Targeted ads, in conjunction with traditional advertising, can lead to more spring traffic!

If you owned a restaurant, wouldn’t it be nice to have a mechanism to instantly reach out to people that were hungry? If you owned a retail shop that stocked sports apparel, how excited would you be if you could connect with people as they cheered for their team? If you sold entertainment, how amazing would it be if all the fans of your genre of entertainment were directly connected to your next show? Targeted advertising, in conjunction with traditional advertising outlets, can help you reach your niche market.

This week the Civic Auditorium is hosting a high school state basketball tournament. Fan bases from specific schools throughout the state (along with the local Emporia High School Lady Spartans) are competing. We know what schools are coming to Emporia. We know the fan pages, hash tags, and basic geographic locations where fan bases are traveling from. We know the days/times fan bases will be in downtown Emporia for games. When schools travel to Emporia, we also know that they will want to eat, explore the community, shop, and be entertained (outside of the game). With that information, Emporia Main Street generated targeted advertising to reach out to fan bases and highlight local member businesses.

We know that supplementing our traditional radio, newspaper, and television advertising with targeted digital media ads work. With our advanced market identification software, and some common sense, Emporia Main Street works to identify and intersect with specific groups likely to visit the area for the benefit of our membership. Understanding our visitor market and formulating strategies to intersect with those visitors to generate traffic for local businesses isn’t easy, but Emporia Main Street has identified voids in visitor outreach that are important to area growth (and we are working to fill those voids).

You can do the same thing for your business. Think about your target customers in the area. Local advertising venues do a great job at helping you reach those target customers. Now, think about groups of people that visit from outside of our traditional market trade area that may be interested in patronizing a business like yours. What characteristics define those individuals? Where are they coming from? Why are they traveling to Emporia? What are they doing once they arrive? Do they use any specific language to identify themselves? Are they a part of any specific online groups that help coordinate their behavior?

If you know some basic information about visitors, you can use the information for targeted digital advertising. Here are a few tips:

1. Create content that is eye catching and easy to read! You should always post a visual (picture) with your text.
2. Text with your post should be direct and concise. Most readers only read the first few sentences of a post and will not always click “see more”.
3. If you have more information/details about an event/product/sale etc., make sure to Call Your Viewers to Action by including a clickable link. For more information “Click Here” – this is a great way to get additional details into a customer’s hands or lead them to make a purchase from an online sales platform.
4. Video is very popular right now with social media platforms. Several have set their algorithms to push video content first.
5. Boost your post. Once you have your content ready you can boost your post and identify your target market. Remember that you can select people who are traveling to the area from other geographical areas.

How to create a boosted post

To boost a Facebook post on your classic or new Page:

1.      Switch into your Facebook Page.

2.      Find the post you want to boost. This may include a Jobs, Event or video

post.

3.      Select Boost post. You can find it at the bottom right of your post. Note: If

you are unable to select Boost post, boosting may be unavailable for this

post.

4.      Goal: Choose the results you’d like to see from your ad. You can let

Facebook select the most relevant goal based on your settings, or choose

a goal manually.

5.      Fill in the details for your ad. We’ll automatically use images and text from

your post, but you can choose the following details:

Audience: Choose a recommended audience or create a new audience

based on specific traits. Note: If your ad is part of a Special Ad Category,

your audience options may be limited.

Total budget: Select a recommended budget or provide a custom budget.

Duration: Select one of the suggested time frames or provide a specific

end date.

Payment method: Review your payment method. If you need to, you can

change or update your payment method.

6.      When you’re done, select Boost post now.

To boost a post on Instagram – please note you must have a business profile.

To boost an Instagram feed post from your mobile device:

1.      Go to your profile.

2.     Tap the post you’d like to boost.

a.      Avoid boosting posts featuring images greater than 8 MB.

3.      Below the post’s image, tap Boost.

4.      Fill in the details of your ad by setting things like Goal (what results you’d

like from this ad), Audience (who you want to reach), Budget (how much

you want to spend daily) and Duration (how long you want your ad to run).

Tap Next once you’ve completed these details.

5.      If you didn’t link to a Facebook account when you set up your Instagram

professional account, you will be prompted to connect an account. You

can choose an existing account or tap Skip. If you tap Skip, you won’t see

this step when you boost future posts. You can still connect a Facebook

Page to your profile at any time.

6.      To complete your ad, tap Boost post under Review.

Once you’ve tapped Boost post, your ad will be submitted for review to make sure it meets our ad policies. Your ad will begin running after it’s been reviewed and approved.

You’ll receive a notification in your Activity Feed after you submit an ad for review, when it’s getting reviewed, if it’s approved or disapproved and when the campaign ends.