Among consumers, Instagram topped the list for social shopping purchases in 2023. It is also the most frequently used platform for Gen Z (80%) and Millennials (72%). For Gen X, Instagram ranks second with 49% usage, and for Baby Boomers, it is the third-most-used platform at 33%.

But selling on Instagram isn’t as simple as posting product photos and calling it a marketing day.

If you want to turn your fans and followers into actual customers, you’re going to need a strategy.

In this guide, we break down the best practices of how to sell on Instagram and how to capture the attention of eager shoppers.

What is Instagram Shopping?

Instagram Shopping is a feature that allows businesses to sell on Instagram by integrating their product catalog directly into their profile. Businesses can show products, names, descriptions and prices on posts, Stories, IGTV and ads. With a click, users can buy from their favorite brands.

How does Instagram Shopping work?

Instagram Shopping allows your brand to tag products in their posts and Stories. Users can tap to see more information, like the price and product descriptions. They can then buy the item directly or be taken to the business’s website to finish their purchase. This easy-to-use connection makes shopping easy and accessible. It directly connects Instagram’s large UK user base with the newest products from their favorite brands.

How to set up Instagram Shopping in the UK

Regardless of what your goals are, there are a few steps every UK business will have to take to set up Instagram Shopping:

1. Make sure you meet eligibility criteria

To qualify for Instagram shopping, you don’t need to have a massive number of followers. As long as you maintain a fairly active and established presence, you’re likely eligible. The fundamental criteria to meet include:

• Operating a business within one of Instagram’s supported markets, which span across North America, Latin America, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), and APAC (Asia-Pacific).
• Agreeing to Instagram’s merchant agreement and adhering to its commerce policies.
• Owning an active domain from which you sell your products.

2. Create an Instagram business profile

Chances are you’ve already done this, haven’t you?

If you haven’t, here’s what to do:

1. Head to ‘settings’.
2. Choose ‘account’.
3. Change to a ‘professional account’ and complete the subsequent steps.

Find out more about creating an Instagram business profile; it only takes a minute or two.

 3. Link your Facebook profile

Even if your brand isn’t active on Facebook, your Instagram Shopping must be linked to a Facebook page. Fortunately, it’s really easy to do:

1. Start at ‘edit profile’.
2. Choose ‘Public Business Information’.
3. Click on ‘Page’ and add the Facebook page you want to link your Instagram shop to.

 4. Add your product catalog

Instagram Shopping offers two methods for adding your products to the platform:

1. Via Facebook Business Manager.
2. Through an integration with an e-commerce platform partner, like Shopify.

Using Facebook Business Manager is perfect if you’re looking to upload a smaller catalog or add products individually by hand. On the other hand, if you integrate with platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce, you can seamlessly import your entire existing catalog directly into Instagram.

How to sell on Instagram in the UK

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to selling your products on Instagram. Some strategies make more sense than others depending on your target audience and what you’re selling.

Below we’ve highlighted real-world examples of selling on Instagram and why they work.

1. Implementing strategic hashtags for broader discovery

Using strategic hashtags on Instagram can be a game-changer when it comes to increasing your product visibility and reaching a wider audience. Hashtags essentially act as search links, which makes it easier for potential customers to find your products through themed or trending searches.

UK fashion giant ASOS uses hashtags like #ASOSNewDrop or #ASOSSale to group their products and tap into specific customer interests, which ultimately increases engagement and drives sales. This type of hashtag use not only increases the discoverability of products, but it also aligns with how people use Instagram to find new products and brands. By selecting and using the right hashtags, you can significantly increase the visibility of your products and attract more targeted traffic to your Instagram shop.

2. Leveraging instagram ads for increased reach

Of course, many brands have found success selling through Instagram ads.
Taking advantage of creative ad types such as Stories and Carousels, such ads offer tons of flexibility and targeting options to reach customers shopping on Instagram. Healthy snack company, Graze did just that.

3. Use product tags to facilitate easy shopping

Using product tags on Instagram is an effective strategy for facilitating easy shopping, enhancing user experience, and driving sales directly from posts and stories. Product tags allow users to tap on an image and see details such as the product name, price, and a link to purchase the item directly from the Instagram app.

This seamless integration of shopping and browsing significantly reduces the steps a customer must take to go from discovery to purchase, thereby increasing the likelihood of conversion. A notable example is Charlotte Tilbury, which uses product tags to streamline the shopping experience. By tagging their makeup and skincare products in posts, they provide instant access to product information and maintain a smooth and engaging shopping journey. This approach not only simplifies the buying process but also capitalizes on impulse buying behaviors, which are common among Instagram users.

4. Partnering with influencers to boost visibility

Working with influencers can help you boost your visibility on Instagram. UK influencers can help you reach a larger, engaged audience and build brand awareness. They can also help you reach potential customers when they’re most active, inspire them to shop and create content that showcases your products in an authentic and relatable way.

ASOS are a great example of a UK brand leveraging influencer marketing for instagram shopping success. They regularly use influencers, insiders or employees who produce content specifically for the brand. This helps build brand awareness and trust among new audiences.
That’s why it’s important to choose the right influencers to work with and create a campaign together that feels genuine and aligned with your brand.

5. Engage your audience with instagram reels

Engage your audience with Instagram Reels, a powerful way to exhibit your products and connect with potential customers. Reels are short, engaging, and fun—and they make it easy to reach new audiences. They’re perfect for showing off new products, highlighting specific features, and sharing the human side of your brand.

Take Gymshark, the UK’s own fitness fashion powerhouse, as an example. Their Reels are a masterclass in workout demos, fashion reveals, and sparking community engagement with fitness challenges. Follow their lead, and your Reels can do more than just captivate—they can help forge a loyal and connected community around your brand. The more you post Reels, the more you’ll pop up on your followers’ feeds, nudging up your chances of interaction and drawing traffic to your profile, leading to more sales in the end.

6. Curate user-generated content to build trust

For UK-based e-commerce businesses, curating user-generated content (UGC) is a powerful strategy to build trust and authenticity around your brand on Instagram. UGC involves sharing content that your customers have created themselves, such as photos, videos or reviews of your products. This not only allows you to show off different, real-life applications of your product, but also capitalizes on social proof, as 93% of consumers find content made by other consumers to be helpful when making a purchasing decision.

River Island showcases its commitment to representing a wide range of customers and promoting body positivity. This not only helps to build trust with their audience but also sets them apart from other fashion brands. Overall, River Island’s use of UGC effectively showcases their products in a relatable and authentic way, making them a great alternative UK brand for this content.

When harnessed effectively, UGC can serve to humanize and enhance the ethos of a brand, nurturing customer loyalty and bolstering credibility. These are pivotal in the transformation of mere followers into loyal customers and in elevating the brand’s repute across social media platforms like Instagram.

7. Showcasing products through videos

Using videos to display your products on Instagram is a powerful way to engage potential customers and give them a more comprehensive look at what you have to offer.

You can enhance your Instagram videos with features like captions, stickers‌ and filters to make them more engaging and informative. You can post them on Instagram Stories, where they disappear after 24 hours, or on the main feed, where they’ll remain permanently. This flexibility allows you to create both timely (e.g., limited-time offers) and evergreen content (e.g., how-to guides) that can attract viewers repeatedly over time.

Using videos to showcase your products can increase people’s interest in your brand. Instagram videos also need to be optimized for the platform.

How to optimize your Instagram account for sales

Although it is easy to get caught in the aesthetics of Instagram, it’s also a fantastic platform for sales.

With millions of active users, Instagram offers a unique opportunity to visually showcase your products, connect with a targeted audience, and convert followers into customers. By fine-tuning your profile, using Instagram’s shopping features and employing strategic content and engagement tactics, you can transform your Instagram presence into a powerful sales channel. This guide will walk you through practical steps to enhance your Instagram account for maximum sales impact in the UK.

Create a compelling bio to attract customers

Consider the approach taken by Jo Malone London, the renowned British perfumery. The brand’s Instagram bio is a prime example of how to attract and engage potential customers effectively. It succinctly describes the company’s essence with phrases like “Uplift, warm or freshen” and “scent layering,” which immediately convey its luxury and focus on the customer.

The bio also includes a clear call-to-action with a link to their latest collection, encouraging immediate exploration of their products. By using elegant, evocative language and strategically placing direct links, Jo Malone London not only captures the essence of the brand but also makes it easy for followers to transition from Instagram browsers to active customers.

Utilizing high-quality, people-centric product photos

Boden, a popular British clothing retailer, exemplifies the effective use of high-quality, people-centric product photos on Instagram to drive sales. Their feed is a colorful array of images featuring real people wearing their latest styles in everyday settings, from bustling city streets to cozy home environments. This approach not only showcases the versatility and quality of their clothing but also helps followers envision themselves in Boden’s apparel.

By consistently posting relatable and aspirational photos, Bodan creates an inviting and personable brand image that resonates with their audience, encouraging them to imagine how they might look and feel in the garments, thus boosting the likelihood of purchase decisions.

Enhancing product photos to stand out

Take inspiration from Liberty London, the iconic department store known for its artistic and eclectic designs. Liberty London enhances its product photos on Instagram to stand out by incorporating its distinctive floral and graphic prints into the backgrounds and settings of the images. This not only highlights the uniqueness of their products but also maintains a consistent and recognizable brand aesthetic that catches the eye.

By using vibrant, pattern-rich scenes that complement the products, Liberty London creates visually striking images that draw followers in. This approach not only differentiates their offerings but also enhances the overall appeal, making each post a work of art that invites engagement and admiration.

Diversifying your content beyond products

Waitrose & Partners are a brand that effectively diversifies its Instagram content beyond just product promotion. Waitrose uses its Instagram platform not only to showcase its products but also to provide value through engaging and educational content.

One key aspect of Waitrose’s Instagram strategy is its focus on recipes. The brand regularly posts beautifully photographed dishes that can be made using ingredients sold at their stores. Each post typically includes a recipe or a link to the recipe on their website, encouraging followers to try cooking the dishes themselves. This approach not only promotes the ingredients and products available at Waitrose but also positions the brand as a helpful resource in the kitchen.

Waitrose also highlights its commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing through its Instagram content. The brand shares stories about its efforts to reduce plastic usage, its support for British farmers, and its commitment to animal welfare. These posts often feature behind-the-scenes looks at the sourcing process and interviews with suppliers, providing transparency about where their products come from and how they are made.

Additionally, Waitrose engages with seasonal and community events, such as Christmas, Easter, and local festivals, by tailoring their content to these occasions. This includes posts about special products, seasonal recipes, and community involvement initiatives, which help to keep the content relevant and connected to the customers’ lives and local experiences.

By diversifying its content in these ways, Waitrose not only keeps its Instagram feed engaging and varied but also strengthens its relationship with customers. This strategy helps build a community around shared values like culinary creativity, sustainability, and local engagement, making the brand about much more than just grocery shopping.

As a side note, this speaks to the importance of putting together a social media content calendar. With the help of social media management tools like Sprout Social, you can find a balance between promotional and non-promotional content. Doing so ensures that your followers are consistently engaged with the right marketing messages day-by-day.

How to measure ROI of Instagram Shopping

Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of Instagram Shopping is crucial for businesses aiming to optimize their social media strategies and ensure that their efforts aren’t only engaging but also profitable. Instagram Shopping offers a seamless integration of product discovery and purchase, making it an invaluable tool for brands looking to expand their online retail footprint. To effectively gauge the success of this feature, businesses need to track specific metrics that reflect both direct sales impact and broader marketing benefits. Understanding how to measure ROI on this platform involves analyzing data-driven insights, aligning them with overall business objectives, and continuously refining strategies to maximize returns. This process not only helps in assessing the financial gains but also in understanding customer behavior and improving future marketing campaigns.

Using Instagram analytics to track sales performance

In the highly competitive e-commerce market, utilizing Instagram analytics to monitor sales is crucial for those businesses looking to maximize the platform’s potential. This tool offers in-depth analysis to help brands comprehend the impact of their content on purchasing decisions and overall sales. By honing in on specific metrics provided by Instagram analytics, businesses in the UK can tailor their strategies to better engage with their customer base.

Key metrics to monitor are engagement rates, click-through rates and conversion rates. These can help you understand how well your content is encouraging potential customers to act. It’s also worth tracking reach and impressions to understand how many people are seeing your content, and saved posts as an indication of the number of people who are interested in your products and may return to buy in the future.

For a more in-depth evaluation, UK businesses can combine Instagram insights with other analytical tools such as Google Analytics, to map the customer journey from Instagram to the final purchase on their website. This integrated approach will provide a more thorough understanding of how Instagram campaigns are contributing to overall sales performance, thereby allowing businesses to allocate their marketing budget more effectively and achieve a better return on investment.

Optimizing posts and ads scheduling for maximum engagement

Maximizing engagement on social media, particularly Instagram, is all about timing. To get the most out of your posts and ads, it’s essential to understand when your target audience is most active. This requires analyzing your engagement data to identify the peak times for likes, comments, and shares. Thankfully, Instagram provides the tools you need to measure and monitor this activity. Once you have a better understanding of your audience’s habits, you can start to experiment with different posting and ad schedules to find what works best for you. By doing this, you can ensure that you’re posting and promoting your content at the most optimal times, and you’re more likely to see increased engagement as a result.

Monitor your sales performance via Instagram analytics

Lastly, don’t forget about your data.

So much of selling on Instagram revolves around your analytics.

For example, which product photos score the most engagement? How do your Instagram shopping posts perform versus non-promotional ones? How much of a direct ROI are you seeing from Instagram?

Sprout’s Instagram analytics can clue you in on the answers and then some. Our comprehensive reporting makes it a cinch to track paid and organic campaigns all in one place, including those happening beyond Instagram. You can start understanding your analytics now with a free trial of Sprout, you don’t even need a credit card.

With a constant pulse on your top-performing posts, you can better align your sales and social strategy without second-guessing.

What are you selling on Instagram?

Fact: consumers are more than happy to shop on Instagram.

And although brands don’t need to be subtle about selling on Instagram, sales don’t happen by accident.

Hopefully, these tips above serve as some much-needed motivation and inspiration to score sales on the platform. As long as you stick to Instagram’s best practices and keep a close eye on your analytics, you’re on the right track.

With technological advancements on Instagram making it increasingly simple to turn your Instagram feed into a money-making machine, now is the time to invest in your social commerce strategy. Many brands are yet to catch on to this fantastic opportunity.

The post How to sell on Instagram in the UK appeared first on Sprout Social.

With over a billion monthly active users, it’s a great place for brands looking to reach their target audience. While creating organic content is a good first step, investing in TikTok ads for your social media advertising strategy will further boost your brand’s impact on the app’s audience.

However, advertising on TikTok isn’t the same as advertising on other social channels. This post gives you a detailed overview of how to leverage TikTok advertising and what ads to try.

What are TikTok ads?

TikTok ads are paid marketing campaigns that help businesses reach specific audiences on the platform. They are customizable based on specific advertising goals, audience demographics, budgets and schedules. These ads appear between organic, user-generated content with a ‘sponsored’ tag and a call-to-action button, which viewers click to reach the ad’s landing page.

Most TikTok ads work on an auction model, where users specify a bid and daily spend limit for their campaigns. However, users can also use TikTok Promote to turn organic content into a paid advertisement.

TikTok Shop (TikTok’s suite of ecommerce features that enables brands, merchants and creators to sell products directly within the app) also has advertising features such as ads for users to promote their Shops to potential buyers.

Which brands should use TikTok advertising?

Many brands advertise on TikTok—Cetaphil, Nesquik and Vinted, for example. What these brands have in common is that their products are a natural fit for TikTok’s video format.

TikTok advertisers can show their products in action and pack a lot of information into a short video clip. This format may be challenging for B2B brands that sell difficult-to-illustrate services, but it’s ideal for B2C brands that want to move away from static ads and share engaging content.

How much do TikTok ads cost?

TikTok closely guards its pricing algorithm, which is based on a bid model. The platform recommends a minimum daily budget of $30 for North America and EMEA brands, and $20 for APAC brands.

Types of TikTok ads

TikTok offers plenty of options for advertising on the platform. It’s up to you to choose the most effective one to reach your target audience and get your message across. Here are the different types of ads for the TikTok ads platform:

• In-feed video: These ads appear in TikTok users’ native news feed on the For YouPage.
• Spark ads: TikTok rolled out this ad type in 2021, giving brands the ability to sponsor popular organic content related to their products.
• TopView ads: These ads are shown to users when they open the app. The full-screen, sound-on videos are great for capturing users’ attention.
• Image ads: Image ads include a brand or app name and text.
• Video ads: These are full-screen videos of 5 to 60 seconds that appear on a user’s For You Page.
• Pangle ads: Pangle’s video platform integrates with TikTok to offer video, native and banner ads, but this feature is available only to specific countries.
• Carousel ads: These ads include up to 10 images and appear in TikTok’s news feed apps.
• Video shopping ads: These video ads have product tiles that allow people to click through to a shoppable instant gallery page without leaving the app.
• Branded effects: Your ads can also appear as branded stickers, filters and other AR content so TikTok users can use them in their videos.
• Hashtag challenge: This type of ad is in the form of TikTok challenges that appear in the app’s Discovery section and encourage user participation.
• Sponsored influencer content: This is a TikTok advertisement where you get your message across through sponsored content from an influential TikTok user.
• Playable ads: Designed for gaming companies, these interactive ads allow users to try out a game before downloading.

How to set up ads on TikTok

Now that you know about the different types of TikTok ads, let’s look at how to set them up from your TikTok ad account.

Step 1: Create your TikTok ad account

The first step is simple: create a TikTok Ads Manager account. To set up a new account, visit the Advertising on TikTok signup page.

Enter basic information, like your email address and password. Then enter the verification code sent to your email. If you sign up with your phone number, you’ll need the verification code sent to your phone.

Confirm that you agree to the terms and conditions, then click on “Sign Up.” You’ll be prompted to provide more information about your business, such as your country or region, industry, legal business name, time zone, phone number, billing and payment information.

Once your brand is approved, log in to your dashboard and finish the initial account setup according to the instructions.

Then, follow the steps below to create TikTok ads.

Step 2: Create and install the TikTok Pixel

Now you’ll need to install the TikTok Pixel—a snippet of code on your website that gathers information about site events (such as how users arrived on your site, what device they’re using and where they’re located).

To create your TikTok Pixel, you will need to:

• Open TikTok Ads Manager and hover over Assets, then click Event.
• Under Web Events, select Manage.
• Select Set Up Web Events.
• Select TikTok Pixel as your connection method, then Next.

Now you can name your pixel, set up your web events (actions that you want the pixel to track) and decide how you will collect cookie consent.

To install the TikTok Pixel on your website, add the code snippet to the header of your website’s HTML code. Platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce and Google Tag Manager have plugins and integrations to simplify the process.

Step 3: Create a new campaign

Create an ad campaign under the Campaigns tab and click the Create button.

You will then get the option to use the Basic or Advanced setup options.

Basic mode simplifies the process to four steps: set an advertising goal; select an audience; set your budget; and create your ad.

In the Advanced setup mode, you will have to follow a few more steps to set up a new campaign. You will need to set an advertising objective, name your campaign, select a special ad category (if required), set a budget and decide whether you want to create a split test or use campaign budget optimization.

Step 4: Create an ad group

The next step is creating an ad group where you will define audiences, campaign budgets and placements for your ads.

Choose the optimization location:

Select whether you want to direct traffic to your Website or App.

Select the ad placement:

Your choice of ad placement will determine where your ads appear on TikTok and its partner platforms, such as CapCut or Fizzo. If you’re just getting started with TikTok ads, choose Automatic placement to have TikTok place your ads for maximum reach and value. Users can also manually place ads across TikTok and its news feed apps. There are also more advanced settings with options to enable or disable user comments, video downloads, video sharing and prevent your ads from appearing in certain Pangle apps.

Define your target audience:

Choose the audience for your ad by selecting demographics, audience, interests, behaviors and device. Each category has a drop-down menu with further customization options. For example, for demographics, you can determine your target audience’s location, gender, age, language, spending power and household language.

Confirm your budget and schedule:

Set a start and end time for your ad campaign and whether you want your ads to run all day or at specific times of the day and week.

Select bidding and optimization:

Choose whether you want to optimize your ads for clicks (i.e., the people who are most likely to click on your ad) or views (i.e., the people most likely to land on your website). If you choose to optimize for clicks, you can set a cost cap per click.

Step 5: Create a new ad

After setting up your ad group, it’s time to configure your first ad by completing the following steps.

Enable or disable Smart Creative ads:

Smart Creative is a feature that optimizes ad performance by automatically remixing a user’s ad creative (e.g., videos, images, text and calls to action) to create new ad variations. This setting will also prioritize the delivery of the most differentiated videos and pause videos that show signs of creative fatigue and replace them with fresh content. Users also have the option to preview, select videos and edit the auto-generated videos’ text.

Choose an ad name and identity:

Further customize your ad by naming it so it’s easier to distinguish between different ads within the same ad group. You may also choose whether you want your ads to come from your TikTok account or a custom identity, which includes a custom profile image and display name.

Customize ad details:

Choose your ad format, upload your ad creative (images, text and call-to-action), add interactive add-ons like a card or sticker and determine your ad destination (either a website URL or a custom TikTok Instant Page).

After creating an ad to your liking, you’ll have the option to preview it and get an idea of how it’ll appear to TikTok users. Feel free to tweak it before you submit it for review. For best results, make sure you follow the recommended specifications for image and video ads. This will ensure your ad looks great on TikTok and across partner platforms.

Update tracking settings:

Add tracking for website, app and offline events, as well as third-party tracking for impressions or clicks. This is an optional step.

Step 6: Measure your ad performance

The job isn’t done after launching your ad. You should also measure your ad performance using social media analytics tools to see how the campaign pays off. TikTok provides native analytics that show you how your ad performs in terms of impressions, clicks, conversions and more. Test and compare the performance of different ad creative and placements to see what works best for you.

TikTok ad specs

TikTok in-feed video ads must follow formatting guidelines to display correctly and generate engagement. Start by creating a video in TikTok’s suggested range (9 to 15 seconds) that’s less than 500MB and one of these file types: .mp4, mov., mpeg, .3gp or .avi.

Then consult TikTok’s list of video ad specs for additional formatting guidance.

6 examples of TikTok advertising done right

Besides learning the basics, it’s important to see how other brands use TikTok ads to generate ideas for your own campaign. Check out these examples of brands that launched brilliant advertising campaigns on TikTok.

1. Armani

To raise awareness and drive sales for a new fragrance, Armani Beauty ran Shopping Ads alongside standard In-Feed Ads. The creative was a mix of reviews and more brand-forward videos that showcased the product and highlighted its key scent notes.

2. Good American

The inclusive women’s denim and fashion apparel company used Video Shopping Ads to increase reach and boost conversions during a friends-and-family sale. These ads also used TikTok’s Dynamic Destination feature, which automatically creates an in-app product landing page to educate customers and enable them to start the checkout process without leaving the app.

3. Monopoly Go

Mobile game Monopoly Go partnered with creator Natalie Smith (@natalies.smith) to create In-feed Video Ads promoting the game. The ad is an organic, get-ready-with-me (GRWM) style video showing Natalie and her partner preparing for bed and playing the game as they complete their skincare routine.

4. Nesquik

To connect with a new generation of customers, Nesquik leveraged Spark Ads featuring a combination of branded assets and nostalgia-fueled, creator-led videos. The campaign featured creators using Nesquik products while talking about their relationship with the brand.

5. Rare Beauty

This makeup brand has become one of the top brands on TikTok thanks to its consistent organic and paid content strategy. They use organic content to build reach and educate their audience, and paid strategies like Shop Ads and Interactive Add-Ons to drive key actions.

6. Wyze

The smart home camera and device company uses TikTok Shop’s affiliate selling program, Open Plan, to reach new audiences. Through the program, Wyze provides product samples to creators, who create UGC content and receive commissions for sales from their videos. Wyze then uses TikTok Promote to turn the UGC content into ads that drive users to its TikTok Shop.

TikTok advertising best practices

To get the best results from your TikTok ad campaigns, follow these best practices:

Think TikTok-first

Shoot your ad videos in a way that feels native to the platform. Also, incorporate TikTok-specific features like text overlays, voiceovers, green screen and duets. Lastly, users love it when brands use TikTok trends, memes or challenges in their content.

Refresh your creative often

Even the top-performing ads experience creative fatigue. To avoid this, TikTok recommends advertisers use diverse creative in the beginning stages and update ad creative every seven days. Their Smart Creative and Smart Video tools can help automate this process.

Focus on the hook

According to TikTok, 90% of ad recall impact occurs within the first six seconds, so your hook is a critical element. Communicate your value proposition early and incorporate suspense, surprise or emotion to capture your audience’s attention.

Promote at the right time

Knowing the best times to post on TikTok helps you get the most eyes on your content. Additionally, aligning your product with trending topics or events can help generate buzz for your ad campaign. Lastly, don’t forget that TikTok analytics will show you the best time to run your ads for maximum audience reach.

Use attention-grabbing sound, text and editing techniques

Adding music, TikTok sounds, transitions, movement, text overlays and emojis will help hook your viewers in and make your ad more memorable. Quick edits can also increase TikTok engagement.

Incorporate hashtags

Include relevant hashtags to help users find you. Look at trending hashtags on the TikTok discovery page and choose the ones that make the most sense for your ad and brand.

Incorporate interactive add-ons

TikTok’s interactive features encourage interaction with ads. For example, use the Gesture add-on to encourage users to swipe or tap on an ad to reveal a reward. Or try the Voting Sticker overlay to seek input from your audience.

Partner with influencers

TikTok influencers already have a following, so partnering with them on an ad campaign can greatly expand your reach. Use the TikTok Creator Marketplace for influencers already using your product or who are among your target demographic. Launch a new campaign with an influencer to build buzz for your brand, or find an influencer with existing content that works well for a Spark Ad.

Test and optimize

Review your TikTok analytics often to see how your content is performing. Look at metrics such as views, interactions and click-through rates, and adjust your content strategy if you’re not seeing the engagement you’d hoped for.

Winning at TikTok advertising

With its fast-moving trends and young user base, advertising on TikTok may feel very different from other social media platforms. Our advice? Spend time on the platform creating and consuming organic content before diving into paid campaigns.

Once you get a feel for what works and what doesn’t on the platform, you’ll be more prepared to add fuel to the fire with a paid campaign. Check out our TikTok marketing guide to get started and gain more tips, strategies and real-world examples.

The post How to win at TikTok ads in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

The answer is yes, thanks to LinkedIn carousel ads.

We’ll uncover what carousel posts (ads) are, how to use them and the benefits of using these ads in your broader marketing strategy.

What is a LinkedIn carousel ad?

A LinkedIn carousel is a slideshow-style post that allows readers to “swipe” across slides and read content.

LinkedIn users will notice two types of carousels on their feeds: organic or paid.

Organic carousels are generated from document uploads and can have up to 300 slides along with supporting text in the post. LinkedIn carousel ads are more targeted posts, with campaign objectives and budgets to maximize engagement.

LinkedIn previously supported organic carousels with multiple media formats like images and video, but this feature has been sunset as of December 2023.

What is a LinkedIn carousel post?

LinkedIn carousel posts are a way to share PDF documents in a slideshow format. Like any other LinkedIn post, carousel posts can include supporting text, links to your website and call-to-action buttons. These carousels are created by uploading a PDF to a post, after which, LinkedIn splits the content into multiple slides.

What is a LinkedIn carousel ad?

LinkedIn carousel ads are a LinkedIn ad type that support images for users to swipe through. Posts can include up to 10 slides and each image can have a link attached.

This format allows plenty of space to showcase products, feature launches, services or events. Like organic carousel posts, LinkedIn carousel ads can also include post copy, links and call-to-actions to boost engagement.

LinkedIn carousel ads must follow certain specifications to be eligible for posting.

What are the LinkedIn carousel ads specs to follow?

LinkedIn carousel ads must follow certain specifications to be eligible for posting.

Here are the recommended specs.

• Design:
  • Ad name (optional): 255 characters
  • File type: JPG, PNG or GIF (non-animated only)
  • Ratio: 1:1
  • Recommended resolution: Minimum 1080 x 1080 pixels, maximum 4320 x 4320 pixels (all images will be scaled to 312 x 312 pixels)

• Text:
  • Ad name (optional): 255 characters
  • Individual headlines: 45 characters
  • Introductory text: Maximum 255 characters. However, LinkedIn recommends using 150 characters to avoid truncation on devices
  • Headline text: Maximum of two lines for each card before being truncated

• Slides:
  • Number of carousel slides: Between 2-10
  • Maximum file size: 10 MB

• URL:
  • Landing page URL: Required
  • Recommended prefix: http:// or https://
  • Characters: Maximum 2000 characters for destination URL
  • Limitations: Each card can have a different destination URL. However, if the campaign goal is set to a lead gen form, the CTA will link to the same form for every slide

Once a LinkedIn carousel ad is published, it can’t be edited, so make sure you double check every slide and design.

Along with these technical specifics, every ad carousel must also follow LinkedIn advertising guidelines, otherwise it will be rejected.

How to create a LinkedIn carousel post in 3 steps

LinkedIn carousels are easy to create. Have the document you want to include ready to go and follow these steps:

How to post a LinkedIn carousel on LinkedIn

 1. Upload your content

Head to your LinkedIn profile and at the top of your feed, hit start a post.

Click the more symbol to get to the document upload option:

LinkedIn carousels support PDF, DOC/DOCX, PPT or PPTX documents, so it’s the perfect opportunity to repurpose existing content into an engaging post.

Just click add document and select your file:

Fill out the Document title with a description of your content. Just remember, this will be viewable to your audience.

2. Write some engaging copy

Next, tell your target audience why they should swipe right on your carousel. Approach this step like a normal LinkedIn post and aim for it to be engaging and informative.

If you are uploading a report or case study, I recommend saving time by repurposing the introduction or results to grab the reader’s attention.

3. Upload and post

Finally, hit post. Your LinkedIn carousel will be live and ready for readers to swipe. The end result should look something like this:

How to create a LinkedIn carousel ads campaign

Creating a LinkedIn carousel ad campaign takes a little more behind-the-scenes work before you hit Post.

Here is how to create a successful campaign:

1. Choose your campaign objective

LinkedIn carousel ads can cover every step of a marketing funnel, from brand awareness to conversions.

First, open your LinkedIn Campaign Manager Account. Keep in mind, this account must be linked to your Company Page to run a carousel ad campaign.

Next, click Create Campaign at the top of the screen and select Advanced. Give the campaign a name and pick an overarching goal for your carousel ad from these options:

• Brand awareness. To tell your brand’s story and get on a target audience’s radar
• Website visits. To increase traffic to your website
• Engagement. To boost likes, comments and shares on your content
• Lead generation. To gather information about a potential lead with a pre-filled form using their LinkedIn profile data
• Website conversions. To drive more leads to your website

At this point, you should see something like this:

2. Set a budget based on your objective

Similar to other social media platforms like Facebook or X, LinkedIn carousel ads have budget settings to control how much you spend.

Your LinkedIn carousel ad should tie directly to your campaign. LinkedIn recommends using the following bid strategy:

• For website visits. Select bid by cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM)
• For lead generation. Choose the bid by cost per click (CPC) option
• For increased clicks. Let LinkedIn take over the bids with automated bidding

If you are just starting with LinkedIn ad carousels, don’t worry—LinkedIn will automatically select the best bid type for your campaign based on the selected goal.

To ensure the campaign doesn’t go over budget, turn the budget optimization setting to on. Then, set a daily or lifetime budget and choose a timeframe for how long the campaign should run.

3. Build carousel ads based on campaign objectives

Start to input the content for your LinkedIn carousel ad campaign.

Under Ad format, select Carousel image ad:

Next, upload the files for the campaign, either in JPEG, PNG or MP4 formats. Add a headline for each slide and a destination URL for where the audience will land if they click on it. Once the files are uploaded, arrange the order of the carousel so it flows and engages your audience.

Don’t forget to click ALT to add alt text to each image in your carousel.

4. Narrow down your target audience

One of the best features of LinkedIn carousel ads is its audience targeting.

At this stage of the campaign build, set specific parameters around who you want to market your carousel to. Select attributes based on where your target audience’s industry, demographics and interests are to optimize the campaign’s reach. Or, create an audience using LinkedIn’s lookalike audiences feature to show it to people with similar characteristics to your current and past customers.

Once you’re done, click Save audience at the bottom of your screen.

5. Launch, test and optimize

Your carousel will appear in your Campaign Manager dashboard. Simply set it to active to get it up and running.

Remember, your content and campaign goals will impact how well your carousel performs. It can also vary depending on the selected target audience or even the LinkedIn algorithm. To maximize your ad spend, it’s crucial to monitor it and test different strategies with your audience:

• A/B test the number of cards. A fewer number of cards can get your point across quickly, while longer carousels allow you to tell more of a story. Test out different carousel lengths to see which format your audience likes to engage with.
• Test the sequence order. The first slide in your sequence is the first thing a person will see, but the second slide will also be slightly visible. If you swap the two, will you get more impressions? Try it out.
• Tweak your audiences. A/B test carousels with different demographics, messaging and targeting to optimize impressions and results.

Sprout Social keeps track of campaign performance inside the LinkedIn Analytics Dashboard. It will monitor LinkedIn audience demographics to help you understand who your followers are and keep tabs on paid campaign performance metrics.

LinkedIn carousel examples to inspire you

Brands are using LinkedIn carousels to engage with their target audiences and build awareness around their product. Here are some LinkedIn carousel examples to spark your imagination:

Announce company news and partnerships

LinkedIn carousels are an ideal way to build your authority by showing—not telling.

Sprout used this carousel to amplify partnerships with other recognizable companies. The post is immediately engaging for our target audience as it taps into their goals of crafting successful social media campaigns and offers a behind-the-scenes look at how to do it.

Explain products with images

Carousel ads offer enough space to walk through how a product or feature works to your audience.

In this Canva carousel ad, it shows how easy the tool is to use by combining simple one-sentence explanations and supporting images.

Talk about company events

Use carousel posts to promote an upcoming event, or celebrate one that’s just wrapped up.

Sprout’s team regularly posts about upcoming events to drive interest and attendance with people in their network. After the event is finished, LinkedIn carousels like the one below are a great way to summarize the event’s success and talk about any wins:

Audience engagement for better insights

Use LinkedIn carousels and ads to ask your audience for their input on a topic.

It can drive up engagement and gather valuable insights from customers (and potential customers) on products and features. It’s also a place to show off your brand personality and have some fun, like this Sprout post.

Give tips to your target audience

Giving out free advice is always a good strategy to win an audience over.

Offer insights and tips to teach your audience something new. Or, flip this idea and show them what not to do to get their attention, like this post from Semrush.

Successful LinkedIn campaigns like the examples above don’t happen overnight. It requires thoughtful strategy, content experimentation and tracking performance. Use this LinkedIn Strategy Template to help you get started on your next campaign.

Use LinkedIn carousels to power your marketing strategy

LinkedIn carousels are an ideal vehicle to tell a story using a mix of images and text.

This strategy works because of its interactive element. Target audiences are tempted to swipe across and consume more of your content, which will help with engagement and brand awareness.

LinkedIn carousel ads offer another tool in your strategy to cover every piece of your marketing funnel. The key is to post engaging content, test out different strategies and optimize carousels so your audience is consuming content they love.

Start tracking LinkedIn carousel ad campaigns and optimize them for success with a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social.

The post LinkedIn carousel posts and ads: A complete guide appeared first on Sprout Social.

Like Instagram’s boosts and X’s (formerly Twitter) promoted post feature, TikTok created a tool that allows users to turn their organic content into a paid promotion quickly and simply.

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of the TikTok promotion advertising tool, review the pros and cons and guide you on leveraging it in your TikTok marketing strategy.

What is TikTok promotion?

First launched in 2021, TikTok Promote is an in-app advertising feature that allows users to quickly boost their content and turn their organic videos into ads. Users can leverage the feature to get more views on TikTok, website visits, followers, messages or profile views.

With Promote, getting an ad up and running takes a few clicks. All you need to do is choose a promotion goal, define your audience and set your ad duration and budget. Then hit ‘pay.’

Once your campaign is live, Promote has basic analytics to track your ad’s performance. These include the number of video views, likes, comments and shares on your video. You can also see how many people visited your website link, and the age and gender of people interacting with your video.

How to use TikTok promotion

Whether you want to get more followers on TikTok or convert more followers into paying customers, TikTok promotions can help you reach your marketing goals faster and tap into new audiences.

But before we get into the step-by-step guide, here are some things to note.

To be eligible for TikTok Promote, you must:

• Be over 18.
• Agree to the Promote Terms of Service and acknowledge the TikTok Privacy Policy.
• Have a creator or business account (Government, Politician and Political Party Accounts (GPPPAs) are not eligible to use Promote.)

You should also keep in mind that:

• Promote is only available for public videos with original sound or sounds.
• TikTok’s Commercial Musical Library is a resource for adding music to your video.
• Promote is just a tool to get your content to a wider audience. To make your videos more engaging, check out these TikTok video ideas.

Now, on to the fun part—using TikTok Promote.

1. Open the Promote tool

In the TikTok app, access the Promote tool from a TikTok video, Creator Tools or the Business Suite.

To access it from a TikTok video you want to promote:

1. From the video, tap the More options button.
2. Tap Promote.

From your Creator tools:

1. Tap Profile at the bottom.
2. Tap the Menu button at the top.
3. Tap Creator tools.
4. Tap Promote.

From within the Business Suite for a business account:

1. From your profile, tap the Menu button at the top.
2. Tap Business Suite.
3. Tap Promote.

2. Choose a goal

The app will then ask you to choose a goal for your TikTok promotion. You have five options:

• More video views: Get more people to watch your video.
• More website visits: Guide more people to your website.
• More followers: Improve your chances of gaining followers.
• More messages: Add a “send message” button to your video and extend your reach to new customers.
• More profile views: Get more people to view your TikTok profile.

3. Define your audience

After you choose a goal, you will need to define your audience (i.e., the people you will promote your video to). There are two options: Let TikTok determine your audience; or you can create your own.

When you select the ‘create your own’ option, you will see more screens to choose the gender, age, location and interests of the people you want to target.

4. Set your budget and duration

How long do you want your ad to run, and how much do you want to spend? Using two sliders, adjust the budget and duration for your ad to get an estimated total cost and reach, depending on the parameters you choose.

5. Pay and start your TikTok promotion

For the last step, you’ll see an overview screen with a summary of your campaign details: the goal, audience, budget and duration and estimated views. If everything looks good, click the ‘pay and start promotion’ button to pay for your ad campaign and push it live.

How much does TikTok Promote cost?

A TikTok promotion campaign can range from $3 to $1000 per day, lasting one to seven days. Therefore, TikTok Promote could cost between $3 for a one-day campaign and up to $7,000 for a seven-day campaign.

Compared to regular TikTok Ads, which have a minimum budget of $50 at the campaign level and $20 at the ad group level, TikTok Promote has a much cheaper entry point.

If you’re a creator trying to grow on TikTok (and make it into the exclusive Creativity Program), boosting your content with TikTok Promote is an affordable way to get the followers and views you need to qualify. It’s also a helpful tool for brands who want to amplify a successful organic post with minimal time or financial investment.

Is TikTok Promote worth it?

Should you throw some coins into TikTok Promote to boost your content? Like many marketing tactics, the short answer is, “It depends.” Here are a few of the benefits and drawbacks to help you decide.

Pros

• Get your content in front of more people. TikTok SEO is beneficial, but social media algorithms are inconsistent, so paying to play could be worth it.
• Maximize your organic content. TikTok’s traditional ad campaigns can be a bit tricky to set up. With TikTok Promote, your social team can turn any organic TikTok video into an ad in just a few clicks directly within the app.
• Learn more about your audience. You’ll get insights to understand your audience better and learn how your video performed in reaching your goals.
• Cost-effective. With a minimum spend of $3/day, it’s affordable to experiment with TikTok promotions without breaking the bank.
• Expanded features. TikTok Promote allows small businesses that work with influencers to boost the creator’s content or LIVE videos to help increase their views. They also recently launched ‘​​Promotional Pack,’ a new buying type that allows users to purchase a guaranteed minimum amount of views, ensuring visibility.

Cons

• Promoted videos have a “sponsored” tag. Since many social users have learned to spot and scroll past ads quickly, your target audience may not engage with a Promoted video as eagerly as organic content.
• Spreading misinformation. TikTok Promote is so simple and inexpensive to use that some people can use it to amplify fake news. However, TikTok is cracking down on this issue by removing sponsored content from sensitive or divisive topic searches.

Why TikTok may not approve a promotion

If your video doesn’t meet TikTok’s standards, there’s a chance they may not approve it for promotion.

Here are some reasons why TikTok could reject your ad:

• Intellectual property infringement. Avoid using copyrighted or trademarked elements in your ad and landing page without permission. These elements include brands, hashtags, copyrighted media, imitations and replicas.
• Ad creative inconsistency. Your caption, text, images, videos and call-to-actions must be consistent with the product/service you are promoting. The prices quoted in the ad should also match what is on the website.
• Misleading and inconsistent information. Your ads can’t contain exaggerated performances, promises or images.

How to cancel a promotion on TikTok

Canceling a promotion on TikTok is easy. Go to your promoted video, tap the three dots in the upper right-hand corner and select ‘Close Promotion.’ Any unused promotional funds will be automatically refunded to your Promote balance for future promotions or withdrawn from your account.

Accelerate your growth with TikTok Promote

TikTok Promote is a simple tool that gives creators and marketers the power to add a little fuel to their creative fire in TikTok promotions, getting their content working harder for them. Plus, its low minimum spend means it’s easy to test out on multiple videos and see which one performs best. However, while the feature may be affordable and easy to use, ad budget is often precious, and promoting posts should just be one piece of your larger strategy.

To maximize your investment and get expert guidance, check out our webinar to learn more about how to unlock the power of TikTok for your business.

The post TikTok Promotion: Boost your visibility in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

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Not sure how to get started? Look no further because this post gives you a complete guide to Twitter advertising. Here, you’ll find out all about the different Twitter social media ad formats, how much you can expect to spend and how to set it up for the first time. Let’s get right to it.

Table of contents:

• Why use Twitter ads?
• Types of Twitter ads
• How much do Twitter ads cost
• How to set up a Twitter ad campaign
• Tips for using Twitter ads

Why use Twitter ads?

Now before you start investing in paid social for Twitter, you may want to know what’s in it for you. The platform has a lot of potential with improved targeting capabilities and new ad formats. As such, advertising on the platform could exponentially grow your reach. So let’s find out some of the top benefits of running ads on Twitter.

1. Potential to reach millions of users

According to the latest Twitter stats, the platform currently has 436 million monthly active users. Out of these, 237.8 million monetizable users use the app on a daily basis. That’s millions of people you could potentially reach through your Twitter advertising efforts.

2. Objective-based ad campaigns

Twitter lets you optimize your ads toward your campaign objective. You get to choose from a variety of campaign objectives and Twitter will only bill you for actions that align with your chosen objective. In other words, your investment specifically goes towards achieving your goals.

3. Robust targeting capabilities

The Twitter ads manager offers a number of campaign targeting options. This allows you to fine-tune your ad targeting to reach only the most relevant users. At the most basic level, you can use demographics targeting to reach users based on:

• Geolocation
• Age
• Gender
• Language
• Device
• Carrier

For more advanced targeting, you can choose to display your ads to users based on:

• Conversations they participate in
• Events relevant to your audience
• Keywords they use
• Whether they’ve engaged with a specific Tweet from your brand
• The movies and TV shows they watch
• What their interests are
• Whether they share similar interests with your existing followers

Twitter even lets you create unique audience segments using off-platform customer information. The Custom Audiences feature allows you to create different audience groups to target, exclude or expand to.

4. Rise in Twitter ad engagement

Ad engagement on Twitter is growing. This speaks volumes about the impact of advertising on the platform. According to the latest reports, Twitter saw a 7% year-over-year increase in ad engagement in Q2 of 2022. If these trends continue, you can expect to launch ad campaigns that drive tons of engagement.

Types of Twitter ads

Twitter offers several choices in ad types. To run a successful advertising campaign on the platform, you need to decide which Twitter ad format will help you achieve your goals.

Promoted Ads

You might remember these as Promoted Tweets. They’re a lot like regular Tweets, except Twitter shows them to people who aren’t following your brand yet. They have a “Promoted” label at the bottom so users can differentiate them from organic Tweets.

The best part is that you can use a variety of media formats to create these Promoted Ads. In addition to regular text and image Tweets, you can create ads using videos, carousels and Moments.

Follower Ads

Previously called Promoted Accounts, Follower Ads let you promote an entire Twitter account. It helps you target users who might be interested in your brand but aren’t already following you. So it’s the perfect ad type if you want to grow your Twitter following.

With this type of Twitter ad, your account will show up in the “Who to follow” section of a user’s feed.

Twitter Amplify

With this option, brands can serve their ads through video content from highly relevant publishers. There are two ad formats to choose from:

• Amplify Pre-roll, which lets you choose from 15+ categories of videos to serve your pre-roll video ad
• Amplify Sponsorships, which involves a one-on-one partnership with one specific publisher. Note that this option is currently not available for self-serve advertisers.

Twitter Takeover

These types of ads put your brand at the forefront with exclusive ownership of the platform’s premium real estate. As you can guess, they’re a lot more expensive than other Twitter ad formats. You can choose from two Takeover placements:

• Timeline Takeover, which ensures that your ad is the first one that someone sees when they open Twitter for the day
• Trend Takeover, which serves your ad alongside trending topics. Your ad will show up among topics in the Explore tab to drive conversations. Or you can even choose Trend Takeover+ for an immersive video experience.

Dynamic Product Ads (DPA)

These ads allow you to showcase your most relevant products to the right customers. With DPA Prospecting, you can acquire new customers by featuring products that are most relevant to them. Meanwhile, DPA Retargeting lets you feature products that people have engaged with on your website.

Collection Ads

As the name suggests, this type of ad lets you showcase a collection of product images in a single ad. Collection Ads feature a primary hero image on top of several small thumbnail images.

How much do Twitter ads cost

Fortunately for advertisers, the cost to run a Twitter ad campaign is customizable according to your budget. That means how much you spend largely depends on how much you’re willing to spend.

That said, it’s a good idea to get a sense of how much it typically costs to advertise on the platform. According to AdsTarget, you can expect to spend around $0.38 per action. However, the actual cost depends on the ad type. Here’s a quick look at the average cost to run different types of Twitter ads:

• Promoted Ads – $0.25 to $2 per action
• Follower Ads – $2 to $4 per follow
• Twitter Takeover – $200,000 per day

Keep in mind that Twitter charges you based on actions relevant to your ad objective. This makes it much easier to stick to your budget because you’re not paying for actions that don’t align with your goal. Check out the different billable actions for each objective:

• Reach – Cost per 1,000 Tweet impressions
• Video views – Cost per view
• Pre-roll views – Cost per view
• App installs – Impressions or app clicks
• Website traffic – Cost per engagement
• Engagements – Cost per engagement
• Followers – Cost per follow
• App re-engagements – Cost per app click

How to set up a Twitter ad campaign

If you’re familiar with setting up Facebook ads, you should have no trouble launching a Twitter ad campaign. But if you’re completely new to the scene, we’ve got you covered.

Before you start, make sure you set up your Twitter ads account. For this, sign in to your Twitter account and go to the Twitter ads onboarding page. Then follow the steps to complete setting up your account.

Next, follow the steps below to create your Twitter ad campaign.

1. Choose your ad objective

What do you want to get out of your ads? Depending on your ad objective, Twitter will offer the best engagement types and actions for your campaign.

Choose from the following available ad objectives:

• Reach – This objective displays your ad to as many people as possible within a set timeframe. And you only pay for every 1,000 Tweet impressions. Use this to raise brand awareness and improve brand perception.
• Engagements – Drive more conversations around your brand by designing ads that people would want to interact with.
• Followers – Promote your Twitter account and attract more followers.
• Website traffic – Get more people to visit your website after seeing your ad. This type of campaign leverages Twitter’s Click ID to give you a reliable way to measure visits coming from your Twitter ad.
• Keywords – Target users who use specific keywords relevant to your campaign. This is an effective way to narrow down an audience with high intent.

2. Create your ad

The next page lets you create your ad by adding text and relevant media. Twitter gives you the option to upload a new media file or choose from your existing media library. You’ll need to include a headline and a link to your desired landing page.

On the right-hand panel, you get a preview of what the ad would look like. Use this as a guide to fine-tune your ad design.

3. Customize your ad delivery

The next step is where you decide whom to target. First, select the key audience demographics you want to reach with this ad. You can narrow your targeting down based on gender, age and location.

Optionally, Twitter offers several targeting features to fine-tune your ad delivery. You can target users based on the keywords and devices they use and their interests and languages. It even lets you target people who follow accounts similar to yours.

4. Set your budget and schedule

Next, it’s time to decide how much you’re willing to spend on your campaign. When you set a daily budget, it gives you better control over your spend. That way, Twitter will stop displaying your ad once you’ve reached the budget limit.

Additionally, make sure to include a date range for your ad. This will ensure that your ad only runs for the specified time frame.

Finally, add a credit card to your Twitter ad account. Then once you’ve finalized everything, hit the “Launch campaign” button to go live with your ad.

Tips for using Twitter ads

Want to get more out of your Twitter ads? Follow these best practices and examples from top brands.

1. Stick to your brand voice

To make sure your ads resonate with your target audience, maintain a consistent brand voice. Your promoted content should be no different from your organic ones in terms of how you speak.

2. Write short and engaging copy

Twitter users quickly move on from one Tweet to the next. So stay far away from huge text blocks. Make sure your copy is short and to the point. Just because there’s room for 280 characters doesn’t mean you have to use up all that space.

If it fits with your brand personality and you don’t overdo it, consider using some emojis to catch attention. But don’t forget about accessibility considerations for those using screen readers. Your copy should be short enough to keep users engaged but not so short that it’s meaningless.

German Doner Kebab strikes the perfect balance with creative ad copy that cuts right to the chase. The brand keeps it fun and casual with a sprinkle of emojis to connect with the audience.

3. Use high-quality visuals

Eye-catching videos and images can make your ad stand out and stop the scroll, driving more engagement with your ad. They can get people to pause and engage with your ad. So be sure to use high-quality visuals that speak for the quality of your products/services.

4. Have a clear call to action

Let people know exactly what you want them to do after seeing your ad. Whether it’s to visit your website or download your app, your ads should have a CTA that clearly mentions the next step.

The following ad from Greyson comes with a CTA that explicitly tells the audience what to do. In this case, it’s to shop Justin Thomas’ championship looks.

5. Learn from your organic performance

How people respond to your organic Tweets can tell you a lot about how to run your Twitter ads. Find out what kind of content gets the most engagement and positive sentiment from your target audience. Then use the insights from your Twitter analytics to inform your advertising decisions.

Sprout Social offers Twitter analytics and reporting to help you with this. This lets you identify your best Twitter content based on reach, clicks and retweets.

6. Test and optimize

Of course, the best way to make sure your ads are working is to test them. Run A/B tests on different ad placements, messaging, ad format and post timings. Then use those data and insights to create highly optimized ads that will rake in profits.

Ready to hit the ground running with Twitter ads?

With stronger attribution and better targeting, Twitter is constantly evolving to serve brands. And with the right strategy, it can be a valuable advertising channel for your business. But the fast-paced nature of the platform means you have to perfect your timing to reach your audience when they’re most active. Check out our guide on how to schedule Tweets to get your timing right.

Use of Twitter nomenclature across Sprout refers to newly rebranded X platform and related terminology.

The post Twitter ads: The complete guide for your brand appeared first on Sprout Social.

Brands that are truly “killing it” on TikTok are creating content that’s as entertaining as it is authentic–making the audience feel closer to the brand. This trends away from the often polished and perfect posts we’re used to seeing from businesses on other social media platforms.

This 45-minute discussion will cover: 

• How your business can gain value from TikTok 
• TikTok audience insights and its potential for your business
• Impactful TikTok marketing tips you can begin implementing now

Featuring speakers from Sprout Social:

The post How to Unlock the Power of TikTok for Your Business appeared first on Sprout Social.

While organic content is still the heart of any LinkedIn marketing strategy, running ads can help amplify your content’s reach and impact.

In this guide, we’ll dive into LinkedIn advertising, discussing everything from the different ad formats available, to creating a target audience, to measuring the success of your campaigns.

Table of contents

• How to get started advertising on LinkedIn
• Choosing the right LinkedIn ad types for your campaign
• The true cost of LinkedIn ads
• Measuring the success of your LinkedIn ad campaigns
• Best practices for LinkedIn advertising
• LinkedIn ad examples to inspire you

How to get started advertising on LinkedIn

Using the LinkedIn ads campaign manager

Start by signing into the LinkedIn Campaign Manager. The LinkedIn ads manager is where you can manage your LinkedIn advertising campaigns.

Before you get started with Campaign Manager, you need to create a LinkedIn account if you don’t have one yet; it takes just a few seconds to create one.

Enter your account name and select your currency. If you’re running ads on behalf of a business, link your campaign with a LinkedIn page.

Setting a relevant ad objective

Next, choose the objective for your ad campaign. Do you want more people to become aware about your business? Perhaps you want to attract more website visitors. Or maybe you want to capture more leads.

LinkedIn advertising gives you several objectives to choose from for three different stages of the sales funnel–awareness, consideration and conversions. At this stage, you can set the most relevant objective for a particular LinkedIn ads campaign.

If you’re an employer that’s advertising for an open position, you also have the option to set an objective to promote job opportunities.

Nailing your ad targeting

You can’t run a successful ad unless you’re targeting the right people. Make sure you have a clear idea of what kind of people you want your ad to reach. You have several targeting options for LinkedIn ads–whether you want to target people based on location, industry, company size, education, job function or skills.

You can even select multiple attributes at a time to further narrow down your targeting. You also have the option to exclude audiences with certain attributes that aren’t relevant to you.

Before you save your ad campaign, make sure you enable audience expansion so LinkedIn can expand and engage a new audience with your ad campaign. This option automatically includes people with similar attributes as the ones you’ve selected.

Choosing the right LinkedIn ad types for your campaign

LinkedIn offers several ad types and formats to help you promote your business in the best way possible. Let’s take a look at these ad types below:

Sponsored content

LinkedIn sponsored content looks just like a regular post that you’d see on your feed except with a CTA button and a “promoted” label.

You can choose from five different formats of sponsored content — single image, carousel, video, event and document. It’s better to switch between the options every once in a while to compare their performances and see which one works best with your audience.

• Single image ads: These ads consist of a single image and are typically used to promote a product or service, increase brand awareness or drive website traffic.
• Video ads: These ads include video and are typically used to demonstrate how a product or service works, tell a brand story or increase engagement.
• Carousel ads: These ads include a series of images or videos that users can swipe through. Carousels are typically used to showcase multiple products, services or ideas, or tell a story in slideshow format.
• Event ads: These ads allow businesses to promote upcoming events like webinars, conferences and meetups. They include date, time and location details, and a call-to-action to register or attend the event.

• Document ads: These ads allow businesses to promote whitepapers, ebooks or case studies by displaying a preview of the document and linking to the full version. They’re typically used to generate leads and increase brand awareness.

Lead gen forms

LinkedIn’s lead gen forms let you easily capture leads without requiring users to leave the platform. You can add these forms to any sponsored content or message to collect names, emails and job titles.

The forms are pre-populated with users’ profile data, which encourages more people to sign up. You can also include custom questions in your forms to gather additional information about your prospects.

Once a user submits a form, their contact information is sent to your business and they’re also added as a new lead in LinkedIn’s CRM.

Sponsored messaging

LinkedIn also lets you send paid direct messages to targeted users. In fact, using this ad tactic alongside sponsored content can boost your clickthrough rates by over 70%.

There are two sponsored message ad formats you can choose from:

• Message ads: This ad format lets you send personalized and targeted messages to users with a single call-to-action (CTA.) You can also add lead gen forms to your message ads to easily capture leads.
• Conversation ads: This ad format lets you add multiple CTAs to your messages to help prospects engage with your business and access targeted offers and links.

Quick tip: To improve your sponsored messages, you can personalize them with your audiences’ names and job titles using LinkedIn macros.

Text and dynamic ads

LinkedIn also offers special ad options that are a bit different from regular sponsored content. These include text, spotlight and follower ads. Let’s take a look at each one below.

• Text ads: Pay-per-click (PPC) text ads appear on the right-hand side of a desktop screen. They include a small image along with a short headline and blurb. They may be less prominent than sponsored content but can still be very effective depending on your campaign goal.
• Spotlight ads: These are dynamic ads that are personalized for each individual profile. Spotlight ads link back to your website or landing page, and are a great way to share insightful, thought leadership content.
• Follower ads: These dynamic ads are also personalized, but the goal is to get you more followers on your LinkedIn company page.

The true cost of LinkedIn ads

The average cost-per-click (CPC) on LinkedIn is between $5-6.

But the actual cost of LinkedIn ads depends on factors like the type of ad, targeting, budget and the campaign’s performance.

The pricing system for ads can also vary.

For example, sponsored content is generally priced on a CPC or cost-per-mille (CPM) basis, while sponsored messages are typically priced on a cost-per-send (CPS) basis.

Targeting options, such as demographic and job title targeting, can also affect the cost of LinkedIn ads. The more specific the targeting, the more expensive the ad will be.

Additionally, if your campaign is performing well and achieving the desired results, the cost-per-conversion may be lower, making the campaign more cost-effective.

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to set a budget and measure the ROI to ensure your ad costs don’t add up and jeopardize your financial goals.

Setting up your ad budget and schedule

A big part of running ads on LinkedIn is setting a budget for your campaigns. This helps you control the total cost of advertising on the platform.

LinkedIn offers three budget options to control your ad spend:

• Daily budget: This option lets you specify the average amount you want to spend on your ad per day. You can choose between a continuous schedule or a set schedule for your daily budget.
• Lifetime budget: This option lets you specify the total amount you want to spend on your campaign from start to finish. LinkedIn will then automatically adjust the daily budget to deliver optimal results. The daily spend can vary depending on factors like traffic, seasonality and bid type.
• Combination: You can also set both daily and lifetime budgets for your campaign. This will help you control the total cost as well as your daily spending. However, you can only select a continuous schedule for this type of budget strategy.

Once you’ve specified the budget for your ad, you also need to set the campaign schedule. The schedule will determine the lifetime of your ad and also help pace your spending.

The scheduling options you have will vary depending on your budget type.

• Continuous schedule: Run your campaign continuously from a start date. The campaign will end once your budget has been entirely consumed. You can use this option for all three budget types.
• Set schedule: Run your campaign from a specified start date to end date. You can use a set schedule for both lifetime and daily budget options, but not if you’re using a combination of the two.

Understanding LinkedIn bid types

LinkedIn advertising is based on an online auction system where your ad competes with other ads for placement. To win, you must place competitive bids for your ads.

You can choose from three bidding types in the Campaign Manager:

• Manual: This bidding strategy lets you set a specific bid amount for a key result. This option can charge by clicks, sends, impressions or views, depending on your ad format, objective and goal. Manual bidding gives you more control over the bid amount, but you need to track the performance of the campaign and adjust your bid as needed.
• Cost-cap: This bidding strategy lets you set a maximum cost per key result. This allows the system to automatically adjust your bids to achieve optimal results while staying within your campaign’s budget.
• Maximum delivery: This is a automated bidding strategy that uses machine learning to set and adjust bids while utilizing your entire budget. The goal is to maximize key results and use your total budget most efficiently.

Measuring the success of your LinkedIn ad campaigns

You don’t run LinkedIn ads no reason. You’d do so with the hope of getting some return on your investment. This makes it crucial to monitor and measure your ad success so you can see whether your investment is paying off.

Perhaps you might even notice that some types of LinkedIn ads are working better than others and you’ll want to shift your focus towards those. You might also find that some ads aren’t delivering any results at all, so you’d want to stop setting money toward something that doesn’t work.

The LinkedIn ads manager comes with a robust reporting feature that lets you track LinkedIn analytics and metrics to understand your ad performance. This includes metrics like clicks, impressions, cost per click, click-through rate, cost per impression, conversions, cost per conversion, leads and cost per lead.

You can even track your performance with different audience demographics in the ads manager. For instance, you can view how people performing a certain job function responded to your ads in terms of clicks, impressions and click-through rate.

Looking to dive deeper? Sprout Social’s LinkedIn management tool can help you dig into the good stuff, visualize key metrics and keep an eye on performance and trends data.

Best practices for LinkedIn advertising

Finally, let’s walk you through some LinkedIn best practices that will help you run successful ad campaigns on the platform.

Maintain the correct LinkedIn ad specs

Your LinkedIn ads need to instantly attract and draw in your target audience and you can’t do that without outstanding visuals. When creating visuals for your ads, make sure you follow the proper LinkedIn ad specs and sizes.

The specs vary for each LinkedIn ad type and ad format. Here are the basics:

Sponsored content

Single image ads

• Should be in JPG or PNG format.
• File size should be 5MB or smaller.
• Keep headlines under 70 characters to avoid truncation.
• Keep descriptions under 100 characters to avoid truncation.
• Images display at 1200 x 627 pixels and should be at least 400x in width.

Carousel ads

• Use 2-10 cards per ad.
• Individual cards should not be larger than 10MB.
• LinkedIn recommends using 1080 x 1080 pixels with an aspect ratio of 1:1 for individual images.
• Keep introductory text under 150 characters and two lines to avoid truncation.
• Character limits below ads are either 45 characters maximum, or 30 characters with a lead gen CTA button.

Video ads

• Keep it under 15 seconds for better engagement (though LinkedIn allows up to 30 minutes of video ads).
• File size should be between 75KB and 200MB
• Your video should be in MP4 format running at less than 30 frames per second.
• Audio size should be less than 64KHz.

Multiple aspect ratios and quality options are available with varying requirements. Check out the full LinkedIn ad specs for video ads to learn more.

Message ads

• Banner creative should be 300×250 pixels.
• It should be no larger than 40KB.
• It should be in JPG, non-animated GIF or PNG (without flash) format.
• Add up to three links using a maximum of 70 characters for anchor text.
• Message text should be no more than 1,500 characters.
• Subject should be no longer than 60 characters.

Text ads

• Ad image should be 100×100 pixels
• It should be in JPG or PNG format
• File size cannot be larger than 2MB
• Keep headlines under 25 characters
• Keep descriptions under 75 characters

Note that there are five different sizes and ad specs for text ads. There’s also a whole bunch of LinkedIn ad size and specs for dynamic ads like follower and spotlight ads that are tailored to individual users depending on which format you choose.

For even better results in lead generation through your LinkedIn ads, some experts also recommend using colors that contrast with the platform’s blue and white colors in your visuals. This will give your ad an instant pop, allowing you to effectively draw in your target audience.

Support your ads with a strong organic brand

Running ads alone does not guarantee leads and conversions.

You also need a powerful organic strategy in place to pique your audiences’ interest, build trust and boost the impact of your paid campaigns.

Along with investing in ads, regularly share valuable and engaging content to establish your business as a thought leader. Create a well-designed company page and use consistent branding to look authentic and high-quality.

Don’t forget to engage with your audience — respond to comments and messages, and welcome both positive and negative feedback.

Finally, track analytics to understand the performance of your organic content. This will help guide your ad campaigns and set your future content up for success.

Keep testing and optimizing

Based on the insights collected from your performance tracking efforts, you’ll uncover some excellent opportunities and ideas to improve your ads.

Run A/B tests on different LinkedIn ad types, ad creatives, ad copy and CTAs. Find out what resonates with your audience and use that to further improve your ad performance.

Additionally, you might even want to use A/B testing to optimize your ad targeting. Make slight alterations to your targeting criteria to identify which audiences are most responsive to your ads. This will eventually help you perfect your LinkedIn ad targeting and get more out of your advertising efforts.

LinkedIn Ad examples to inspire you

Now that you know how to run ads on LinkedIn, let’s look at some interesting examples from real-life brands to get your creative juices flowing.

Asana

Asana is a cult-favorite project management tool used by businesses worldwide. This means they have some great numbers to show off and attract potential customers. This is exactly what they’re doing with this LinkedIn ad example, where they use their success in helping increase employee satisfaction as eye-catching copy.

Shopify

Shopify does a brilliant job of addressing one of the biggest pain points of office-based employees — the long, monotonous commute. They do so by using powerful imagery and contextual copy, enough to grab the attention of anyone looking to transition to a more flexible work setting.

TikTok

In this LinkedIn ad example, TikTok promotes its virtual event using an engaging video made with high-contrast, bold colors and trendy imagery — perfectly aligned with their brand identity. We also love how the copy speaks directly to the specific audience for this post — B2C startups.

Notion

Who says event ads are just for webinars? SaaS companies like Notion can also promote product demos on LinkedIn using multiple ad formats, including event ads. Make sure to throw in a lead gen form into the mix like Notion does to encourage more people to register.

Canva

This carousel ad by Canva is everything the online design tool stands for — colorful and versatile. Using this ad format allows Canva to highlight the many ways users can benefit from the software, visually showcase the tool’s interface and abilities, as well as look beautiful and eye-catching.

Grammarly

Grammarly’s LinkedIn ad is proof that you don’t need flashy colors and visuals to create an impactful advertisement. In the example above, the popular AI writing tool demonstrates its editing feature using a screenshot of the app itself as copy.

Does it work? You bet! And the clever bit about this ad is the sentence being edited in the screenshot resonates with the target audience (hint: freelancers and contractors.)

Grow faster with LinkedIn ads

With the right approach, LinkedIn advertising offers plenty of opportunities to connect with the right audience and grow your business. But it can get overwhelming when you’re just starting out.

Make the most of the steps above to build a winning LinkedIn advertising strategy and generate valuable leads. Interested in learning more? Check out our LinkedIn marketing guide to 10x your growth on the platform.

Or, find out how you can use LinkedIn for business beyond marketing.

The post LinkedIn ads: the ultimate guide from zero to hero appeared first on Sprout Social.

A Facebook business Page is central to any Facebook marketing strategy. It’s where you can share information about your business and promote your new products. Moreover, your Page serves as a channel to provide your customers with assistance. In this guide, we show you the step-by-step process of building a Facebook business Page that attracts your audience.

Table of contents:

• What is a Facebook business Page
• How to create the perfect Facebook business Page
• Tips to maintain an engaging Facebook business Page

What is a Facebook business Page

A Facebook business Page is a public Facebook account that represents a commercial organization. You can use it to share important information like your address, contact details, and hours of operation. It’s also a great venue for sharing updates about your business and promoting your products, services, and events.

As such, a Facebook business Page allows you to create a space to connect with your audience. By setting up a business Page, you’ll gain access to Facebook Shops and advertising tools. This allows you to list your products for sale on the platform and even create paid advertisements to grow your reach. 

If you already have a Facebook business Page, and are looking for a tactical strategy for optimizing and improving your strategy, check out our Facebook marketing template. It provides a step-by-step process for making the most of the platform’s many tools. 

Download the template

How to create the perfect Facebook business Page

Ready to create your very own Facebook business Page? Follow the steps below to get started.

Step 1: Create a new Page from the “Pages” section

From your Facebook homepage, click on “Pages” in the left-hand panel. This will open up a dashboard to manage all your Pages and profiles. Click on the “Create New Page” button under “Your Pages and profiles.”

Step 2: Enter your Page name and category

Next, enter the name of your Page. This should be similar to your official business or brand name so your audience can instantly recognize it. In other words, choose a name your customers will use when searching for your brand.

After this, you’ll need to include a business category. Type in a keyword or two in the given field and Facebook will offer a few relevant suggestions. You can select up to three options to categorize your Page. This is essential to help people understand what your business is all about.

Step 3: Add your Page bio

While the bio is an optional section, including a short description of your business can be helpful. This is where you can provide more information about what your brand does and what it stands for. Your bio can only be about 100 characters so be sure to keep it clear and succinct.

The bio will show up prominently below your Page name, so it needs to be catchy and relevant. Consider using your brand slogan here instead of coming up with a new bio. Once you’re done, click on “Create Page.”

Step 4: Include your business details

Now that you’ve created the Page, it’s time to make it more complete by including additional details about your business. To finish your setup, you’ll need to include the following information about your business:

• Website
• Phone number
• Email address
• Physical address
• Hours of operation

After you’ve filled out the details, click on “Next” to get to the next step of your Page setup. Optionally, you can skip this step for now and add those details later.

Step 5: Put together your profile imagery

One of the most crucial steps is customizing your Page with high-quality imagery. Your Page’s visuals are what will help you make an impression on your audience. So it’s important that you carefully choose images that truly represent your brand and are instantly recognizable.

The first thing you’ll need is a profile picture. As highlighted in our social media image size guide, this should be at least 180 x 180 pixels. Remember that this picture will come out as a circle, so avoid including any important details in the corners.

Ideally, businesses should be using their brand logo as a profile picture. This helps the audience to instantly associate the Page with the brand they already know. Alternatively, local businesses may consider including a picture of the storefront or the owners. Some may even use a picture of their best offering instead.

As for your Facebook cover photo, the recommended size is 820 x 312 pixels. Any photo smaller than this will appear stretched and distorted. Consider using existing templates from photo editing tools like Canva to ensure that your cover photo is perfectly sized.

You can also choose to include an action button to show up at the top of your Page. This will help direct Page visitors toward the action that you want them to take. Perhaps you want them to book an appointment, view your shop, call your business, send a message or even get tickets. Choose the most relevant option, click on “Next” and hit “Save.”

Other optional steps include connecting WhatsApp to your Page and inviting your friends to Like the Page. You can choose to skip these steps for now and hit “Done.” But keep in mind that you’ll still need to complete those steps later on to improve your Page health.

Improving your Page health is essential to create a business Page that people would want to engage with. At the top of your Page, Facebook will provide you with suggestions on what actions you can take to make improvements. Your Page health will improve as you complete these actions.

Now your Page is all set up so you can start creating posts or even run ads to promote it.

Tips to maintain an engaging Facebook business Page

Setting up your Facebook business Page is the easy part. Building and maintaining your presence takes a bit more effort. Here are some social media management tips to help you out.

Keep your business info updated

Remember that people use your Facebook Page to learn about your business. They may use it to find out where you’re located or when you’re open. Make sure to include the most updated info about your business so your Page becomes a reliable source of information. If you’re changing your operating hours for the holidays, for example, make sure to add that detail.

Set specific goals

Working towards something specific can give you a sense of direction with your Facebook marketing. Start by thinking about the purpose of your Facebook page and who your target audience is. Are you looking to support a community of current customers? What about attracting new ones?

Decide on specific goals that are achievable and can contribute to your Page growth. These goals will ultimately inform every aspect of your Facebook strategy. This includes the resources you put behind your Facebook business Page to your overall content strategies.

Create a Facebook content strategy

Knowing when and how often to post on Facebook is critical. Based on our research on how often to post on social media, most brands post at least a few times per week.

Moreover, it’s not enough to just keep creating content that you want to create. Think of what your audience wants to see from you so you can come up with a content strategy that delivers results.

According to The 2023 Sprout Social Index™, 68% of US consumers follow a brand to learn more about their products and services, and another 46% do so to access exclusive deals and promotions. Your Facebook Page is like a store in a mall. Consumers will follow you to stay up to date on what’s new, so don’t be afraid of a hard sell.

Engage with your customers

It’s important to realize that your Facebook page is not something that you can “set and forget.”

You may get customers commenting on your posts and asking you questions via Messenger. Failing to respond to customers promptly could result in lost sales or followers.

So you have to be present on social media and be ready and willing to engage. This doesn’t mean you have to answer every single question posted to your timeline or in your inbox immediately. It does mean you need to keep a close eye on notifications and conversations.

This would involve identifying the best social media management tool for your business to help you stay on top of those messages. For example, Sprout offers a Smart Inbox where you can keep track of all your incoming messages, comments and social media mentions in one place. From here, you can quickly see and respond to your Facebook messages and comments.

Use analytics to chart your path forward

Your Facebook Page Analytics can tell you a lot about how your current Facebook strategy is working. It can show you how people are engaging with your posts and how your Page is growing. Use these insights to inform your decisions and make improvements to your existing strategy. For example, you may want to share more videos because your analytics tell you that people are engaging a lot with your video posts.

Once you start running ads from your Page, you’ll be able to see how your promoted posts are performing. Experiment with different variations of your ad copy, placement and creative to see what has the biggest impact. This will allow you to build a Facebook advertising strategy that keeps evolving.

Start growing your Facebook Page

The tips highlighted above can help you get the ball rolling and build an engaging Facebook business Page. Make sure you use them alongside a solid marketing strategy to grow your audience. Check out our guide on how to use Facebook business manager for more tips and tricks to help you out.

The post How to build a Facebook business Page that attracts customers appeared first on Sprout Social.

You already know that the first step for creating sponsored posts is to know your audience. There’s no need to repeat it. It’s time to expand your knowledge into something more actionable.

In this comprehensive guide about sponsored posts, you’ll learn best practices, discover strategies, get resources and find inspiration for your social media campaigns.

What are sponsored posts?

A sponsored post is a type of social media content used as an advertisement in any of the major social media networks to increase your brand exposure by targeting a specific audience. Sponsored posts look like native content on the social network, blending with organic content in the user’s feed.

There are two different sponsored posts, which are:

• Promoted or boosted posts: Amplifies the reach of your content by paying the platform to “boost” the post’s visibility to a larger audience.
• Paid sponsorships or paid partnerships: Promotes your brand through a creator or influencer’s account on their social network(s). Their audience will see a post similar to organic content, except it will be tagged or indicate in the copy that it’s being sponsored by a brand.

With sponsored content, you can create a better experience for your audience by leveraging these less intrusive ads for your influencer and paid social strategies. Plus, sponsored posts expand your reach by tapping into new audiences.

Tips for creating effective sponsored posts

Whether you’re a small business trying to put your name out there or an established brand seeking to boost engagement, here are some tips to help you get on the right track.

Outline goals

This is one of the most difficult—but crucial—steps to get started with your sponsored content campaigns. That’s why you need a clear direction for what you want to achieve with your sponsored posts.

You can define specific campaign KPIs based on your target audience, past campaign performance and potential reach. To evaluate this potential reach, have in mind if you’ll be working with influencers or not.

Here are a couple of questions to help outline your goals:

• What are your business goals? Determine the overall business goals that you’re trying to achieve. If your leadership expects to generate leads or $$$ from social media marketing efforts, start breaking that down into smaller goals.
• What are your objectives? You know this one too well. Use the SMART goals framework to make sure your goals are attainable within a timeframe.

Set a budget

To figure out a budget for your sponsored posts, look at your social media marketing budget as a whole. Knowing how much you can spend helps you allocate your resources wisely. Download our custom budgeting spreadsheet to start outlining your expenses.

Remember, the money you spend on your social media strategy depends on the amount of sponsored content you want to incorporate. Or if you’re willing to work with influencers.

For sponsored content efforts, here’s what you need to consider:

• Define your strategy: Determine if you’re going to use sponsored posts for a single marketing channel or as a pillar of your social media strategy. Knowing this will allow you to determine the investment you need to make for sponsored content.
• Research the costs: The cost of sponsored posts is determined by your social media advertising strategy. These costs can involve creating new content, boosting existing content or hiring influencers. Have in mind that the cost of influencers varies, depending on their audience size (micro vs. celebrity), caliber of their influence, experience and more.
• Compare your budget with your expected ROI: Think of your budget as an investment. Naturally, your return on investment (ROI) should be suitable enough to justify the cost of your sponsored content.

Determine your ROI

The goals you outline can be translated into key metrics (think: reach, engagement and conversions) that calculate ROI.

In the case of sponsored posts, justifying your marketing budget based on likes and comments may seem like a difficult task. But ROI isn’t just measured by bottom-line profit.

You can measure ROI by money saved or used efficiently to expand reach, brand awareness or conversions (think: clicks to your website or sign-ups). However, through social shopping, you can impact the bottom line through direct sales or influencer endorsements (think: influencer discount codes).

Here’s our take on figuring out your ROI:

• Identify your metrics: Reach, engagement and conversion metrics are a good rule of thumb for your sponsored content.
• Track those metrics: Keep track of your sponsored post as soon as it is live. This will help you understand what content and which influencers are performing well.
• Communicate your key metrics to influencers: Make sure you tell influencers what metrics you want to track from the beginning so you can monitor performance and social media ROI efficiently.

Note: Focus on relevant metrics when measuring your sponsored post performance. Tracking too many metrics can distract you from your initial goals. More information isn’t the same as better information.

Create quality content

Sponsored posts can take on a variety of formats, such as videos, testimonials, infographics or static images. Regardless of the type, you can follow best practices to create effective posts.

The anatomy of high-performing sponsored content consists of:

1. Addressing your target audience: You don’t have to directly mention your audience, but a slight reference to them can help capture their interest.
2. Writing strong copy: Put yourself in your audience’s shoes by highlighting benefits or pain points they care about. What’s in it for your audience? Why should they be interested? The same applies to video scripts.
3. Balanced design, visuals and colors: Make sure your sponsored post catches your audience’s eye while being true to your brand and the creator’s identity.
4. A call-to-action: This is how you generate conversions. If you don’t tell your audience what action to take next, you’re losing opportunities.

Decide if you’re working with Influencers

Sponsored content doesn’t have to be paid partnerships. But influencers are a highly effective way to expand your reach and build trust. They’re experts in their niche with an engaged, loyal audience. So, if you partner with them to generate sponsored content, it’s likely some of that trust is going to rub off on you.

Here’s what you need to have in mind for your influencer marketing efforts:

• Find an influencer that belongs to the same niche you’re targeting. This ensures the influencer aligns with your target audience.
• Review your marketing budget to choose the right influencer for you. Influencer rates vary across platforms. But the more influence and followers they have, the more expensive their services will likely be.
• Make sure the influencer understands the message you want to transmit. You don’t want them to post something that doesn’t align with your brand values. Give clear directions but leave room for collaboration. Influencers are also content creators that want to stay true to their audience.

Use tools to look for influencers or do your own research on social media. They’ll usually have their contact info for paid collaborations on their profile.

Instagram sponsored posts

Sponsored posts on Instagram enable you to promote a post from your business profile or partner with an influencer for a paid sponsorship. Additionally, you can promote Instagram story ads.

Instagram sponsored posts have a “Sponsored” tag below your brand name and call-to-action buttons like “Shop now”, “Learn more” or “Sign up”.

This is what a promoted post on Instagram looks like:

For paid partnerships, sponsored posts on Instagram have a “Paid partnership” tag under the influencer’s name, and sometimes also lists your brand’s name.

This is what a paid partnership on Instagram looks like:

How to create a sponsored post on Instagram

To create a promoted post on Instagram, you’ll need to boost an existing post:

1. Go to your profile and select the post you want to promote.
2. Press the Boost post button.
3. Select your goal (whether that be more profile visits, website visits or messages).
4. Choose your target audience (it can be automatic or you can create your own).
5. Set your Budget and Duration.
6. Pay and you’re done.

To manage your Instagram advertising efforts and see how your sponsored post is performing, go to your profile, select your post and press on View insights or Ad insights. From there, you can view your engagement and goal metrics.

With paid partnerships, the influencer will create and post the content. It’s up to you to approve the influencer as a content creator associated with your brand. To achieve this, you:

1. Go to your Settings and press Business.
2. Select Branded content and then Approve content creators.
3. Enter the username of the influencer you’re working with.
4. Press the Approve button that’s next to their username.

With your approval, the influencer will be able to tag you as a business partner in their sponsored post. And you’ll be able to see the reach and engagement metrics from the influencer’s post.

Facebook promoted posts

Facebook only gives you the option to do promoted posts (no influencers here).

Facebook promoted posts have a “Sponsored” tag below the name of your brand and include a call-to-action button that can be “Shop now”, “Learn more” or “Sign up”.

This is what Facebook promoted posts look like:

How to create a promoted post on Facebook

These are the steps to create a promoted post on Facebook:

1. Go to your Facebook page.
2. Select the post that you want to promote and press Boost post.
3. Choose a campaign goal based on the stages of Awareness, Consideration or Conversions.
4. Select a recommended audience or create your own custom audience.
5. Enter your Budget and Duration of the campaign.
6. Pay and boost your post.

To view the results of your boosted post, you can go to your Facebook page, select Ad Center, choose your boosted post and press the View results option. The Ad Center lets you track all your paid posts, so you can see the performance of your entire Facebook advertising strategy.

TikTok sponsored posts

Sponsored TikTok posts have both promoted posts and paid partnerships as options for your TikTok ads.

Much like the others, a “Sponsored” tag appears below your brand’s name and the captions, along with a CTA button.

Here’s what promoted TikTok posts look like:

TikTok sponsored posts have a “Paid partnership” tag under the influencer’s username and captions.

Here’s what paid sponsorships on TikTok look like:

How to create a sponsored post on TikTok

Sponsored posts are just one of the many ways you can make money on TikTok. Since TikTok users are 1.4x more likely to research brands or products on the platform, these types of posts can be especially effective.

Here’s how you create promoted TikTok posts, assuming you already created the sponsored content and posted it on your account:

1. Go to your Profile and tap on the three-line menu.
2. Select Creator tools and then Promote.
3. Pick the TikTok video you want to promote.
4. Choose your goal: more video views, website visits, followers, messages or profile views.
5. Choose your audience (it can be a default or custom audience).
6. Set your Budget and Duration.
7. Pay and start your promotion.

To monitor your post’s performance, go to your Profile, tap on the three-line menu, select Creator tools and check your Analytics.

On the paid partnership side, you can contact a TikTok influencer to collaborate with you by following these steps:

1. Log into the TikTok Creator Marketplace.
2. Click on Explore and use the filter to find TikTok creators that you want to reach out to.
3. Select Create campaign and fill in your campaign details.
4. Click on Upload Message to initiate contact with your chosen TikTok creators or influencers.

Later on, when you reach an agreement with an influencer and the sponsored TikTok post is live, you can check how your post is doing. For this, log into your TikTok Creator Marketplace account and click on Reporting to see your Campaigns, Views and Engagement rate.

LinkedIn promoted posts

For LinkedIn promoted posts, the format remains similar, with a predominant “Promoted” tag along with a CTA.

How to create a promoted post on LinkedIn

These are the steps you need to follow to create a LinkedIn ad:

1. Sign in to the LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
2. Select an objective from Awareness, Consideration or Conversions.
3. Build your audience by selecting multiple attributes.
4. Choose an Ad format.
5. Set a Budget and a Schedule.

To manage the results of your sponsored content, go back to your LinkedIn Campaign Manager and click on the Performance Chart to see clicks, impressions, conversions, leads, the average cost per lead, etc. You can also click on Demographics and display information like job title, company, company size, location, country and more information about the people who have interacted with your ad.

Twitter promoted Tweets

Twitter promoted posts have a “Promoted” tag at the bottom left with a little arrow pointing upwards. Twitter doesn’t have defined CTA buttons, but once you press the ad, it redirects you to the associated landing page.

How to create promoted Tweets

This is how you create promoted Tweets for your Twitter advertising campaign:

1. Go to Twitter’s ad platform.
2. Input your Country/Region and Time zone.
3. Choose your objective: Reach, Engagement, Followers or Website traffic.
4. Write your ad text and add media.
5. Select the demographics of your audience.
6. Add targeting features like keywords your audience uses, followers of similar accounts and even their operating system.
7. Set a Budget and Schedule.
8. Add your payment method and launch your campaign.

To monitor the performance of your promoted Tweets, go to Twitter’s ad platform once again and click on Analytics. Then select Tweet activity to see the impressions, engagement, engagement rate, likes and other metrics for your Top and Promoted Tweets.

Boost your presence with sponsored content

Now that you leveled up your sponsored content knowledge, it’s time to explore how sponsored posts fit into your social media strategy.

As you test sponsored posts and learn what works best for you, also consider how they can be a part of your larger creator marketing strategy. Working with creators has become a must, so check out our article to learn how you should be integrating creators into your social strategy.

The post Sponsored posts: How to create effective sponsored content appeared first on Sprout Social.