Facebook has 2.8 billion monthly active users, as of Q1 2020 — and Facebook advertising revenues have grown with its user base. From Facebook groups to ads to managing the Facebook pixel and Messenger automations — and don’t forget Instagram advertising — Facebook marketing requires a subject matter expert. The platform’s worldwide ad revenue for 2021 is projected to reach $94.6 billion — nearly 12 figures! 

It may be the biggest social media platform, but it’s not alone. Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, LinkedIn and more all offer advertising options to get in front of millions of users on those platforms. It’s worth stepping outside of the Facebook news feed to reach them. Better yet, they all offer different types of audience targeting, and can reliably get your message in front of very specific customer segments.

That’s the big benefit of working paid social media marketing into your digital marketing strategy and paid media strategy –– at the top of the funnel to drive awareness and clicks, and mid-funnel to encourage customers to return to the site.

Which social channel’s paid advertising works best for your business may vary. For B2B, SaaS and tech companies, LinkedIn and Twitter are often most effective. (Though don’t discount TikTok’s advertising platform, where business newsletters, for instance, are seeing success.) For e-commerce and DTC companies, social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and even Pinterest are highly effective for driving awareness and sales.

In many respects, paid social media marketing is how a brand gets off the ground, develops a lead generation strategy,  launches a new product or grows a new channel. If your problem is that you need more traffic in a new target market, a paid social media expert can work with your budget to do just that.

Now, paid social media marketing works best within a balanced system. You don’t want 100% of your traffic coming from the Facebook app or Facebook pages, for instance. You need to complement your paid social strategy with content marketing and an organic social media strategy overall. That said, you can get great consumer insight from paid social media marketing, and drive significant sales – not just when you launch, but over the lifetime of your brand.