Social Media Ads Basics for Small Business
Paid social can accelerate organic growth — or burn cash fast. This guide covers the fundamentals.
Pick the right platform
Match the platform to your audience: Meta for 25+, TikTok for under-35, LinkedIn for B2B. Don't run on all platforms at once.
Start with retargeting
Retargeting converts at 5-10x the rate of cold ads. Always set this up first before running cold campaigns.
UGC creative wins
Customer photos and videos outperform brand-shot ads by 4x. Use real UGC in every campaign.
Budget structure
Start at $20-$50/day for 14 days to gather data. Scale only what's profitable.
Test, don't tweak
Run an ad untouched for 7-14 days. Daily tweaks reset the learning phase.
Tools to help
Social Perks supplies the UGC and customer testimonials that make ad creative dramatically more effective.
Related topics
See also: Instagram growth strategy, TikTok for business, Social media metrics, Cross-platform repurposing, Engagement strategies.
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