Best Practices For Paid Social Media

  • Paid posts that perform best are those that include specific video and/or real-time photos/graphics
  • For best results do not attach stock images or graphics to paid social media
  • For the best performance from paid social, adhere to platform images/video recommendations:
    • Video
      • Shorter is better for all platforms. Try to keep videos under one minute for the best engagement (15 seconds max for high engagement on Twitter)
      • Original content performs the best
    • Image
      • Typical size images per platform (specs may change based on various ad type)
        • Twitter – 1024px x 512px
        • Instagram – 1080px x 1080px
        • Facebook – 1200px x 628px
      • Original content performs the best
  • For images and/or graphics with text overlay it is recommended that images with less than 20% text perform better. Previously for FB and IG ads, if there was more than 20% text on image the ad would not run – no longer the case but it is still recommended that text on ads be clear, concise and less than 20%
  • Dark ads and boosted posts perform the same
  • Flight time for the ad should correlate to your budget. A smaller budget should have a smaller flight time to maximize reach and engagement
  • Maximize the number of posts by budget and flight time to get the most exposure out of your campaign. Example - $200 budget – split between two posts with shorter flight time rather than one post with longer flight time.
  • We have had great success with Facebook Ads, but are still testing. To date, FB is still the dominant social media platform for Lionheart’s general audience, but we are growing on Twitter, Instagram, & Youtube. 
    • Facebook has proven to be the best platform for higher engagement 
    • Twitter has proven to be the best platform for higher impressions 
    • Establish early what the goal of your paid social media campaign is (awareness, engagement, clicks, etc.) to determine which social media platform is right for you 
  • Dashboards should look at both the organic and paid analytics for a campaign. Organic reach will show the general interest of a project. Given the same budget and ad run, a campaign that does well organically should do better and have higher expectations through a paid campaign as well. 
  • Best approach to paid social media campaigns is a hybrid campaign, incorporating both paid and organic social media posts. Whether paid boosted posts, dark ads, etc. are utilized, including a few organic posts on the platform’s timeline can enhance the results of the overall campaign  
  • If possible, include audience targeting to enhance results for paid social media campaign – location, demographics, interests, behaviors, connections. 
    • Keep in mind, platforms such as Facebook, may continue to remove certain core targeting options for discriminatory and duplicative purposes (continue to monitor available targeting options)