Facebook Ads is considered to be one of the most powerful advertising platforms for ‘n’ number of marketers today. You will be surprised to learn that Facebook is the number one social media platform used by businesses, and around 41% of the small businesses in the US actively incorporate Facebook in their online marketing strategy (eMarketer).
But, despite its widespread usage, many businesses report that their marketing efforts on Facebook don’t work as they expected. Yes, according to a survey conducted by Social Media Examiner on 3,700 marketers, only 45% felt that their efforts were actually working.
Today, advertising on the social media platform is the best tactic to build a targeted customer base but, considering Facebook as the one and only King is a big mistake. Yes, Facebook alone is not the best source of traffic, as there are other great alternatives available which you might not be aware of.
So, if you are one of those marketers/agency who considers posting ads on Facebook only, then you should consider paying attention to this great post.
What Is Social Media Advertising?
Before getting into the details of different social media platforms for posting your ads, let’s first understand what Social Media Advertising actually is and why it has been creating so much buzz. Putting in simple words, a social media advertisement is any type of paid content created to be placed on a social media network.
This form of advertising basically helps businesses discover new potential customers by using users’ own shared info to recognize interest. Instead of reactively targeting users who search for a certain term, social media advertising actively targets the most relevant users even before they instigate their search.
Social media platforms are one of the best options for the advertisers mainly due to its:
- Advanced targeting options
- Reliable conversion tracking
- Prevalence on mobile devices
Facebook Is Simply Too Big To Ignore
On an average, Facebook has this ever growing user-base of over 1.5 billion people (i.e. monthly); this figure makes Facebook’s supremacy over other social media platform quite evident. This social media giant owns a larger audience base than any other platform and at the same time understands the potential and value reach organizations have to take advantage of on. Well, there is no doubt to one fact that as a social media platform – Facebook is too big for anyone to ignore.
Facebook Advertisement – 7 Alternatives You Must Try
The prime aim of this blog is to give clear and super profitable options to those who consider posting ads on Facebook only as supreme. Here are some of the best alternatives to Facebook Ads which are quite effective for marketing. Let’s check them out:
1. Pinterest
Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media platforms; we can call it the next giant. This platform is visually oriented where users post, share and organize images. Companies of all sizes have found this platform very effective; the only requirement is that you should have beautiful pictures to share. Pinterest has a very large number of followers; hence empowers you to target a huge database of prospective customers. Pinterest is very different from Facebook; so to be successful here you need to take a very different approach; remember it’s more about visuals here.
2. Snapchat
Snapchat is for those who are looking for a strong Call to Action. This is a 100% on mobile platform and provides a great podium for brands to connect with their users like never before. Users can share images and videos for all of their followers which appear for a short time and then disappear for good. Due to its limited lifespan characteristic, it triggers a sense of urgency and excitement among the users resulting in immediate action.
3. Taboola
Taboola is one of the largest online advertising platforms for:
- Content recommendation
- Audience acquisition
- Native advertising
Taboola brings the users content into the notice of visitors to large, high-quality publications but it doesn’t do this by using paid search/banner ads but with a deceptively simple approach i.e. recommend related content the audience may like.
4. Reddit
Reddit is another popular online forum which has over 542 million monthly visitors globally. It offers cost friendly advertising options which begin from $5. Businesses of all sizes can take advantage of Reddit’s huge fan base to connect with their best target audiences. Advertising on Reddit would cost just a fraction of the total amount users spend on platforms like Facebook.
5. Product Hunt
This platform provides an online community where people can get together to “Geek Out”. The community members post interesting products which are further upvoted. The communities also have conversations about the products. Basically, this platform is the place for product discovery, where users can discover products, companies and the people behind these products. Product Hunt is extremely popular and is growing very quickly.
6. Google +
Google+ is another great social platform which can has the power to dominate Facebook. This is one of the fastest growing social media networks and has over 500 million existing users which is again rapidly growing. When it comes to active users, Google+ has over 135 million of them and 60% of this number logs in every single day. Also, another plus point for Google+ is that it actually influences search rankings and no one would like to miss on that.
7. StumbleUpon
This is a popular tool for content discovery which basically suggests tailored content based on the interest of the users. The Paid Discovery feature has proven out to be a very useful advertising tool for the small sized business that looks forward to getting maximum returns from their investments.
Putting Together All Parts
There are many more marketing channels and advertising platform for you to choose, hopefully, the presented alternatives will help in narrowing down your choice and enable you to make the best possible choice. But, you need to figure out in reality what is actually working out for you. Also, many factors would influence your choice, your business model, customers, marketing goals, and budget are few to name.
Hopefully, you got an idea on what social media platform to use for endorsing your business. Good Luck.
