Targeted advertising in social networks to increase sales: pros and cons

What is targeting?

This is a special advertising tool that allows you to select from the entire Internet audience only the part that fully corresponds to the advertiser's requests (by age, geolocation, interests, etc.). The main goal of targeting is to create a bright and attractive ad that will interest a potential buyer and lead him to your website or page on a social network. The tool makes it possible to rationally spend the marketing budget and adjust the ad display settings in a timely manner to form a more targeted audience with a focus on its interests.

Targeted advertising is used in search engines, contextual and banner advertising, and social networks. In each case, the possibilities of its configuration are slightly different, because they are tailored to a specific advertising channel to achieve maximum promotion efficiency.

Types of targeting

Targeted advertising really qualitatively segments the Internet audience on various grounds:

1. Geographical. The display of advertisements in certain regions, countries, and cities is configured. On the contrary, you can exclude some countries or cities if, in your opinion, there is no CA living in them. Advanced geotargeting allows you to display ads in a specific area of the city or near a specific metro station. The Internet user's place of residence is easily determined using an IP address.

2. Socio-demographic. Segments the audience by gender, age, marital status, education, etc. Such targeting is very relevant when promoting on social networks, because it makes it possible to subtly approach the choice of the target group and, if necessary, promptly change the set parameters. For example, a jewelry store wants to promote a new collection of wedding rings. To do this, it is more expedient to choose the female gender of the audience, age from 18 to 35 years, family status — not married. If this is an online store that delivers, for example, within Moldova, then ads with sparkling diamonds will be seen only by female representatives who meet all the above parameters.

3. Temporary. Allows you to display ads on a specific day of the week and time of day. If the company does not work on weekends, then it does not need to advertise itself on these days. In addition, if you know exactly when your target audience is most often online, you can set up impressions by the hour, for example, from 9.00 to 12.00 or from 18.00 to 21.00.

4. Behavioral. It's no secret that search engines very carefully collect statistics about all the actions of Internet users (visiting websites, viewing and buying goods, queries in the search bar, the subject of YouTube videos that you watch, etc.). What benefits does this give you as an advertiser? The most direct! If you are selling last-minute tours to Egypt, then ads will be shown only to those users who have “Googled” requests on the topic of travel to this country or visited the websites of travel agencies with similar offers. This is an accurate hit on the target audience, taking into account its interests.

5. Thematic. Setting up the display of ads only on those sites and groups where it is appropriate. Agree, it makes no sense to advertise software or tire repair services in groups with topics such as “parenting”, “legal advice, “sewing and cutting”. Targeted advertising is always appropriate and unobtrusive, which is its undeniable advantage.

6. Additional parameters. For some types of business, highly specialized settings such as displaying ad blocks only on Android, Windows OS, iPhone or iPad devices will be useful.

What does targeted advertising on social networks look like?

VK

Facebook

Instagram

Youtube

Advantages

• Advertising of goods/services without a website. This is a convenient feature for small businesses. There is no need to spend money on creating a full-fledged website, it is enough to create a group or a page in a social network with an indication of the assortment and characteristics of the goods, and bring customers here.

• Wide audience coverage. Find your target group among the entire online audience on social media and work only with it. It can be hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of people.

• Low cost per click. The reduction of advertising costs is not only due to the affordable price per click, but also a clear definition of potential customers. You don't show ads to those who aren't interested. Only the target audience and traffic.

• Increase the conversion rate of the site. When an Internet user who clicks on targeted advertising and goes to the site is also your potential client, then with a high degree of probability he will make an order. Increasing the conversion rate simultaneously improves search engine promotion.

• Flexible customization options. You can not only set targeting by various parameters, but also create several user groups with unique segmentation separately, using them for different ads. This will allow you to identify which ad display parameters are optimal.

Does targeted advertising have disadvantages?

Social media monitors ads before publication for compliance with community rules, and if they see prohibited goods or products without a license, they reject the advertiser's request. In addition, in order to achieve good performance, individual targeting settings are needed for each social network. Only an experienced SMM specialist can cope with this.

In conclusion

Targeted advertising on social networks is a high – quality communication channel with the target audience. Users of social networks openly indicate their age, social status, location, interests and hobbies, so you can easily clearly identify your target audience. And if you combine different types of targeting, you can increase sales at least several times.

Do you want a really effective advertising campaign that will take into account the goals and characteristics of your business? Contact the professionals! This way you will save on the marketing budget and get a one hundred percent hit on the target audience. However, before investing in advertising, it is worth seriously taking up the corporate identity of the company, so we suggest you familiarize yourself with the service "creating a logo for Instagram".