subject: Four Tips for Social Media PPC Advertising [print this page] There is a lot of talk about one side of social media marketing: the word of mouth side. And while word of mouth is a time-tested and powerful marketing technique, as you can read here, it is one that requires a huge prior commitment and a great deal of resources. For most new businesses, especially bootstrapped online businesses, that is not something that is available. For new online businesses, the best solutions are those with relatively low entry costs, increasingly powerful returns, and of course, short deployment times. That is why pay-per-click advertising is such an effective online marketing model. While many businesses sink years of SEO into achieving a first page Google result, others can simply pay for an advertisement and have theirs appear right at the front of the page. It is easy to argue that one is free and the other not, but it is not necessarily right. Time is money, and SEO is a particularly time consuming form of online marketing. For businesses that depend on rapid deployment and ultra-fast starts, PPC is the far superior form of online advertising. So what about another medium altogether. Not Adwords or YSM, but the powerful capabilities put forward by major social media marketing platforms like Myspace and Twitter. They've both got PPC platforms, and they are both mega-marketing resources for smart businesses. If you do not have time to invest in SEO or word of mouth marketing, these four tips can quickly shoot you to the top of the social media PPC ladder. 1: Bid low, and up your bids as you go. Facebook has a 'recommended bid' system, but it is relatively broken and difficult to predict. While there are results there, they are not always entirely accurate and can be cheated relatively easily through patience and careful testing. There are two strategies that you can use. The first is to bid high and lower your bid as time goes on, which helps increase click through rate and lowers click prices. The second is to raise your bid from a low start, which is great for saving money in the short-term. 2: Ignore your competition, unless you're an affiliate. Affiliate marketing is competitive, and paying attention to what your competitors do is incredibly important. However, if you are marketing your own business it is much smarter to just focus on your own plan, and take only a periphery view of your competitors. Focus on what you're doing, not on what they are planning, and craft a strategy that lets you stand on your own. Distinctive advertisements are good, and help you stand out without directly compteing. 3: Third-party software can save time, but creates risks. Advertising managers are available for social media advertising platforms, but most are not completely condoned by the advertising platforms themselves. While investing in one can save you time, and potentially increase your per-hour returns, they're often unnecessarily risky for beginner advertisers and large-scale advertising accounts. Use at your own risk. 4: Back up PPC advertising with real social media conversation. PPC is great for advancing in the short-term, but not fantastic for long-term plans and scalable strategies. Smart marketers compliment their social media PPC campaigns with online communities, discussion boards, and real social media channels. Build a group to go along with your ads, and create long-term interest in your products through your current customers.
