A good social media marketer will A/B test creative, use an ads manager to track bids and spend, understand the fundamentals of copywriting, and work to ensure that what you spend on paid social goes to good use.

With more social networks and fiercer competition, it’s much harder to break into social media advertising today than it was 17 years ago — when the only option was targeting Facebook users. It’s not enough to understand your target audience and demographics. You also have to understand the social media platform you buy ads on. The world’s greatest Facebook advertiser might flop on TikTok, even after applying everything they know.  

Still, apart from channel expertise, every paid social media marketer needs a handful of core skills:

 

  • Budget allocation: A seasoned social media specialist knows how to allocate (and reallocate) large or small budgets wisely across countless campaigns and platforms, based on business goals, targeting algorithms and the latest return on ad spend (ROAS).
  • Data analysis: If you hire someone who doesn’t know how to use A/B testing results for ad creative optimization, and broader social media strategy optimization, they’ll burn money. You’ll want an expert who understands various metrics and KPIs including cost per click (CPC), lifetime value (LTV), customer acquisition costs (CAC)  and more. 
  • Campaign structuring: Advertising experts spend a lot of their time structuring actual social media ad campaigns — AKA strategically designing ads’ messaging and visual content for lead generation, different stages of the sales funnel, and different branding goals. They also use social channels’ analytics platforms to measure campaign performance. 
  • Copywriting: Most social media ads involve the written word, which makes copywriting an essential skill for paid social media advertisers. When written well, an ad can entice an on-the-fence prospect  to click, but when written poorly, it can turn off a current customer. Copywriting also comes in handy for any landing pages required for a paid social media campaign. 
  • People skills: Maybe it’s obvious, but communication skills are a must for social media advertising, or any advertising, really. It’s not just the customers that social media advertisers need to connect with. It’s also the clients, so project management and problem-solving skills are a must.