Each of the main social media sites that businesses should be aware of – Facebook Twitter and LinkedIn – offer a Pay Per Click advertising service. So what does this actually mean and how can you go about promoting your business online? Here’s a quick overview of some of the options available:

1) Facebook Promoted Posts

Once you write a unique, engaging post on Facebook, you can then promote it to other Facebook users. (If you use Facebook, you’ve almost certainly seen these promoted posts in your timeline). You can target the type of user to show it to using several demographic factors, such as age, location, gender, likes and interests, education level etc.

This means that your ad will only show to the type of people who you determine are your main target audience – thus generating more interest from the people you want to know about you and ignoring people you don’t want to target.

2) Twitter Promoted Tweets

Similar to the idea of promoted Facebook posts, as outlined above, this service allows you to get your Tweets in front of your target audience. Just like with Facebook, you can target the type of people to show the Tweets to using various demographic traits including location, gender, interests etc, as well as by device – ie you may wish to only target people viewing the Tweet on a desktop machine, or on a mobile phone.

3) LinkedIn Ads

You may not be as familiar with LinkedIn as with Facebook and Google. It claims to be the “..world’s largest audience of active, influential professionals.” So it’s generally going to work well for you if you target businesses with your products or services – though many companies have also reported success selling consumer-related products, as after all, businesspeople and professionals are people too!

LinkedIn ads are similar to AdWords ads in the way they display on the page, though they can also incorporate video clips for increased engagement. The targeting options are more detailed than for either Facebook or Twitter, as they also allow you to target via job title and skillset.

Pay Per Click

If you’re wondering what this means, it’s the process whereby you only pay an advertising fee when somebody actually clicks on your advert having seen it on one of the sites above. You can set a maximum figure per click, as well as a maximum amount you’re prepared to pay each day, to ensure you don’t spend more than you wish to if loads of people click the ad.

One thing I always say to PPC clients of mine, is that you actually shouldn’t be afraid of spending a lot of money on PPC advertising anyway, as if it’s setup and managed properly, the more you spend, the more customers you attract and thus the more profit you make.