Are you ready to get more traction from your personal brand building efforts without having to spend more time building content?
I want to show you how to get off the hamster wheel of content production by spending less time creating and more time promoting.
You’ve already put in the time creating killer content, products, and services. Now, let’s make sure the right people see your message.
Two Questions To Answer Before You Start
Before you can make a decision on which ad network you’ll allocate your hard earned dollars towards, you need to ask yourself two questions:
What is your business goal?
If you don’t clearly define how you are going to make your advertising pay for itself, you are setting yourself up to fail before you even start.
Is the goal to drive engagement, leads, referrals, or sales?
Having the answer to this question is crucial to the longevity of your campaign. In fact, most ad platforms ask for your business goals before you can even begin running your ads.
So, what are your business goals?
Where are your customers engaging?
Knowing where your customers hang out will help you made an informed decision on which network you should advertise.
If you aren’t sure, try publishing your content on a variety of sources and whichever receives the highest engagement, start there.
If you are still unsure of the platform that you should be allocating your time, energy and resources towards, check out our post on How to Choose the Best Social Media Platform for Your Personal Brand for a complete walkthrough of each social channel.
Now without further ado, let’s find the right ad network for you…
Ad Network Breakdown
When it comes to running ads, there are a plethora of options available to you (Quora, Snapchat, Taboola, Outbrain, Pinterest etc.), but it will be up to you to decide what the best fit is for your personal brand.
Below you will find our top 5 recommendations based on our personal and consultative experience. We have found that these platforms drive the most consistent results at scale.
Facebook Ads
Facebook, the #1 social network in the world reported that they have 2.32 million monthly active users and of those, 1.52 billion are active every single day.
This is great news for business owners. With all of these engagements, Facebook has developed the most comprehensive database of user provided information and interactions. This is paired with the millions of sites that have the Facebook Pixel installed and tracking user actions which feed their targeting engine.
Facebook has best-in-class optimization AI to drive results for their advertisers, such as their Power 5 program. There are also opportunities to engage customers in ways that aren’t currently available on other platforms such as Messenger chatbots, revolutionizing the way that you can connect and serve ads to potential customers!
Recommendation: Facebook is a great place to start if you want to get ads up and running without extensive digital marketing or optimization experience. Check out our post 3 Facebook Ads Every Personal Brand Should Be Running Right Now to set up your winning campaign!
Instagram Ads
Instagram, the Facebook-owned company, has over one billion monthly active users, with over half of those users returning to the social network each day according to Hootsuite. The platform boasts a higher average engagement than its Facebook counterpart and stimulates more intimate interactions.
For personal brands, Instagram remains a preferred platform to share more personal details of your brand and capitalize on the possibility of engagement. Due to the large ad inventory available in story ads, it is often times cheaper to run your creative ads here, making your ad spend more efficient. You can expect a higher click-through rate when utilizing story ads as you continue to test your offers.
With the combined intelligence of the Facebook ad platform and Instagram’s potential engagement, you have the perfect breeding ground for personal brand growth. Those looking to serve younger audiences will see success here as Instagram continues to be one of the fastest growing social networks available.
Recommendation: If you are a creator who loves storytelling through visual content and are looking to reach a younger engaged demographic, Instagram will drive consistent dividends.
Get Started with Instagram Ads
Google Ads
If you want to pair your products and services with people that want to buy them, look no further than Google. It’s no secret that Google is the defacto choice when someone starts researching a purchase decision online. For personal brands, this is great news. With over 3.5 billion searches being performed per day, you no longer have to guess what people want…they tell you.
This means that you must be first in line as a solution for your potential customers. Brands with brick and mortar locations can benefit from location targeting to generate foot traffic, while others can see success by generating leads and sales from commercial intent keywords.
Unlike Facebook, targeting in Google is about intent vs who the person is based on their self-reported attributes. The ability to leverage Google’s display network enhances your reach to the broader internet, as Google reaches over 90% of people on the web. Although the cost per click tends to be higher due to the mass of competition trying to grab their slice of the search volume, there is still ample opportunity to grow using Google.
Recommendation: Those that have a conversion optimized landing page and follow-up funnel will benefit from Google’s hyper-targeted and intentional traffic.
YouTube Ads
YouTube is often overlooked as a powerful way to drive paid content amplification and direct response campaigns. I’ve seen many personal brands experience exponential growth by leveraging YouTube’s ad placements.
As the second largest search engine (after its parent company, Google) and boasting a shocking 1.9 billion monthly active users, YouTube continues to provide brands with cheap, targeted content views. Due to its high level of desktop traffic, you’ll find that prospects have a higher conversion rate as a result of the device that they are using. It’s easier to subscribe and buy on a desktop than it is on a mobile device.
Recommendation: If using video is your preferred method of communicating with your audience, YouTube will provide you will the best platform to land your ads in front of your target audience and reap your rewards due to the large search volume, low cost per view and high conversion rate.
LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn, the network for professionals. This is the community for business to business interactions, and with over 610 million members, there is a good probability that you will be able to connect with a prospect you could serve. As the ad network and capabilities continue to expand (such as better conversion optimization, lead generation ads, and more), you’re likely to see higher quality traffic who are avid content consumers that aren’t intimidated by information.
Naturally, LinkedIn’s users are covered by advertisers, resulting in more expensive ads. With that being said, you’ll see the value return to your personal brand both directly (from immediate purchases) and indirectly (from recommendations).
Recommendation: For those primarily targeting a B2B audience, LinkedIn should be your first choice. If you have the budget to allocate towards LinkedIn ads, do it.
Final Thoughts…
To truly be successful in running ads for your personal brand, I recommend honing your time, budget and content toward one network until you master it. While running ads should be seen as a test, don’t lose heart if you don’t find a winning ad right away. Keep trying.
Never lose sight of the business goal because if your ads aren’t profitable you can’t sustain your mission. If you don’t show up where your customers enjoy participating, you may find yourself in a fruitless endeavor.
What ad network are you going to test first?
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