Advertising on social media is a brilliant way of engaging with students online.

There is huge potential for reaching out to students who have never been to church or experienced faith. Social media advertising is a way to target audiences on specific networks through demographic information, so targeted audiences can view your brand in their feeds.

You may have noticed if you have a Facebook page for your church, that your organic content isn’t receiving as much reach anymore. This is because Facebook are wanting you to spend cash on your posts!

When using Facebook advertising, there are some factors to consider before going for it.

What’s your budget?

This is a biggy. It’s very easy to get carried away. Agree a budget and test ads before you spend it all. Even boosting a post with £2 can be effective.

How much time have you got?

Setting up adverts can take a little while to get used to, but when you’ve got used to the process it becomes easier. If you’ve not got much time there are pre-made audiences you can choose from, if you’ve got a little more time you can tailor make audiences depending on what you’d like to share and with who. You can also link Facebook and Instagram advertising which can be used quickly.   

What do I want people to do as a result of seeing my post?

Would you like to increase likes on your page, get people to sign up to an event, download a resource, watch a video? Is it an awareness goal or stats led goal? By knowing the answer to this question you will be able to tailor the content and the way that you advertise.

Who do I want to target and what platforms are they using?

Once you’ve figured out those questions, next ask yourself what kind of content your audiences most connect with. This is done through testing, so give it a go! Is it an inspirational story, a spoken word, a bible passage brought to life or a video testimony? Test and see what works best for the people you’re trying to target.

Keep testing, keep trying, keep evaluating. The fun thing about advertising on social media is that there is virtually no limit, so go for it!

Image source: We are social, 2017 (Available at: https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2017/08/three-billion-people-now-use-social-media)