There’s no doubt inbound marketing works โ all the content, social media posts, and emails you’ve created will continue to pay you handsome rewards. The downside? It takes a minute to see results.
If you want to boost your efforts, paid media is the way. In this blog, weโll discuss the benefits of using paid media โ paid search and paid social โ and share some examples of when to inject them into your inbound efforts.ย
Understanding Paid Search and Paid Social
Adding paid media to your inbound marketing strategy is a great way to amplify the content youโve spent time creating or the product youโve designed.ย
Paid search is when companies pay search engines to display their ads higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are the most common form of paid search because companies donโt pay anything until someone clicks their ads. Itโs an affordable way to advertise and ensure you reach your intended audience.
Paid social ads are simply social media ads. Youโll see these labeled as โsponsoredโ content. Paid social ads help target audiences and drive traffic the same way organic traffic would.
Here are a few other benefits of using paid media.
- Youโll get faster results
- Itโs targeted
- Youโll reach more people
- It will provide meaningful analyticsย
- It offers lead nurturing opportunities when using pay-per-click (PPC) adsย
Paid Social vs. Paid Search: Whatโs the Difference?
You may find that one of these ad options works better for your company, or maybe youโll utilize both. This chart explains the main difference between each method.
Paid Social Ads |
Paid Search Ads |
Build relationships and help generate interestย |
Your audience already knows what they want and theyโre easier to attract |
Better targeting options |
Target with keywords and phrases |
Proactive |
Reactive |
Design-friendly, more ad formats |
Text-heavy |
Easier to get top-of-funnel |
Harder to place in tunnel because theyโre usually ready to buy |
Easier to catch impulse buyers while they browse |
Users have to search a specific keyword or phrase |
Can be costly if running too many ads or youโre targeting the wrong audience |
Can be more affordable when using PPC |
Rate of change on social platforms |
Search engines donโt change as frequently as social networks |
Benefits of Paid Search and Paid Social Advertisements
There are many benefits to using paid media in your marketing campaigns, and weโve touched on a few of them already. Here, weโll go into the benefits and some downsides of using each type of ad.ย
Benefits of Using Paid Search Ads
- You get measurable results
- Achieve near-immediate visibility
- Increase brand awareness
- Highly interested leads (based on keyword research)
- Provides a competitive advantage when you are seen before your rivals in the industry
- Cost-effective when using PPC
- Get more qualified leads
- Increased conversion rates
Downsides of Using Paid Search Ads
- Not design-friendly
- Theyโre an ongoing expense
- They need continuous maintenance
- Can be competitive
- Consumer reluctance to click on paid ads
- Risk of money loss when ads donโt perform
Benefits of Using Paid Social Ads
- Increased brand awareness
- Highly targeted audiences, plus look-alike audiences
- Higher visibility
- Measurable outcomes
- Retargeting opportunities
- Wider reach
- Improved brand loyalty with audience interaction
- Affordable
- Design-friendly
Downsides of Using Paid Social Ads
- Competitive
- Can annoy consumers by being too repetitive
- You need internal resources to manage campaigns
- Allow for negative feedback via comments
How to Use HubSpotโs Paid Ads Tool
To useย HubSpotโs Paid Ads Tool, you need to first connect your Google and social media accounts. To do this, navigate to Marketing in the left nav bar and click Ads.ย
From here, you need to create an ad audience to specify who should see your ads on your chosen platforms.ย More information on this can be found here.
Hereโs an example of how to create a Facebook ad.
- After connecting your Facebook Ads account to HubSpot, navigate to โMarketingโ and then select โAds.โ
- In the upper right, click โCreate ad campaign,โ then select โLead generation.โ
- At the top of the page, click the pencil icon to name your Facebook lead ad.
- Using the Ad account and Facebook page dropdown menus, select which ad account youโre creating this ad for and the exact Facebook page your ad will use to sync leads to HubSpot. Make sure youโve agreed to the Facebook Lead Ads terms of service before continuing.
- Select the image or video you want to use to grab your Facebook audienceโs attention. On the right, you will see your selection reflected in your ad preview.
- Next, use the text and body copy module to enter your ad copy. This text tells people about what you’re promoting and how it may help them.
- Then, enter your headline. Headlines that are clear, concise, memorable, and eye-catching tend to do better, and longer headlines may get cut off after publishing.
- Next, choose the call-to-action that best aligns with the action you want your audience to take.
- Finally, choose your Facebook form. If you havenโt ever created one, click the โCreate new Facebook formโ option. On the right, set up the form that will appear when visitors click your ad.
- Next, select the Targeting tab.
- On the left, select the audience you would like to target with this ad. Audiences youโve created in HubSpot and Facebook will be available in this menu. When youโre done making your selection, click โSave.โ
- In the Budget and Schedule section, set your budget and the duration of this ad. First, set the daily or total budget for the ad. The actual amount spent daily may vary, as determined by Facebook based on the opportunities for results each day. A minimum of $5 is recommended.
- Next, set a duration for your ad. Using these options you can customize down to the exact dates and time this ad will run.
- Review the total price of your ad in the text box.
- Finally, navigate to the โAutomationโ tab. Here, you can enable notifications to be sent to you or your team the moment a lead ad is submitted. You can also create a custom list of all contacts who submitted this specific lead ad.
- Once you’ve set up your automation, at the top right, click โPublishโ to take this lead ad live.
How to Get Started with Paid Search and Paid Social
Here are a few great opportunities for using paid ads to promote your business.
Use Paid Media to Promote Savings
Spending money on paid media to promote discounts on your product or service is useful. You could even tie in savings with a specific holiday or time of year. For example, if you’re an HVAC company and summer is the slow time for furnace installs, now would be a perfect opportunity to advertise a discount. โThe sunโs out, but winter is coming! Is your furnace ready?โ
Use Paid Media to Announce New Content
Paid media can support the release of a new piece of content like a case study or eBook, especially if the content includes new research or campaign results.
Promoting new content catered to the top of the funnel (TOFU) through paid media also helps you bring potential customers into lead nurturing campaigns and move them through the buyer’s journey.ย
Use Paid Media to Encourage a Specific Action
When one of our clients wanted to capture 100,000 signatures through an online petition form dealing with a highly charged healthcare industry issue, we created ads for LinkedIn, Facebook, and X that encouraged stakeholders to sign. Our Facebook paid media efforts proved to be very successful and were shared to encourage friends of friends to sign the petition.
If you want to drive traffic to a certain area of your website, you can also use PPC ads to direct visitors to a specific webpage. Here, they may find gated content or a form asking for more questions in return for a helpful ebook, whitepaper, or product demo.
Related Case Study:ย MRC Crushes Marketing Goals With Continued Lynton Partnershipย
Use Paid Media to Find New Customers
Get in front of a new crowd using native advertising. Native ads come with a โsponsoredโ label, and creating them usually involves working with another publication to create content thatโs relevant to you and resonates with their audience.
Use Paid Media to Target a Specific Audience
When you target your paid media, you get total control over who sees your ad, so you know youโre putting the right message in front of the right people. Social media platforms are a great place to target your ads. You can even create lookalike audiences to find new customers.
Use Paid Media to Boost Brand Awareness
Advertising on social media is a cost-effective way to get your brand out there. When you start appearing in peopleโs feeds regularly, youโll build recognition. When you provide posts that add value, youโll build brand loyalty.
Get Started With Paid Search and Paid Social Ads
Remember, inbound marketing takes time. If you need a traffic boost around a specific event or campaign, consider support from paid media ads. If youโre not sure where to start, we happen to be experts.ย
Reach out to our team for more information, orย click here to learn more about our marketing services.