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Social media advertising is a must if you’re looking to reach a new, targeted audience ASAP.

Like it or not, organic reach is getting increasingly hard to achieve: to be honest, the days of going viral without a little boost just might be over.

We totally get that it can be scary to move from an organic social strategy to spending (gulp) real money to achieve reach. Understanding all your options is vital to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck — and working towards the social media goals that matter to you and your brand.

That’s why we’ve put together this extremely comprehensive guide to explain how to use each unique type of social media advertising to achieve real business results. Read on to learn just how to make every dollar you spend advertising on social media count.

What is social media advertising?

Social media advertising is a type of digital advertising. It refers to the practice of spending money to deliver content to a target audience on your preferred social media platform.

The number of people who see your social media ads is referred to as your “paid reach.” This is in contrast to your “organic reach,” which refers to people who view content distributed by the algorithm free of charge. And obviously, when you pay to get your content out there, you have a much higher chance of connecting with the right people.

That’s because advertising on social is a hyper-direct way to reach the audience you want. No need to cross your fingers or pray to the astrology gods that you’ll create a viral post: you can pay to make sure your amazing content gets some eyeballs on it.

Social advertising allows you to target brand-new customers or returning ones. (New friends! Hooray!) It’s also a chance to do some hands-on A/B testing.

The downside, obviously, is that it’ll cost you at least a few bucks… but all the social platforms offer really flexible rates to suit every type of budget. If you’ve got a fiver on hand, you’ve got everything you need to dabble in social media ads. (More on just how much social media advertising costs below!)

The 8 main types of social media advertising

All the major social networks offer advertising options, but that doesn’t mean you should use all of them.

When choosing where to place your ads, it’s helpful to know which networks are most popular with your target audience. Where is your target group most engaged, most concentrated and most accessible?

Targeting teens? TikTok is where to find them. Moms, meanwhile, love Facebook.

Try looking at which social networks perform well organically for your brand. Where does your content naturally strike a chord with fans? This is an obvious choice for your first social ad campaigns.

Here’s a quick summary from the Pew Research Center’s most recent social media fact sheet. It shows a great snapshot of the preferred platform of different demographics.

Source: Pew Research Center

Once you have a sense of which social networks might be best for your business, let’s take a look at each network’s ad types.

Facebook ads

Facebook ads help you achieve one of six broad types of campaign objectives:

Awareness
Traffic
Engagement
Leads
App promotion
Sales

Like Instagram, Facebook ads appear throughout the app, including in users’ feeds, Stories, Messenger, Marketplace, and more. They look similar to normal posts but always include a “sponsored” label to show they’re an ad. Facebook ads include more features than regular posts, like CTA buttons, links, and product catalogs.

Audience considerations: Facebook is popular across many demographics, with 2.91 billion monthly active users. While millennials are the most active demographic, teenagers, Gen Xers and even senior citizens are hanging out there, too.

Source: Hootsuite Digital Trends Report

With detailed targeting options for this huge pool of users, Facebook is a great platform to get started with social media advertising.

Here are the different styles of ads available as options on Facebook in 2022.

Image

Image ads are Facebook’s most basic ad format. They let businesses use single images to promote their products, services, or brand. Image ads can be used across different ad types, placements, and aspect ratios.

Pro tip: Pay attention to image ad specs and ratios, so your product doesn’t get cut off or stretched.

Source: Facebook

Video

Just like image ads, video ads on Facebook let businesses use a single video to showcase their products, services, or brand. They’re especially helpful for product demos, tutorials, and showcasing moving elements.

Source: Facebook

Carousel

Carousel ads showcase up to ten images or videos that users can click through. Each has its own headline, description, or link.

Carousels are a great choice for displaying a series of different products. Each image in the carousel can even have its own landing page specifically built for that product or service.

Source: Facebook

Playables

Playable ads are an opportunity to offer viewers an interactive experience and preview before they download.

Think of it as a try-before-you-buy option: it’s a good one to use if you’re selling a game, app, or other digital tool or experience.

Source: Facebook

Collection

Collection ads are mobile window-shopping experiences that allow users to flick through your product lineup. They’re kind of like immersive carousels — just full-screen and more customizable. Users can purchase products directly from Collection ads.

Source: Facebook

Slideshow

Slideshow ads are composed of 3-10 images or a single video that plays in a slideshow. These ads are a great alternative to video ads because they use up to five times less data than videos.

Slideshow ads are also a great way for people without video-making experience to get started.

Source: Facebook

Stories

Stories ads are a mobile-only full-screen vertical video format that allows you to maximize screen real estate without expecting viewers to turn their screens sideways.

Stories can be made up of Images, videos, and even carousels.

Source: Facebook

Messenger

Messenger ads show up in Facebook’s messenger tab. Since it’s where people spend time chatting with friends and family, Messenger ads can feel more personal than scrolling through Image or video ads.

People see your Messenger ads among their conversations and can tap to start a conversation with your brand.

Source: Facebook

For more detail on each of these Facebook ad types and how to post ads on Facebook, head over to our guide to How to Advertise on Facebook.

Instagram ads

Facebook owns Instagram. So it’s not surprising that Instagram ads support the same six broad categories of campaign objectives as Facebook ads:

Awareness
Traffic
Engagement
Leads
App promotion
Sales

Audience considerations: Instagram is most popular with millennials, though plenty of Generation Z and Gen Xers also use the platform. You’ll find far fewer boomers and seniors here than on Facebook, though.

Source: Digital Trends 2022

Like Facebook, you can target your ideal viewer with custom targeting options. You can also create lookalike audiences and define your audience’s behaviors and activities, interests, and demographics.

Ads appear in users’ Feeds and Stories alongside content they follow organically. Instagram ads might also show up in Explore and the Instagram Shop browsing experience. Regardless of where they appear, all Instagram ads feature a “sponsored” icon and might include a call-to-action button, too.

Here are the different styles of Instagram ads you have to choose between.

Boosted posts

Your Instagram photo or video will look like a regular Instagram post, except it will say “Sponsored” in the top left. Depending on your campaign objective, you may also be able to add a call-to-action button.

Source: Instagram

Carousel

In an Instagram carousel ad, viewers swipe to scroll through different images.

Source: Instagram

Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories ads can use photos or videos up to 120 seconds long. These ads display in full-screen format between people’s stories.

Source: Instagram

Reels

Instagram really wants Reels to take off, so their algorithm heavily favors video posts these days. Dropping a boosted Reel into the Insta-verse will probably get you a double dose of paid reach and organic reach.

Just like a traditional Reel, ad Reels loop and can be up to 30 seconds in length. Ad Reels can also receive comments, likes, shares and saves and appear everywhere regular Reels do (in-feed, on the Reels tab and in Explore).

Source: Instagram

Instagram Shop

This option allows you to advertise your Instagram Shop on the Instagram Shop tab homepage. Your hero image will appear as a tile among other shopping content. Users can click on your product to learn more on the product details page.

Source: Instagram

Read more about Instagram Ads in our guide to Instagram Advertising.

Twitter ads

Twitter ads support three different business objectives:

Awareness: Maximize the reach of your ad.
Consideration: Whether you want video views, pre-roll views, app installs, web traffic, engagement or followers, this is your category.
Conversion: Bring users to your app or website to take action.

Audience considerations: Nearly two-thirds of Twitter’s advertising addressable audience is male.

Source: Hootsuite Digital Trends Report

Learn more about Twitter Ads here.

Promoted Ads

Formerly known as Promoted Tweets, Promoted Ads on Twitter look a lot like regular Tweets — they can be images, videos, carousels, moments or text-only ads. Advertisers pay to display their content to people who don’t already follow them on Twitter.

Like ordinary Tweets, they can be liked, retweeted and commented on. But they are labeled as an ad: they will always say “Promoted” in the lower left-hand corner.

Source: Twitter

Follower Ads

Formerly known as Promoted Accounts, this type of Twitter ad allows you to promote your brand’s entire Twitter account. It targets users who don’t follow your brand and can help grow your business’s Twitter following.

Follower Ads are displayed in potential followers’ timelines. The ad will also show in the Who to Follow suggestions and search results.

Source: Twitter

Amplify

Twitter Amplify Pre-roll allows your brand to place ads that appear before video content from 15+ categories of pre-screened brand-safe publishers.

Source: Twitter

Takeover

There are two different types of Twitter Takeover.

Trend Takeover allows brands to place a sponsored ad in the What’s happening section of the Twitter homepage and the Trending tab on the Explore screen.

Timeline Takeover, meanwhile, is an ad that appears at the very top of a user’s timeline when someone opens Twitter for the first time of the day.

Source: Twitter

Twitter Live

Twitter Live is available for free to any Twitter user, but a paid Twitter Live helps brands maximize their reach.

This is a great option for conferences, product launches or anytime you’ve got a big moment you want to share with the world.

Source: Twitter

Additional branding opportunities

Polls, hashtags, and more are all available for the discerning Twitter shopper. Branded hashtag ads, for instance, allow you to add a visual component, like an emoji, that automatically appears when someone uses your hashtag.

Source: Twitter

Of course, this all just scratches the surface. For a deeper dive into advertising on Twitter, click here.

Snapchat ads

Snapchat ads can help you achieve three types of marketing objectives:

Awareness: Reach a large audience to increase awareness of your brand and showcase products and services
Consideration: Drive traffic to your website or app, increase engagement, and encourage app installs, video views, and lead generation.
Conversions: Drive website conversions or catalog sales.

Snapchat’s Instant Create service is a simplified way to get your image or video ad up in under five minutes. This is a quick and easy way to get started if you’ve got a simple advertising goal — for example, getting a Snapchatter to call up your pizza parlor.

For more in-depth advertising goals, there’s Advanced Create. This is for advertisers with more long-term or specific objectives and might need more control over budgets, bids, or optimization.

Audience considerations: Snapchat is overwhelmingly popular with younger users.

Some hot numbers for you: 18 to 24-year-olds are the largest age group that use Snapchat, followed by ages 25 to 34 and ages 13 to 17. So if your brand targets Gen Z audiences, Snapchat should definitely be on your radar.

Source: Hootsuite Digital Trends Report

Single image or video ads

These ads look like organic Snapchat content and are a great format for many objectives, from brand awareness to driving a specific action. Any photo, GIF, or video can be an ad.

These ads are the “bread and butter” format that should be part of every campaign. Mix and match these with any of the other ad types below.

Source: Snapchat

Collection ads

Collection ads are used for ecommerce sales conversions. You must upload your product catalog to Snapchat Ads Manager to use this format. You can add it manually or connect to Shopify — or many other platforms — for live-syncing (recommended).

These ads showcase your products in a video or picture and allow you to feature 4 clickable product tiles along the bottom.

You can also create Dynamic Collection ads. Once you upload a product catalog and meet a few conditions with the Snap Pixel, Snapchat can automatically create dynamic product ads.

Source: Snapchat

Story ads

Story ads on Snapchat are single image or video ads — but in a series. You can have between 3 to 20 of these ads in a sequence, mimicking the experience of tapping through a friend’s Snapchat Story.

In addition to appearing between organic Stories, your Story ad is also listed on the Discover page, which can bring in great views.

Source: Snapchat

Commercial ads

Want guaranteed ad views? Commercials are your answer. These video ads show up in Stories content, and the first six seconds are unskippable (though they can be up to three minutes long!).

Source: Snapchat

AR Lens ads and Filter ads

Snapchat’s AR lens ads are like sponsored camera filters. You create a “face lens” or a “world lens,” and Snapchat users can apply them to their content.

Filter ads, meanwhile, are static image overlays users can add to Snaps.

Source: Snapchat

Learn more about creating Snapchat ads here.

Linkedin ads

LinkedIn ads help your business with three types of marketing objectives:

Awareness: Create more awareness of your company or brand.
Consideration: Drive website visits, increase engagement, or encourage video views.
Conversions: Collect leads and drive website conversions.
Audience considerations: LinkedIn is much more business-oriented than the other social networks in this post. It offers targeting options based on professional qualifications like job title and seniority.

Audience considerations: LinkedIn is much more business-oriented than the other social networks in this post. It offers targeting options based on professional qualifications like job title and seniority.

Let’s get down to business.

Source: Hootsuite Digital Trends Report

Native Ads

There are a variety of different formats of ads you can choose from under the Native ad umbrella. Pick between single images, carousels, document ads, video ads or event ads and then set your budget.

Whatever your style, it’ll appear right in the LinkedIn feed alongside organic content (though it will, of course, be marked as promoted content.)

LinkedIn Messaging

Send direct, one-on-one messages to your target audience’s LinkedIn inbox. It’s like starting a personal chat with all your favorite people at once!

You can either send a personalized direct message or get interactive with a Conversation ad, where users are given a choose-your-own-adventure series of prompts.

Source: LinkedIn

Dynamic Ads

LinkedIn Dynamic ads are personalized automatically for every single person that sees them.

This AI magic trick allows you to automate individualized campaigns at scale, using personal data like the recipient’s company name, job title, photo, and more, gleaned from their profiles.

Maybe a little spooky? Or maybe just enough to grab their attention.

Source: LinkedIn

These are boosted posts — content created like you would as a regular user of LinkedIn, but then given a little paid boost to get in front of more people. (More about boosting LinkedIn posts here!)

They’ll appear right in the usual content stream, though they’ll be highlighted as promoted posts.

Text Ads

LinkedIn’s Text ads are as simple as it gets. Fine-tune your target to reach only the people you actually want, and only pay for those who click through.

If you want to reach a specific professional audience and have a clear value proposition that doesn’t need any razzle-dazzle to hammer your point home, this could be the option for you.

One note: they only appear to desktop users, not on mobile devices.

Pro tip: Create two to three variations of your campaign, both for A/B testing but also to show your many sides to your audience.

Source: LinkedIn

Get all the step-by-step instructions you need to set up your LinkedIn ads in our LinkedIn advertising guide.

Pinterest ads

Pinterest ads work with six types of business goals:

Brand awareness
Video view
Consideration
Conversions
Catalog sales

Audience considerations: Pinterest has significantly more female users than males.

Source: Hootsuite Digital Trends Report

Advertising on Pinterest is refreshingly straightforward. Ads are just regular pins (whether static, video or catalogs) that you pay to show to your desired audience.

Paid Pins

Your paid pins will appear in users’ home feeds, category feeds, and relevant search results. They’ll be clearly labeled as “promoted.” Easy-peasy!

Get all the step-by-step instructions you need to set up your Pinterest ads in our Pinterest advertising guide.

YouTube ads

YouTube ads can help you work towards the following business goals:

Awareness
Consideration
Action

Audience considerations: YouTube has more male than female users. The audience is well spread out among age groups up to 65.

Source: Hootsuite Digital Trends Report

There are a few different video ad formats available on YouTube.

In-stream ads

Choose between skippable and unskippable (up to 15 seconds) for this option. These run before, during, or after videos across YouTube. You can reach hyper-detailed audiences or broad demographics.

Source: YouTube

Bumper ads

These quick ads are unskippable and just six seconds long. They may play before, after, or during a video, much like the longer in-stream ads (above.) This is a great option if you’ve got something short and snappy to share.

Source: YouTube

In-feed video ads

In-feed video ads on YouTube involve a thumbnail of your video next to some text, enticing viewers to click to watch the video. They may appear next to videos, as part of search results, or on the YouTube homepage on mobile.

Source: YouTube

Masthead ads

Masthead ads are pretty VIP — they’re only available to book through a reservation with your Google sales rep.

It makes sense, since this featured ad appears at the top of the desktop site or mobile app and autoplays for up to 30 seconds. That’s what we call premium positioning, baby!

Source: YouTube

Learn more about Youtube advertising here.

TikTok ads

TikTok ads can help you work towards the following business goals:

Website visits
App installs
Online sales

Audience considerations: TikTok users are youngsters! Almost seventy percent of TikTokers are under 34 years old.

Source: Hootsuite Digital Trends Report

Though TikTok’s mantra is “don’t make ads, make TikToks,” they do, in fact, offer paid branded solutions. Read on for the full menu.

In-feed ads

Make a snappy video and pay to get it into the streams of the people! Of course, you’ll have the option to target specific demographics, but ultimately, your success will come down to whether or not your video captures users’ attention.

Take some inspiration from our guide to creating great TikToks here and start those cameras rollin’.

Pro tip: for maximum exposure, try the TopView option in the ad manager menu to make sure your video is played first when your target audience opens the For You Page.

Source: TikTok

Branded hashtag challenge

Hashtags and challenges are the heart of TikTok. Join in by paying to get your branded challenge at the top of the trending pile. It’s engagement that goes beyond click-throughs — in fact, branded hashtag challenges have an average 8.5% engagement rate.

Ideally, your creative idea for a challenge will spark users to spread your brand’s vibe all over the TikTokosphere.

Source: TikTok

Branded effects

Craft and share your own branded effect to encourage users to play around and create their own unique content.

It’s a great way to incentivize user-generated content beyond your existing fanbase… plus, it’s more fun and interactive than a typical “where’s the skip button” ad.

Source: TikTok

There are a few other types of hyper-specific opportunities for ad placements on TikTok’s wider family of apps (many of which are not available globally).

We dig into that more in our guide to TikTok ads — get into it!

How much does social media advertising cost?

The infuriating truth for each platform is: it varies! Budgets can be set on all of these social media sites to suit your own financial needs… so you could spend $5 or $50,000.

Results, of course, will vary accordingly — but the point is, there’s an almost infinite spectrum of pricing.

That didn’t stop us from breaking it all down by platform, though, so read on if you need to hear this sentiment again in a more specific context.

Facebook ads

There’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to Facebook ad budgets. The cost of Facebook ads depends on several variable factors, including audience targeting, ad placement, campaign duration, the competitiveness of your industry, time of year, location, and time of day.

Get a full breakdown of just how all of these factors impact Facebook ad costs here.

But one important takeaway: setting the right campaign objective is the most important thing you can do to control Facebook ad costs. (Getting this right will also help you achieve success in your goals.)

For example, on average, an “impressions” campaign objective costs $1.85 per click, while a campaign with a “conversions” objective costs $0.87 per click.

Learn more about how to advertise on Facebook here.

Instagram ads

The cost of Instagram ads is highly dependent on a variety of factors – there is no average or benchmark price. Some cost factors include your target demographic, industry, or time of year.

The best way to evaluate your budget is to set up a draft campaign in Ads Manager and look for the Audience Definition and Estimated Daily Results modules. This will tell you if your budget settings will be sufficient to reach your desired audience within your desired duration.

Learn more about Instagram ads and how to control your spending here in our Guide to Instagram Ads.

Twitter ads

There’s no minimum spend for Twitter ads, so you can pay as much or as little as you like. But that doesn’t mean the cost of Twitter ads is entirely up to you.

Like most social media platforms, Twitter runs its ads on an auction system. You set the bid you’re willing to pay for a certain action, as well as a daily budget for your campaign.

In general, the higher your bid, the more likely your ad will be served to your target audience. But this is not the only factor.

When considering which ads to serve, Twitter also considers how engaging your ad is. A high-demand audience will also be more expensive to reach.

That means you can reduce the cost of your Twitter ads by focusing on quality creative and appropriate ad targeting.

In terms of dollars and cents, most Twitter ad objectives cost between $0.50 and $3.00 per action, according to AdEspresso.

Learn more about how to set up a Twitter ad campaign here.

Snapchat ads

Feels like we’re repeating ourselves here: the exact cost of Snapchat ads varies wildly depending on your objectives, formats, audience, and so on.

One cold hard fact we can share, though, is that there is a minimum spend of $5. (Though what that $5 gets you really depends on what you’re shopping for. Sorry!)

More details about Snapchat Ad strategy and execution here.

Linkedin ads

Surprise, surprise: it depends! The cost of a LinkedIn ad will entirely depend on your specific campaign goals, your desired audience, and your ad format choice.

You start every campaign by placing a bid that suits your own budget. LinkedIn ads are then sold through an ad auction, where you’re in competition with everyone else angling to reach the same audience. The more popular the audience, the higher the price is going to get. The best way to get your cost down is to tweak your target audience.

Dig more into the science of LinkedIn ad pricing here, or back it up and get a full LinkedIn ads primer here.

Pinterest ads

Our guide to Pinterest advertising offers some firm-ish numbers: “While every campaign and ad format varies, the average cost of Pinterest ads in 2021 was $1.50 per click.”

So, sure, your final bill will vary wildly depending on how many clicks you get, what kind of ad you create, and who your target market is, but… hey, at least you’ve got a starting point, right?

Learn more about how to maximize your Pinterest ad spend here.

YouTube ads

There is no firm cost for a YouTube ad. We know that’s probably not the answer you want, but it’s true! So many factors come into play here that it’s impossible to even give a ballpark number. As YouTube itself says, “You’re in charge of how much you spend.”

You set a maximum cost-per-click you’re willing to pay, but your actual costs may even be lower, depending on how in-demand your desired audience or placement is.

Learn more about Youtube ads and costs here in our guide to Youtube advertising.

TikTok ads

There may not be a straight answer about how much TikTok ads cost, but there are some minimum budgets to work off of.

Since TikTok ads are based on a bidding model, daily budgets for campaigns are set at $50 USD.

Social media advertising examples to learn from

Okay, we know, we know, this has been a lot. But it’s time for a quick bit of inspo before we dive into some important tips.

This Gap ad on Facebook takes advantage of the carousel format to showcase one product in multiple colors. (And yet… we want to buy them all?)

Manufacturers of this bed cleverly targeted people listening to Chill Hop — perhaps an audience of people who love feeling sleepy and cozy and are abnormally into bedtime.

Take some inspiration here to think outside the box about your target audience. What kind of content might they be consuming?

On TikTok, Threadbeast promoted a video showcasing its subscription box product by shooting it in a very authentic, unboxing-video-style way that would blend in seamlessly with organic content… while still standing out with an intriguing call to action: “Who wants a mystery box?”

It’s #NationalMilkDay and we’re delivering positive energy all day with Milk Grams

Comment below & tag a friend. You may get a special delivery today pic.twitter.com/sWicXST9O4

— got milk? (@gotmilk) January 11, 2021

Got Milk used promoted Tweets to share videos of special “Milk Gram” deliveries it made as part of a campaign. Twitter users could tag a friend who might get a special IRL surprise and find themselves in the next promoted video. The circle of life!

The takeaway? Think about how you can blend real-life experiences with digital ones to generate content and spark delight.

Best tips for social media advertising beginners

1. Know what business objective you’re trying to achieve

It’s no accident that we start each section of this guide by reviewing the business objectives each type of social media ad can help you achieve. It’s awfully hard to achieve your goals if you don’t know what your goals are in the first place.

Understanding your ultimate goal is critical. It ensures you choose the right social network to advertise on and find the right advertising solution within that platform. Your goal will even guide your creative strategy.

2. Know your target audience

The ability to micro-target your ad campaigns is one of the key benefits of social media advertising. That’s why we’ve listed some audience considerations for each of the social networks.

Keep in mind that they all offer quite specific ad targeting. Know exactly who you’re trying to reach to take maximum advantage of these targeting options. This ensures you get the best bang for your advertising buck.

After all, there’s no point in advertising to soccer moms in Florida if your audience is young male video gamers in New Jersey. Developing audience personas can help you understand exactly which audience segments to focus on.

3. Let your organic posts inform your ads

You’re likely already posting content on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram every day. Maybe LinkedIn and Snapchat, too.

Some of these posts will resonate with followers, while others won’t. Track which ones are being clicked, liked, shared and commented on. These high-performing messages make the best candidates for social ads.

If you’re branching out into a new network with your social media advertising, start small. Use what you’ve learned from your organic posts as a starting point. However, know that those lessons will not necessarily translate across social networks.

4. Pay for what matters: Impressions or engagement

To keep your budget under control, think about whether you want impressions or engagements.

In many cases, you’ll be paying by cost per thousand impressions (CPM) or cost per click (CPC). If you pay every time someone sees your ad (impressions), your message can cast a wide net. But if you’re paying for engagement, you only want people who are really interested in doing business with you to engage.

You don’t want to pay for engagements that are not relevant to your business goals. The wording of your ad should help people identify whether it’s for them.

Both engagement and impressions campaigns can be valuable for your business. You just need to choose the right one to align with your business goals so that you only pay for real business results.

Here’s some more information about which metrics to track to make the most of your social media marketing campaign.

5. Design your ads with mobile in mind

More than 3.25 billion active social media users access social networks on mobile devices.

That means most social media ads are viewed on mobile devices. Your mobile ads should be specifically designed for the small screen. Incorporate images that are easy to view on a pocket-sized device. (Unless, of course, you specifically choose desktop placement.)

If you have a brick-and-mortar business, you can use “geofencing” to target mobile users when they are in a specific zip code. This means they only see your ads when they are close enough to walk in your front door.

6. Test your ads to optimize performance

One of the great benefits of social ads is instant feedback. You can gauge the effectiveness of a sponsored post in minutes and follow up with advanced analytics reports.

The best practice is to test several ads with small audiences to determine what works best, then use the winning ad in the primary campaign.

Testing one ad against another to determine what works best and refine your strategy is known as A/B testing. It’s a critical part of your social media advertising efforts. We teach you how to do it in our guide to social media A/B testing.

7. Measure results — and report on them

Just as it’s important to know your goals before running an ad campaign, it’s important to measure results. This will let you know whether you’ve hit your targets. It shows you what worked and what didn’t so that you can improve going forward.

Measuring your results and having concrete data about the value your ads bring to the company (purchases, leads, and so on) is a key part of proving ROI.

And if you can prove that your ads are paying off, that will ensure you get the budget you need to continue your work.

The major social networks offer analytics to help you measure the results of ads. We’ve created in-depth guides on how to use them:

Facebook analytics
Instagram analytics
Twitter analytics
LinkedIn analytics
Snapchat analytics
Pinterest analytics
Youtube analytics
TikTok analytics

You can also use tools like Google Analytics and Hootsuite Impact to measure results across networks from a single dashboard. A social media report is a great way to track your results and look for great content to promote with social ads.

Frequently asked questions about social media ads

Why is social media advertising important?

Social media advertising can help you reach a new, hyper-specific audience for a fairly low investment. Organic reach can only get you so far, and spending some cold hard cash can help your content receive the attention it deserves.

Social ads let you target your ideal audience based on their behaviors, interests, demographics, and more. You can tweak variables and experiment to see what gets you the most action — even if you only have a small amount to spend.

You also get tons of data to view after the fact, so you can see clearly what worked and what didn’t with your campaign.

The bottom line? Social media advertising is important because it can be highly effective, direct and designed to fit your budget. Let’s see a billboard do all that.

What is the most effective social media advertising?

According to our Digital Trends research, Instagram’s advertising reach has outpaced Facebook this past year… which is staggering when you consider that ads reach over 72% of Facebook’s 3 billion monthly active users.

So if “effective” means “reach the most people,” then Instagram is your answer… but that may be oversimplifying it.

The more complicated answer is: it depends. The most effective social media advertising for your brand may be totally different from mine. Your goals and your unique audience mix will determine the right platform for you.

For instance, if you make a tool for scheduling Twitter posts (ahem) and want to increase your sales, then advertising on Twitter will probably get you further than a Snapchat campaign.

Take a look deep inside, and then check out this social media advertising stats report. Then you’ll see the most effective social media advertising has been inside of you all along.

You made it to the end! You deserve a treat. Here’s an owl flying around with a broomstick and frightening locals.

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If it seems like every brand is working with influencers these days, you’re not imagining it — they are. Over 72% of U.S. marketers leveraged influencer marketing in 2022, and this number only continues to grow. In fact, the influencer market is valued at over 16 billion U.S. dollars, and most of that money goes to sponsored posts.

Why are brands spending their marketing dollars in this way? Because influencer marketing works. 61% of consumers trust recommendations on social platforms, including those made by influencers.

If all these stats have convinced you, read on — we’ve got everything you need to get started with sponsored posts.

What is a sponsored post?

A sponsored post is any social media post you’ve paid to promote. When you create a sponsored post, you’re spending money to help it reach a wider audience.

You can find sponsored posts on every social media platform, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and even LinkedIn.

There are two types of sponsored posts:

1. Promoted/boosted posts

This is the traditional style of paid advertisement. Brands pay to publish native ads on a social platform like Instagram or Facebook. Paid ads use data like location, age, or gender to target specific audiences. Your ad money goes directly to the social media platform.

Boosted posts are easy to spot because they have the word “sponsored” or “promoted” underneath the account username. Paid posts often feature a call-to-action button to drive results, such as “Shop Now” or “Download.”

Here are examples of sponsored posts on different platforms:

Instagram sponsored post

Source:@crateandbarrel

Facebook sponsored post

Source: @AmericanTallClothing

LinkedIn sponsored post

Source: @StreetLight

2. Influencer partnerships

In this type of sponsored post, advertisers pay a specific user, usually an influencer, to promote their brand in a post. These influencers offer access to their audience of engaged followers.

An influencer’s opinions and endorsements carry weight with their followers, so these posts are a great way to generate social proof. Your brand can work with influencers to access a powerful source of “word-of-mouth”-style marketing.

An influencer ad can be tricky to spot because it usually looks like their regular content. To help with transparency, most social media platforms make it mandatory for influencers to label their paid posts.

Here are examples of influencer partnerships on different platforms:

Instagram influencer ad

Source: @angelarosehome

Facebook influencer ad

Source: @theteairawalker

LinkedIn influencer ad

Source: @thatalliemason

Why should brands do sponsored posts?

Sponsored posts have a wide reach — and an even bigger impact on your bottom line.

According to a 2022 Oracle survey, 84% of Gen Z consumers have purchased products in direct response to social media content. Even better, almost 30% of respondents say that they discover new products and brands through influencers.

But that’s not all. Here are five more reasons why your brand should invest in sponsored posts:

You can create an emotional connection

Consumers want to know how your product can help them live a fuller life. An influencer can use their strong emotional connection with their audience to show off the benefits of your product.

Look at these two posts. Most social media users would scroll right past a regular static feed ad from these brands. These influencers’ posts turn run-of-the-mill products into life-changing items you need to have:

You can reach a new audience

When selecting an influencer to partner with, make sure that they’re a natural fit for your brand. If the partnership seems forced, your audience will notice.

But there’s also a benefit to working with influencers who aren’t necessarily an obvious fit. These influencers can help you reach people who wouldn’t see your ads otherwise and create awareness with a new audience.

Source: @thesorrygirls

You can drive higher engagement

A promoted post might get you views, but views don’t necessarily translate to engagement. People tend to scroll right past content that looks like an ad, leading to a low engagement rate.

A sponsored post that looks more like organic content helps you grab and keep someone’s attention. Leverage the trust that an influencer has built with their audience to keep eyes on your content.

You can show off your product

Influencers can create video content that demonstrates how your product looks or works. Unboxing and “get ready with me” videos are popular for a reason — they’re like old-school infomercials, reimagined for a new generation.

These videos look and feel like user-generated content, but they are created specifically to show off a product or brand. This content helps new customers picture themselves using your products.

You can create buzz

Ready for more stats? 77% of consumers say that social media helps them discover new brands they haven’t heard of before.

Giving an influencer early access to new products can boost the success of your campaign. When they share a sneak peek at an upcoming release, they generate anticipation and FOMO.

Make sure to use tracking methods to see if the buzz translates to sales (more on this later).

Why should creators do sponsored posts?

Brand partnerships allow content creators to make a living online. You can grow your brand and expand your creative pursuits with sponsorship income.

As a creator, here are a few reasons why you should incorporate sponsored posts into your business model:

Get paid to create the content you already make

You’re probably mentioning brands in your posts already, even if they’re not paying for it.

Just look at this Instagram Reel by @thekwendyhome, which is unbelievably NOT sponsored by a vacuum brand:

With sponsored posts, you get paid to create content that shines a spotlight on the brands you love.

Work with brands that fit with your content and voice, so you can incorporate paid posts without alienating your audience.

For more on this, check out our guide to making money on social media.

Establish yourself as a leader in your niche

According to the 2022 Hootsuite Digital Report, less than 20% of working-age internet users feel represented in advertising. This presents a fantastic opportunity for creators to develop their niche and build a dedicated following that sees themselves reflected in the content.

Osob Mohamud is a Muslim beauty influencer who partners with national brands like Este?e Lauder and Reitmans. These brands may not reach Mohamud’s audience through traditional advertising means, but they can connect with a new customer base by partnering with her to create content.

Receive #gifted products that help grow your business

Whether you’re a DIYer completing projects with your preferred tool brand or a makeup influencer showing off your favorite lip product, gifted products can help you achieve your business goals.

Gifted products make it easy to create your content without spending money, so you can allocate resources towards creating more content and expanding your reach.

Home decor influencer Macenna Lee is currently renovating her home inside and out. Many of her paid posts highlight products that are helping with this renovation:

How to get started with sponsored posts

As a brand

Customers tend to notice if your influencer partnerships seem forced. Finding the right partner is key, so start by doing your research.

Make a list of influencers whose audience and tone dovetail with your business goals.

Next, check out what type of sponsored content they’re posting. How frequently do they have paid posts? Are their paid posts getting likes and positive comments? Do their followers seem interested and engaged in this content?

After you’ve established a partnership with the right influencer, focus on collaborating with them to develop content. They know their audience best, so don’t try to dictate every single aspect of the campaign. Work with your influencer to create content that will help you reach your goals while remaining true to their existing brand.

For more tips on collaborating with influencers, check out our guide to influencer marketing.

As a creator

If you think that you need a million followers to land a brand deal, think again! Influencers come in all shapes and sizes, with nano influencers on the rise.

A nano influencer is anyone on social media with less than 10,000 followers. Their smaller audiences are usually very engaged, which is incredibly valuable to brands.

If you’re a creator with a smaller audience, start by posting authentic and engaging content. Consistency is key when building your audience.

Once you’ve got an active audience and great content, work on perfecting the art of the brand pitch. Other influencers are vying for the same sponsorship dollars, so make sure you articulate what sets you apart.

How to measure the success of your sponsored post

It’s tempting to rely on likes and comments to measure success, but these vanity metrics only tell part of the story.

Here are a few techniques you can use to track the effectiveness of your campaign:

Use UTM parameters

UTM parameters are short pieces of tracking code that you can add to links you share anywhere — like in a social media post, for example. They make it easy to tag your content and keep an eye on the ROI of your sponsored posts.

You may want to create individual campaigns for each influencer partner. You can also try nesting their efforts under the same campaign and differentiate their content using the content tag. Whatever you decide, make sure you keep track of it!

You can use Hootsuite Composer to generate UTM links with ease. Ow.ly, Hootsuite’s built-in link shortener, even lets you reduce the character count of those long UTM-tagged URLs.

Create specific discount codes

Create unique discount codes for each influencer partner to see how their sponsored posts are driving sales. After the campaign ends, review your sales reports to see how often shoppers used the code and what they bought.

Use each platform’s native tools

Each social media platform’s business management tool allows you to view post and account analytics. Facebook and Instagram share the Meta Business Suite, while TikTok has the Business Center. These platforms already centralize your marketing and advertising activities, so use them!

Ask the influencer for reports

Influencers can use their business dashboards to see the reach and engagement levels of their posts. Make sure to ask them for regular, detailed reports so you can track how a campaign is performing.

Gauging success as a creator

As a creator, you’ll need to be able to back up your initial pitch with numbers that prove you’re a worthwhile investment.

To get this info, make sure that you’re using a business account on all your social media platforms. (And, of course, we recommend connecting those accounts to your own Hootsuite dashboard.)

Once your content is live, you can use your Hootsuite account to pull data like the engagement rate for each sponsored post.

Brands will ask for these numbers, so learn how to interpret data and create reports. Put a sample report in your pitch deck to show that you’re good at this!

Make influencer marketing easier with Hootsuite. Schedule posts, research and engage with influencers in your industry, and measure the success of your campaigns. Try it free today.

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How do you know the “right” number of engagements to expect on your social posts? Is 100 likes a lot or a little? The answer is, it depends.

That’s where social media benchmarks come in. This industry-specific data tracks the norms or averages for specific metrics like social media engagement and follower growth. It gives you an understanding of how businesses similar to yours are doing — and a better sense of what those 100 likes really mean.

Keep reading to learn more about the process of social media benchmarking. This post includes up-to-date benchmarks for key industries to help you understand how your social results stack up right now.

What is a social media benchmark?

A social media benchmark is an average result that serves as a standard by which other businesses in the same industry or category can be measured or judged. The benchmark is essentially the norm for social media marketing success. Think of it as the level of social media performance all businesses within a category should try to reach or exceed.

Social media benchmarks are important because they provide context for your social media KPIs. There’s always value to tracking your own social media metrics and growth over time, even in isolation. But when you place that data in the context of the larger industry picture, you can better understand where there are real opportunities for improvement.

You can also use benchmarks to set realistic goals expectations. Some industries (like entertainment) will by nature have greater reach than others (like health care). When you know what’s “normal” for your industry, you can set reasonable milestones that allow you to achieve real growth without burning out your social team.

How to find social media benchmarks

Manually compiling reliable social media benchmarks by industry can involve a lot of very finicky and frustrating research.

Fortunately, Hootsuite Analytics has a built-in social media benchmarking tool that allows you to compare the performance of your social accounts against the average of brands in your industry with just a couple of clicks.

To access this new feature, head to Analytics within your Hootsuite dashboard. Under Benchmarking in the the left menu, click Industry, then click Select your industry and choose the most relevant option from the drop-down menu.

Now you can see how your results compare to average performance stats within your industry. You can set up custom timeframes, switch between networks — Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok — and look up benchmarks for the following metrics:

Profile impressions
Profile reach
Followers
Audience growth rate
Engagement rate
Video plays
Posting frequency
Clicks
Shares

… and more.

You will also find resources to improve your performance right in the summary section:

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And, if you need to present your results to your team, boss, or other stakeholders, you can easily download your comparison report as a PDF file. 

2023 social media benchmarks by industry

Let’s look at a snapshot of some of the most important social media benchmarking data for 2023. We focus here on four key metrics:

Page/profile impressions: The number of times content from or about your profile or page appears on someone’s screen. Note that this number is not the same as reach. Reach indicates the number of accounts that see your content. Impressions will usually be higher because one account might view your content multiple times.
Audience growth rate: Rather than a simple count of new followers, this is a measure of how your audience is growing (or shrinking) as a percentage of your existing followers.

Post engagement rate: Total engagements (likes, comments, saves, shares) divided by your total audience, expressed as a percentage.

Posting frequency: The average number of posts shared per day.

Combined, these benchmarks give you a good sense of how your social accounts stack up against the competition in terms of both output and performance.

It’s important to compare like with like, so we’ve provided separate social media benchmarks for Facebook and Instagram in each category. The impressions numbers are based on a 30-day period.

Social media benchmarks in education

Facebook Page impressions: 377,000
Facebook audience growth rate: -3.77%
Facebook post engagement rate: 2.62%
Facebook posting frequency: 0.51 posts/day
Instagram profile impressions: 355,000
Instagram audience growth rate: 0.03%
Instagram post engagement rate: 2.33%
Instagram posting frequency: 0.41 posts/day

Social media benchmarks in entertainment and media

Facebook Page impressions: 1.8 million
Facebook audience growth rate: -1.58%
Facebook post engagement rate: 2.59%
Facebook posting frequency: 1.76 posts/day
Instagram profile impressions: 1.1 million
Instagram audience growth rate: -1.59%
Instagram post engagement rate: 2.2%
Instagram posting frequency: 0.56 posts/day

Social media benchmarks in financial services

Facebook Page impressions: 129,000
Facebook audience growth rate: 0.24%
Facebook post engagement rate: 1.72%
Facebook posting frequency: 0.26 posts/day
Instagram profile impressions: 123,000
Instagram audience growth rate: -0.07%
Instagram post engagement rate: 1.92%
Instagram posting frequency: 0.23 posts/day

Social media benchmarks in food and beverage

Facebook Page impressions: 260,000
Facebook audience growth rate: 0.28%
Facebook engagement rate per post: 1.82%
Facebook posting frequency: 0.29 posts/day
Instagram profile impressions: 204,000
Instagram audience growth rate: -0.88%
Instagram post engagement rate: 1.54%
Instagram posting frequency: 0.26 posts/day

Social media benchmarks in real estate

Facebook Page impressions: 47,000
Facebook audience growth rate: 0.32%
Facebook post engagement rate: 1.82%
Facebook posting frequency: 0.36 posts/day
Instagram profile impressions: 21,000
Instagram audience growth rate: -0.06%
Instagram post engagement rate: 1.735
Instagram posting frequency: 0.28 posts/day

Social media benchmarks in retail

Facebook Page impressions: 974,000
Facebook audience growth rate: 0.52%
Facebook post engagement rate: 1.37%
Facebook posting frequency: 0.41 posts/day
Instagram profile impressions: 996,000
Instagram audience growth rate: -0.37%
Instagram post engagement rate: 1.91%
Instagram posting frequency: 0.39 posts/day

Social media benchmarks in travel/hospitality/leisure

Facebook Page impressions: 591,000
Facebook audience growth rate: -0.7%
Facebook post engagement rate: 1.86%
Facebook posting frequency: 0.38 posts/day
Instagram profile impressions: 351,000
Instagram audience growth rate: 0.33%
Instagram post engagement rate: 1.85%
Instagram posting frequency: 0.29 posts/day

To manually compare your results with these benchmarks, look up your own metrics using social media analytics and paste your findings and the relevant industry benchmarks into a spreadsheet. Or add a benchmarking column to your social media report.

For access to benchmarks for more industries, more platforms, and to compare your accounts automatically to the latest benchmarks, start a free Hootsuite trial.

From there, the data can be downloaded, exported, or added to your custom social media report with just a few clicks. You also get access to graphs of your comparative performance over time, so you can spot any blips.

4 ways to use social media benchmarks to grow your social presence

1. Understand how you’re doing

Tracking your metrics in isolation is only useful to a certain point. You can see how your social presence is growing and identify peaks and valleys in your own performance.

But without the bigger picture of your industry, it’s hard to know what any of that really means. Maybe your growth feels slow but it’s exceeding the pace of your competitors. Or maybe your engagement rate feels good enough, but a competitive analysis would show you could be aiming much higher.

This context is particularly important when sharing results beyond your immediate team. Meeting or exceeding industry benchmarks shows real value in the work you and your team do. If you’re struggling to meet benchmarks and can identify why, you can use this information to underpin a request for additional resources.

Benchmarks are also a helpful resource to have in your back pocket when you get the inevitable request from a client or other stakeholder to just “make a viral video.”

2. Set realistic goals

We talk a lot on this blog about the importance of SMART goals. Benchmarking is a requirement for understanding the A and R parts of SMART: attainability and relevance.

Knowing what others in your industry are currently achieving makes it much easier to set business goals that make you stretch just far enough to achieve great things.

3. Replicate winning strategies from leaders in your industry

As we’ve just said, you can gain a lot of insight by comparing your own results to industry benchmarks. But you can take those insights even further by identifying leaders in your industry that are achieving results that outpace the benchmarks.

One way to spot these industry leaders is to set up social listening streams using industry keywords. As you start to recognize important voices in your niche, take a look at their accounts to get a sense of their social media strategy.

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Their posting frequency is easy to identify through a simple tally. You can also get a sense of their engagement rate by comparing the likes (if visible) and comments with their total number of followers.

When you spot an account with particularly high engagement rates, try to do some reverse engineering to understand what might be working for them, and think about ways you can incorporate those lessons into your own strategy.

4. Spot opportunities early

You might have noticed that the benchmark audience growth rate was slightly negative for several of the industries above, particularly for Instagram. If you’re specifically focused on growing an audience quickly and you’re in one of these industries, this may be a sign you should focus your efforts on other platforms.

As always, this is just a jumping-off point for your own testing. You might find, for example, that those people who have unfollowed the Instagram accounts of retail industry leaders are looking for new small businesses to follow. Incorporate benchmarks into your brainstorming, but don’t let them become your only source of strategic inspiration.

Social media benchmarks FAQs

Still have questions? We have answers.

How are social media benchmarks measured?

Social media benchmarks measure the average performance within your industry. This involves tracking a large number of relevant social accounts to understand what’s normal within your field.

Once you understand the industry average performance, you can compare your own social results to calculate whether you are overperforming, underperforming, or right on track.

For Hootsuite’s benchmarking, we collect and anonymously compile data from social accounts connected to Hootsuite, grouped by industry and social network. Each benchmark is based on at least 100 social accounts, and no data can be traced back to any individual account.

What is a good reach rate on social media?

As you can see from the sample industry benchmarks above, the reach rate that’s considered “good” varies widely by industry and by social platform.

For instance, the profile impressions in our benchmarks above range from a high of 1.8 million for entertainment and media Facebook pages to a low of 21,000 for real estate Instagram profiles.

This is why it’s so important to benchmark your metrics against relevant businesses, rather than using average reach and engagement numbers on the whole.

What are the four types of benchmarks?

The four main types of benchmarks are:

Internal: Comparing metrics or social media success between different departments within your organization.
External: Comparing your metrics with those of other organizations in your industry.
Performance: Analyzing your own metrics and KPIs to set goals and see trends in your results over time.
Practice: Analyzing how your processes stack up against industry best practices to look for ways to improve your work processes.

In this post, we’re focused on external and performance benchmarks, as these are the types of data revealed through social media benchmarking.

Internal and practice benchmarks are focused inward and require qualitative (that is, not numerical or quantitative) data.

Use Hootsuite to get industry benchmarks, schedule posts, track results, and do all your social media reporting from a single dashboard. Try it free today.

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