Paid Social Agency Manchester

Paid Social is an advertising form in its own right but its method of advertising is quite different to that of traditional PPC or even TV advertising. Paid social is driven on an interest-based targeting feature, that means that when you come to identify who you want your ads to be shown to you are identifying your user base by interest. In contrast, traditional PPC channels like Google are intent-based, this means that the user has shown intent (usually by searching for something) for a product or service before they arrive at the ad.

Paid Social is often seen more as a branding awareness tool than a direct lead generator, but that’s not to say that it can’t generate leads as well! With many different ad types available including lead generation, carousel, plain text & also video, paid social has the ability to interact with your audience in a way that many other advertising forms don’t have, in turn this allows you to really connect with your audience & make the most of each individual touchpoint.

Advertising on Paid Social is fairly straightforward but it does differ depending on the platform that you are using & the type of approach you are looking to take. Facebook advertising is one of the most straightforward to set up but it’s also one where you can do the most granular targeting so from an advertising perspective this makes it an incredibly powerful platform.

By contrast, other social media platforms such as LinkedIN & Twitter offer a different approach where you still have the ability to be granular but it is often in a very targeted vertical. LinkedIN for example tends to be a little more expensive for targeting but it can be a very powerful platform if you have a very specific job title in mind.

There are a number of different channels that you can choose from across Paid Social advertising these include Facebook, Instagram, Snap, LinkedIN & Twitter. Each of these channels lend themselves to their own individual style of advertising & targeting so it’s important when looking at channel selection for social media that you test each out individually & really focus on targeting one or a few which are the right ones for your audience.

If you aren’t sure which channels to use then get in touch with our team who will be able to help you with channel selection, guiding you in the right direction for your product or service!

The age old question of should I use paid social, paid search or both? 

For many people the question of where to spend their advertising budget can often be a tricky one & it can come down to comparing the two channels to understand where marketing budget is best spent. What many people don’t consider however when doing this, is that actually the two channels are very different & in many situations they can work well together, so rather than considering one or another, consider them both in isolation & then as channels which can work together.

Paid search is an intent-driven product, that means that the ads tend to appear at a time when the user is searching for them – they are high intent, further down the funnel & more likely to convert, as a result this tends to be a more expensive form of advertising. By contrast, paid social is more of an interest-driven product which means that users are higher up the funnel, lacking in intent & therefore tend to be cheaper to advertise to – a mixture of both these can create a great environment for multi-touchpoint lead nurturing & should be considered.

Costings for paid social advertising can vary dramatically depending on what you are trying to achieve with your campaign. We see clients who spend £2,000 all the way up to clients who spend £200,000+ but it’s all about return on investment – an efficiently set up & managed paid social account will allow you to maximise your ROI & won’t cost you the earth.