Social media advertising is full of promise and potential for brands and companies of all sizes. Approximately 77 percent of Americans own smartphones, and the numbers span a wide range of demographic groups, according to the Pew Research Center. Social media advertising can help your brand excel in our mobile-first world.

However, social media paid advertising tends to make marketing managers nervous. After all, how do you determine where to spend your social media advertising money? Use these social media advertising hacks to get the most ROI from your ad budget.

The First Steps

Follow the data to understand which social channels are already working for your brand. Log into Google Analytics and dive into the Acquisition Reporting section. Assuming that you have Google Tag Manager set up, the Acquisition Report will show “Network Referrals” under the Social Media tab. Gather answers to all of these questions:

• Which social media platform sends the most referral traffic to your website?
• Which social media platform delivers the most conversions
• Which social media platforms come in second and third place for the questions above?
• Do any social media platforms deliver traffic where your brand does not have a profile?

If this information isn’t available in your Google Analytics dashboard, it’s easy to set up Acquisition Reports and begin collecting data right away.

Facebook Hacks

Use Audience Insights
The key to successful Facebook advertising lies in buyer persona and customer journey data. A built-in feature within Facebook, called Audience Insights, helps you identify the demographics of your audience. When you create an ad, set it up to target those same demographics for maximum engagement and clicks.

Create Multiple Ads
Audience Insights will give you multiple buyer personas, so you should create multiple ads to target each one. Measure interaction and conversions, and pause non-performing ads.

Instagram Hacks

Use Facebook
Don’t have time to set up an Instagram account right now? No problem. As long as you have a Facebook page, you can begin running ads on Instagram right away. While this method isn’t a long-term solution, it can give you a jump on a platform that has more than 600 million users.

Global Product or Service
Did you know that 80 percent of Instagram users come from outside the U.S.? If your product or service can’t be used or shipped overseas, skip Instagram for now. Otherwise, keep your Instagram account active or start it up, measure referral traffic and interaction from the channel, and adjust your product or services accordingly so that you can capitalize on your Instagram audience.

LinkedIn Hacks

Use Persona Data
Is your marketing team still procrastinating when it comes to creating buyer personas? Targeting your top buyer personas according to job title is a necessity for successful ads. You can target people with specific job titles, fields of study, degrees and more with LinkedIn ads.

Use Showcase Pages
Top brands are using showcase pages, and driving traffic and engagement to your showcase page through a Sponsored Ad campaign can position you above the competition. Sales cycles are typically longer than “click-and-buy” in the B2B space, so sending prospects to a Showcase page and encouraging them to like, follow and interact with your brand will give you leverage once your ad campaign ends.

Twitter Hacks

Promote Your BEST Content
Twitter ad pricing is influenced by quality score and engagement rates. This isn’t the time to roll out A/B testing or new initiatives. Dive into Twitter Analytics or Google Analytics, and only promote posts that drive engagement, clicks and followers.

Use Demographic Ad Targeting
Just like the other social networks, Twitter allows advertisers to target specific demographic data. If you want to add rocket fuel to your Twitter ads, use Followerwonk to study and target your competitor’s followers.

Using these social media advertising hacks will help you deliver the highest ROI in the shortest amount of time.