The Importance of Paid Media

Paid media is something that all businesses can use to increase their reach online. Whether you like it or not, your business has an online presence. Even without social media, your business will appear on Google search results pages because of Google Maps. 



Platforms like Facebook and Yelp create listings due to user searches, so being online happens whether you like it or not. Even then, platforms like Facebook and Yelp create listings due to user searches. 

Both can highlight any products or services. That is why businesses should always be willing to invest in all avenues that could benefit their business and their customers 

A paid social media strategy can unlock the potential of your business’ online presence. It is worth mentioning that organic social media content and paid media work in tandem to attract new and current customers. 

What is Paid Media? 

Paid media is a type of marketing that a business will invest in to gain more exposure online. Paid media ranges from pay-per-click ads and display ads to retargeting ads and more to improve the performance of earned media, which consists of social media posts or other forms of content that your business does not pay for. 

Running ads like this should make driving traffic from those ads to your website a goal for your business. If your ads are effective in driving traffic to your website, then you should see an increase in conversions. 

Why Businesses Should Use Paid Media 

Well, that is a straightforward question to answer. It comes down to What you are looking to accomplish. Here is a list of things that you gain by running ads on social media: 

• You can control where the ads will be shown geographically. 
• You can target your relevant audience using interest targeting, keyword analysis and targeting, and behavioral targeting, to reach your audience. 
• Paid ads on social media may be cheaper in a lot of instances than traditional ads. 
• Results at the top of a SERP (search engine results page) will almost always be ads. 

But before deciding on what platform you choose to run ads on, it is important to figure out the objectives for your ads. Who is your target audience? What type of content are they most looking to interact with? These are great questions to ask yourself as you start your paid media journey. 

Paid Social Media Advertising 

Social media is critical to creating a cohesive online presence. It allows businesses to share the human side of the business. When it comes to advertising online, it is difficult to find a better option than advertising on social platforms. 

If you do not already have advertising on social media as part of your marketing strategy, you most certainly should reconsider. We will discuss how ads on Facebook, Google, and Yelp assist your business in finding and targeting the right customers. Additionally, these ads can help you track your progress.

Advertising with Meta 

Meta has a highly active user base. 3.51 billion people use at least one Meta product monthly, while 2.76 billion people use at least one Meta product daily. That is an astounding number when you think about the other mediums that they consume. 

The first step to creating a successful ad is to establish the objective of the ad. You can promote your business’ services through promotions or creating content for social media. Entice consumers to visit your store by creating engaging sales and content based on their wants and needs. 

The next step is targeting. You want to create a target audience while keeping your current customers and attracting new customers to your business. 

Along with making the setup process fast and easy for ads, Meta has made reporting simple as well. Facebook Ads Manager is a tool for viewing the effectiveness of the ad campaign of your business. 

You can see metrics like the number of views the ad has, clicks on your Call to Action, your overall reach, and more. Along with that, you can also run demographic reports to learn more about the consumers engaging with your content. 

Advertising on Google 

Google Ads uses a pay-per-click system, meaning that you only pay when you get results.?Like Facebook, you can choose the time and geographical location of the ad. 

Reporting on Google is remarkably simple, too. You can see the ad stats on the homepage. Ad reporting can be broken down from an entire campaign to individual ads. Keywords that you bid on will have data supporting their effectiveness on the ad. 

Overall, you can expect the following metrics: Calls, views, clicks, conversions, click-through rates, demographics breakdowns, and more. 

Advertising on Yelp 

Having an upgraded Yelp listing will make you noticeable, but the ads will add more to your business. When people search for businesses on Yelp, the ads will appear at the top, so they will see the ad first. 

Paid ad features like ads with photos, CTA’s, keyword bidding, geographical targeting, and feature highlights can help your business reach your audience. With enhanced listings, you can control photo and video displays, remove competitor ads from your listing, and more. 

You can view the overall performance of your ad(s) in the dashboard. You will be able to view calls or direction requests that come directly from the ad. You can also view where your ads are most effective, the number of website clicks, and views. Those metrics can be used to gauge the exposure of your ad. 

Yelp Ad Syndication is another avenue for businesses to enhance their presence on the platform. This allows ads from Yelp Business to be shown on third-party websites and apps. This feature increases the potential for more consumer engagement with your ads. 

There is a caveat to Yelp Ads Syndication, however. If your business is to reap the benefits of Yelp Ad Syndication, you and your business must be a client of digital marketers who are partnered with Yelp. 

Overall, these three platforms are essential to creating a reputation online that you can be proud of. Optimize offers full social media marketing and ad creation. 

If you are looking to build advertisements on social media, Optimize Digital Marketing has the team to elevate your social media ad game. Give us a call for more information.