It is undeniable that social media allows you to reach both the millennials and the Generation Z (also known as the iGeneration) more easily. In fact, there is a statistic claiming that online adults between the ages of 18 and 34 are by far the most likely (95 percent) to follow a brand if it got endorsed on the social network they use.

One of the best things about paid social media advertising is that it offers you a great return while requiring minimal investments on your side. This is particularly great for all those startups and SMBs out there whose budget wouldn’t allow for a pricey digital marketing campaign in the first place.

With this in mind, here are a few tips on how to get the most out of your low-cost advertising via social media.

Do your fair share of testing

In military terminology there is a thing called aggressive scouting. This means that you are supposed to send a small detachment of your troops in order to see how well fortified are the enemy positions at the point you intend to attack.

In theory, this smaller sacrifice is a test performed in order to save more of your soldiers later on. Well, there is a similar thing in advertising as well, only instead of lives, you are supposed to sacrifice a small amount of your resources. So, by putting a bit of money in all the aspects you are testing, you will be able to see which one of them reflects your ROI the most.

Choose the right network

Another thing you need to think about is what particular network your target demographic favors. For example, people between 25 and 34 are by far the most common Facebook demographic, composing over 29.7 percent of all users on their own. Additionally, Facebook users are predominantly female, seeing how 76 percent of all women use this medium next to only 66 percent of men.

On the other hand, when it comes to YouTube, women are no more than 38 percent of all users, which means this network is leaning heavily towards the male population which takes up the remaining 62 percent.

Furthermore, it is important to know that more than half of YouTube views come from smartphones and tablets, making it an ideal platform for targeting mobile users.

Last but not least, about 9 percent of U.S. small businesses use this network, which gives an SMB a chance to become a pioneer of their industry and gain a competitive edge by taking up this method early enough.

Also, keep in mind that there is only so much that social media marketing can do. You see, some demographics, such as baby boomers, are not that apt to using social media.

Sure, some may decide to simply ignore them and focus on those they actually have a chance of reaching this way, but this might not be such a great of a business move. For them, you might need to employ one of the more traditional marketing techniques such as gift cards, billboards and promotional products.

Find the best time to share

Now that you have figured out how and to whom to advertise through social media, you should think about the time of advertising. For example, according to some data, the highest traffic on this network occurs mid-week somewhere between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

On the other hand, some researches show that Twitter gets the most attention between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., but this is a two edged blade. On the one hand, you have the largest potential audience present at the same time, but on the other, you also have quite a bit of competition. What are the odds that your tweet will be the one to get the most attention when a myriad of users starts spamming their thoughts at the same time?

Learn how to schedule

While the optimal sharing time frame we discussed in the previous section appears more or less straightforward, nothing is ever simple in the world of marketing. What if your specific demographic doesn’t fit into that particular mold, or what if you want to reach out to an audience living in a different time zone?

Of course, one of the options would be to set your alarm to remind you when the time is right, but this entire ordeal can be completely exhausting. Because of this, it might be for the best to simply schedule your tweets either manually or through an adequate plug-in. This way, you can somewhat automate this entire process.

Bring value to your customers

Finally, in order for your social media marketing campaign to result in a success, you need to find a way to make it as subtle as possible. While a shameless self-promotion might work well in some cases, you might want to try a bit more indirect approach. For every piece of promotional content you share, upload or post, you might want to add a few more that actually hold some value to your customers. Needless to say, such a course of action is bound to give your relevance score a significant boost.

Conclusion

Of course, the above-mentioned five are just the tip of the iceberg of all the methods you can try in order to make your social media marketing more efficient. Some honorable mentions are organic ad testing, spending more time on targeting and, of course, learning how to ditch campaigns that aren’t working for you. Nonetheless, by following just these few simple rules, you are bound to get the greatest ROI possible out of your low-cost advertising efforts on social media.

About the Author: Emma Miller is a marketer and a writer from Sydney. Her focus are digital marketing, social media, start-ups and latest trends. She’s a contributor at Bizzmark blog and a mother of two.