Social Media Marketing Fundamentals
Module 12: Paid Advertising Basics
Learning Objectives
- Understand when and why to use paid social advertising
- Learn advertising options across major platforms
- Master basic campaign setup and targeting
- Develop budget and measurement strategies
Key Concepts
Organic vs. Paid Social Media
Organic social (free):
- Posts to your followers
- Reach limited by algorithm
- Builds over time
- Requires consistent effort
- Best for: Community, brand building, engagement
Paid social (advertising):
- Reach beyond followers
- Guaranteed visibility
- Immediate results
- Requires budget
- Best for: Awareness, leads, sales, growth acceleration
Most successful strategies combine both. Organic builds foundation; paid amplifies reach.
When to Invest in Paid Advertising
You're ready for paid ads when:
- You have clear business goals to achieve
- Your organic content is working (proven messaging)
- You can invest consistently (not one-off)
- You have landing pages/offers ready
- You can track results
Start paid after you understand what content resonates organically—then pay to amplify what works.
Platform Advertising Overview
Meta Ads (Facebook + Instagram)
Best for: B2C, local business, e-commerce, lead generation
Ad formats:
- Image ads
- Video ads
- Carousel ads
- Collection ads
- Stories ads
- Reels ads
Targeting options:
- Demographics (age, gender, location)
- Interests (based on behavior)
- Custom audiences (your lists)
- Lookalike audiences (similar to your customers)
- Retargeting (website visitors, engagers)
Minimum budget: $5-10/day to start
LinkedIn Ads
Best for: B2B, professional services, recruiting, high-ticket offers
Ad formats:
- Sponsored content (feed posts)
- Message ads (inbox)
- Text ads (sidebar)
- Dynamic ads
- Video ads
Targeting options:
- Job title, function, seniority
- Company name, size, industry
- Skills, groups, education
- Professional demographics
Minimum budget: $10/day (higher cost per click than other platforms)
Twitter/X Ads
Best for: Brand awareness, events, trending conversations
Ad formats:
- Promoted tweets
- Follower ads
- Trend takeover
- Video ads
Targeting:
- Keywords, interests, followers
- Event targeting
- Conversation targeting
- Retargeting
Minimum budget: $5-10/day
TikTok Ads
Best for: Reaching younger audiences, viral potential, brand awareness
Ad formats:
- In-feed ads
- TopView (first ad users see)
- Branded hashtag challenges
- Branded effects
Targeting:
- Demographics, interests
- Behavior-based
- Custom and lookalike audiences
Minimum budget: $50/day minimum (higher barrier to entry)
Understanding Ad Objectives
Choose objective based on your goal:
Awareness objectives:
- Brand awareness
- Reach
- Video views
Use when: Building visibility, top-of-funnel marketing
Consideration objectives:
- Traffic (website clicks)
- Engagement (likes, comments)
- App installs
- Lead generation
Use when: Moving people toward action
Conversion objectives:
- Conversions (purchases, sign-ups)
- Catalog sales
- Store traffic
Use when: Direct business results
Targeting Fundamentals
Core audience targeting:
- Location: Where your customers are
- Age: Your target demographic range
- Gender: If relevant to your product
- Interests: What they care about
- Behaviors: How they act online/offline
Custom audiences (your data):
- Email list uploads
- Website visitors (requires pixel)
- App users
- Video viewers
- Page/profile engagers
Lookalike audiences (find similar people):
- Based on custom audience
- Platforms find similar users
- Usually 1-10% similarity range
- Smaller percentage = more similar
Targeting tips:
- Start broader, then narrow based on data
- Don't over-target (too narrow = expensive)
- Test different audience segments
- Use exclusions to avoid current customers (when appropriate)
Creating Effective Ads
Ad creative best practices:
Visual:
- Eye-catching, scroll-stopping
- Mobile-first design
- Clear focal point
- Brand recognizable
- Native to platform (not obviously "ad")
Copy:
- Clear value proposition
- Address pain point or desire
- Specific and concrete
- Strong call-to-action
- Urgency when appropriate
Structure:
- Hook in first second (video) or first line (text)
- Benefit-focused messaging
- Social proof when available
- Clear next step
Ad formats that work:
- User-generated style content
- Before/after demonstrations
- Testimonials and reviews
- Behind-the-scenes
- Educational content
- Problem/solution
Setting Your Budget
Budget approaches:
Daily budget: Set spending per day
- Pros: Consistent spend, easy to manage
- Good for: Testing, ongoing campaigns
Lifetime budget: Set total for campaign duration
- Pros: Platform optimizes delivery
- Good for: Limited-time promotions, events
Starting budgets:
- Testing phase: $10-20/day minimum for meaningful data
- Scaling phase: Increase by 20-30% at a time
- Rule: Don't judge results until you've spent enough for data
Cost metrics to understand:
- CPM (Cost Per 1000 impressions): Awareness efficiency
- CPC (Cost Per Click): Traffic efficiency
- CPL (Cost Per Lead): Lead gen efficiency
- CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): Conversion efficiency
- ROAS (Return On Ad Spend): Revenue / Ad spend
Measuring Ad Performance
Key metrics by objective:
| Objective | Key Metrics |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Reach, impressions, CPM, frequency |
| Traffic | Clicks, CTR, CPC, landing page views |
| Leads | Lead volume, CPL, lead quality |
| Conversions | Conversions, CPA, ROAS, conversion rate |
Optimization tactics:
- Let campaigns run 3-7 days before judging
- Compare ads within same campaign
- Pause underperforming ads
- Scale winning ads gradually
- Refresh creative to avoid fatigue
Common Beginner Mistakes
- Too small budget: Not enough data to optimize
- Wrong objective: Traffic when you want conversions
- Targeting too narrow: Expensive impressions
- Weak creative: Ad doesn't stop scroll
- No tracking setup: Can't measure results
- Giving up too soon: Optimization takes time
- Over-optimizing too fast: Making changes before data is significant
Exercise
Plan Your First Ad Campaign
-
Choose one objective for your first campaign: [ ] Awareness [ ] Traffic [ ] Leads [ ] Conversions
-
Define your target audience:
- Location: ___________
- Age range: ___________
- Interests: ___________
-
Set your test budget:
- Daily budget: $_____
- Test duration: _____ days
-
Plan your ad creative:
- Visual type: [ ] Image [ ] Video [ ] Carousel
- Hook/headline idea: ___________
- Main value proposition: ___________
- Call-to-action: ___________
-
Define success metrics:
- Primary metric: ___________
- Target to achieve: ___________
Summary
Paid advertising amplifies your reach beyond organic limits. Start when you have proven organic content, clear goals, and budget to invest consistently. Each platform has different strengths—Meta for B2C and e-commerce, LinkedIn for B2B, TikTok for younger audiences. Choose ad objectives aligned with your goals. Target based on demographics, interests, and behaviors; use custom and lookalike audiences for better results. Create thumb-stopping creative with clear value propositions. Start with $10-20/day budgets for testing, scale winners gradually. Measure the right metrics for your objective and avoid common beginner mistakes.
Next Steps
AI tools can dramatically improve your social media efficiency. The next module covers using AI for content creation, ideation, and automation.