, Food manufacturing companies, and cloud kitchens can market and sell delectable meals via social media platforms.

Products

Product vendors such who sell items as clothes, beauty products, electronics, Autospares, building materials, online stores, toys and so much more. In addition, businesses in the construction and manufacturing industry, Engineering and Oil and Gas can also use social media for brand visibility and sales leads.

Services

Service providers such as Real Estate services, hospitality and tourism, financial institutions, (Banks, Sacco, Insurance services providers, etc.,), hospitals, transportation, entertainment, can reach potential customers and close sales via social media. In addition, educational Institutions such as primary Schools, Universities and Colleges leverage on social media to inform and attract potential students.

Social media sales funnel

A social media sales funnel is the path that your customers travel through from the minute they get to know about your brand online to the moment they make a purchase. The ideal social media funnel comes to an end when a customer becomes a true advocate of your brand.

The sales funnel framework that applies to most businesses is outlined below:

• Awareness – Potential customers become aware that your business exists.

• Familiarity – engaging with your audience and standing out from competition so that your new followers remember you.

• Consideration – Consumers ask questions and express interest in your business over your competitors.

• Action – compel users to take action and make a purchase.

• Purchase – customers contact your business for purchases or click on the “buy now” buttons.

• Loyalty – Continued engagement with your brand after purchase.

Social media sales funnels can help you build trust and create an authentic community of fans. Investing in each step of the framework will help your brand continue to grow.

Conclusion 

Social media advertising is an essential aspect in business. It largely helps your brand reach a lot more people. With the right advertising campaign and clear knowledge on who to target, you are bound to get sales leads.

Getting started with social media ads is important for the following reasons:

• Drives targeted traffic to your website
• Generates more sales for your business
• Grows your brand online

Setting up and monitoring ad campaigns can be a bit of a task. However, enlisting the help of the best social media marketing agency can help you use strategies that will bring you a return on investment.