Advertising on social networks can help you reach both customers and prospects, but are you doing it right? Each of the major social networks feature an ad management platform where you can create and publish your own digital advertisements.

Meta Ads Manager lets you develop and promote ad campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. YouTube uses the Google ads platform. LinkedIn has a Campaign Manager and TikTok and Pinterest have their own individual ads managers.

Understanding how each ad platform works can be a daunting task, however, there are some ways to ensure you're getting the most out of the ads you purchase regardless of where you're spending your money.

Here are five things you can do when paying for social ads.

Target your audience

One of the more powerful things about social ads is that you have the ability to refine your audience targeting beyond demographics and geotargeting by location. The more you know your audience, the better you can select the targeting options to reach them.

Most ad platforms let you target by psychographics as well, by behaviors, interests, and online habits such as reaching people who do a lot of online shopping. Some also offer an audience Lookalike option. That feature uses an algorithm to identify users who share some of the same characteristics as your main target audience or current customers.

A more advanced targeting option that some ad platforms are offering is predictive targeting using artificial intelligence to identify behavior trends that help "predict" which users might be more likely to respond to your ads.

Retarget your audience

Some social ad platforms offer a retargeting option which means that ads can be sent to people who have already interacted with your company. If someone has visited your website before, subscribed to your email newsletter, or engaged with specific content on your social media account, for example, the ads tool can automatically target those specific individuals. Retargeting helps you zero in on people who are more likely to be interested in your company's products or services because of previous actions they've taken.

Test campaigns

If you're just starting off with paid advertising, start small. Play around with the ad tools to develop a few different ads with specific targeting features. If you are doing this in a more formal way, that kind of experimentation is called A/B Testing or Split Testing.

When split testing you could divide your audience into two distinct types - such as targeting males versus females or 20-somethings versus 30-somethings. Once you establish two distinct audience pools that you'll target, create two different ads to specifically address each one.

Another way to do split testing is by using the same audience pool but creating two distinctly different ads to see which one gets higher engagement. Once you identify the more effective ad, you would then put more money toward it while removing the lower performing one.

Make them mobile friendly

Because most users access social networks using mobile devices - over 90% by some estimates - making sure your ads are mobile friendly is essential. Double check how your ads will appear in the social media feeds.

Most ad managers will give you a preview of your ad. Watch out for text or graphics that might be laid over your ad graphic or video such as a call-to-action button. In some cases, that add-on could cover up text or another important feature in your ad.

Customize for the platform

Keep in mind that each platform may require different ad dimensions, and some platforms will require different sized ad assets depending on where the ad will be shown. For example, if you're advertising on Facebook and Instagram through the Meta Ads Manager, an ad that appears on the main feed should be 1080x1350 pixels to be mobile friendly. The once standard 1080x1080 pixels will not properly fill a mobile screen. Then if you are also publishing ads in Stories, you need another ad graphic sized at 1080x1920 pixels.

While it may be faster and easier to create graphics for your social ads, videos could generate higher click-through and conversion rates. In some cases, such as on TikTok, video ads are your best option due to the nature of the social network.

Part of launching a successful social ad campaign is reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time. Most ad managers on the top social networks provide many options to hone in on your audience and get the timing right, but it is up to you to develop the most effective messages that will attract and engage your target market.