Does social advertising really work? (Spoiler alert: Yes.)

Like any investment in their businesses, my clients often want assurance that they’re going to see returns from social advertising. Understandably, some are skeptical that it will deliver the results they’re hoping for, whether it’s a boost in revenue or an uptick in web traffic. Luckily for them, I’m addicted to data, and I love to dig into ad platforms’ analytics to demonstrate the efficacy of the ads I place. 

I’m not the only one who’s driven by data. Social platforms are, too, and they’re constantly tweaking their algorithms and interfaces to optimize ads and increase results for advertisers. Why? Because each platform recognizes that if advertisers don’t see results, they’ll allocate their ad budgets to greener pastures. To translate into meme form: 

Businesses Social Platforms
  🤝
Making money from ads 

All that to say, you can rest assured that platforms provide advertisers the infrastructure to succeed, complete with a plethora of detailed metrics to demonstrate the impact of your ads. But that alone isn’t enough to see optimum results. You also need a vigilant advertiser who will devise strategies that make sense for your goals, monitor your ads, and adjust along the way to ensure that you’re maximizing your investment. 

So, how can you tell your advertising is working? Here are just a few of the metrics that I monitor and report on:

Reach
Reach refers to the total number of people who see your ads. Imagine getting a report of the exact number of people who saw your billboard – that’s what we can do with social ads. Pretty cool, huh? 

Impressions 
While reach is the number of people who have seen the ads, impressions represent the number of times your ad has been seen in total. This metric is essential because it allows us to ensure people are seeing your ad enough for it to make an impact. 

Landing page views
By installing a piece of code called a pixel on your website, we can track the traffic that comes from social media – not just the number of clicks the ad received, but the number of landing page views it generated. Not only that, but we can then use that pixel to retarget the people who visited your site with more ads. 

Conversions
The pixel can show us more than just landing page views – it can also track visitors’ actions on your site, from clicking a button like “Request an Appointment” to purchasing an item from your online store. Not only can I show that your advertising resulted in a conversion, but I can also show you the exact ad a person saw before purchasing so we know what’s most effective. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the analytics and insights you can derive from your social advertising. If it all sounds a little complicated, that’s because it is. But that’s also what I’m here for. At the beginning of every month, I create streamlined reports that focus on the metrics that matter to my clients so they know they’re getting their bang for their buck. Sound like something you could use? Reach out today and let’s chat about how I can help.