Paid social is the practice of paying for advertising on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linked IN and others.
The goal of paid social is to reach a target audience who spends time on the social platforms.
Each social network comes with different paid options – For example boosting posts on Facebook, promoted Tweets on Twitter , and sponsored lenses on Snapchat.
Paid social spend is growing faster than imagined:
- It has grown 185% since 2014 and is projected to grow another 57% by 2020 (1);
- Ad spend on Facebook increased 20% year-over-year in Q4 2017 (2);
- Instagram saw whopping 122% increase in ad spend year-over-year in Q4 2017 (3).
To increase engagement and drive sales, Arizona-based State Bicycle Co. ran targeted Facebook ads to groups who expressed interests in rival brands. As a result, the company saw a 12% increase in website traffic from Facebook, leading to $500,000 in annual incremental sales.
Paid social is an incredible skill to learn and is currently in high demand.