april2021 - 32

MARKETING YOUR FIRM

Social Media Ad Buying Tips for CPAs
By Becky Livingston

WHEN IT COMES to expanding your firm's brand reach, generating leads, or announcing a merger/acquisition, social media
advertising should be an integral part of your marketing strategy.
BEFORE AD DEVELOPMENT
Before you start spending money, get
these ducks in a row.
■ Have a company page on the social
media channel where you plan to
run ads;
■ Establish a clearly-defined business
objective, e.g., dr ive people to a
website landing page, generate leads,
branding, video views, or engagement;
■ Define your success and measurement
metrics, e.g., clicks, cost-per-click,
engagement, reach, etc.;
■ Know the target audience you want
to reach, and;
■ Develop multiple ad variations to test
your campaign, e.g., 3-5 headlines, 3-5
descriptive sentences, and 3-5 images.

THE STRATEGY
Having a strategy makes sense. If you
leave it up to chance, what do you
think the outcome will be? Here's a
simple, five-point process to help you
formulate a plan.
■ Research your target market
■ Determine the social platform(s) on
which to market
■ Create unique and engaging content
■ Define a schedule for the ad campaign
■ Analyze its impact and results

DIFFERENT PLATFORMS
ATTRACT DIFFERENCE
AUDIENCES
Keep in mind, just because Facebook
has the most members, that does not
mean it's where your audience hangs
out. Here are some other pointers.
■ Facebook and YouTube are prime
places for ads due in part to their
high-earning user bases.
■ The major it y of Instag ram and

APRIL 2021 ■

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TikTok's users are millennials or
Gen Z, signaling the strength of bold,
eye-popping content that oozes with
personality.
■ Women outnumber men on Pinterest,
and it boasts the highest average order
value for social shoppers.
■ LinkedIn's user base is well-educated,
making it a hub for in-depth, industryspecific content that might be more
complicated than what you see on
Facebook or Twitter.

WHAT SHOULD I PROMOTE?
Identifying the right content is part of
the process. If your goal is to generate leads, then consider the type of
content people would complete a form
for (called gated content). The longer
the form, the less likely someone will
complete the process. But those that do
are presumably a hotter lead. Consider
one or more of these in your campaign:
■ Time-sensitive content, such as tax
filing deadlines, audit requirements,
trending topics, etc.;
■ Existing content that uses a form, such
as a checklist, ebook or guide, podcast
or video series;
■ Registration for an exclusive or highprofile event or webinar series, or;
■ Consultations

BUDGET
You don't have to spend a lot of
money on ads for them to be effective. You do, however, need to spend
time on ad structure and creative,
while being realistic about the target
market. Unlike boosted, sponsored,
or promoted posts, ads are not generated from existing, previously-shared
content. It includes a landing page, call

to action, and unique content (images,
video, text). Plus, it costs more and
runs for a longer period. Here are the
minimum ad budgets by platform,
according to WebFx.com:
■ Facebook or Instagram: $1/day for
impressions; $5/day for clicks, likes, or
views; and $40 per day for app installs
or offer claims.
■ YouTube: $10/day
■ LinkedIn: $2 per click or $10 per day
■ Twitter: no minimum
■ Pinterest: $2 for impressions, and
$0.10 for clicks
On average, the cost per click is:
■ $0.97 on Facebook
■ $3.56 on Instagram
■ $3.21 on YouTube
■ $5.26 on LinkedIn
■ $0.38 on Twitter
■ $1.50 on Pinterest
Ad costs are also affected by trends
and industry highs and lows. During
tax's busy season, for example, you
may pay more for ad clicks than you
would during the off-season.

MEASUREMENT
Each of the major social media networks provides advertising analytics
to help gauge ad success. This article
(https://tinyurl.com/52z8cvnn) assists
you in defining the success metrics by
the social media platform. No matter
what your advertising driving factor
is, these steps will get you started. ■
Becky Livingston is the President and CEO of
Penheel Marketing, firm specializing in social
media and digital marketing for CPAs. With
over 25 years of marketing and tech experience, she is the author of " SEO for CPAs - The
Accountant's SEO Handbook " and the " The
Accountant's Social Media Handbook. " In
addition to being a practitioner, she is a dog
lover, an active on the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) social media committee, an adjunct professor, and a speaker/
trainer. Learn more about Becky and her firm
at https://Penheel.com.

http://www.WebFx.com https://www.tinyurl.com/52z8cvnn https://www.Penheel.com http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

april2021

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