Social media advertising campaigns

A social media advertising campaign is a paid set of adverts placed in social feeds, so they appear between people's personal posts. Businesses use social media in this way because they can set the campaign up themselves, choose who sees it and change it quickly if it is not working.

Setting up a campaign

• Format: an image is quick and cheap and suits one clear offer, such as a free drink with breakfast; a video costs more to make but can show a product in use.
• Type of user to target: the advertiser picks the audience most likely to buy, so the budget is not wasted on people who will never be interested.
• Budget: the money set aside for the campaign; a bigger budget buys more showings to more people, while a small one means the advert appears less often.
• Duration: a few days to advertise an event, or several weeks to build regular custom.

What an advert is designed to do

A single campaign can use several purposes in turn: a trampoline park might run a video to build awareness, then a booking link to create conversions, then a form for a taster session to generate leads.

Analytics and trends show the business the demographics of the people who responded, such as their age, gender and location, and which adverts gained the most likes, comments and shares. Comparing an image with a video, for example, shows which earned more engagement, so the next campaign's budget goes on the format that worked.