Pros and cons of paid vs. free advertisement on social media

As a starting makeup business you probably don’t have a huge budget to spend on advertising. And what is more, you want to spend to see some results that will benefit your business and help it grow. The best option for a new or existing makeup business to promote itself is to use social media. But how to do it wisely and effectively?

There are three main platforms that are used to promote your business: Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. 

Depending on your content choose one or two websites to focus on. Youtube is all about the video and Instagram is all about the photos mainly. While Facebook is something in between. 

What is organic and paid advertising?

Promoting your business on social media involves both paid and organic advertisement. Organic advertisement is a natural way of promoting your brand or business by posting good content regularly and steadily growing reach. It takes time and persistence to achieve your goals. Paid advertisement gives you a chance to speed this process up.

Which one to choose?

It is important to understand that this is not a matter of choice (either paid or organic advertisement), they are connected and closely knitted together. Paid adverts can generate more leads to your Facebook or Instagram page but without a proper regular content they are unlikely to stay for a long time. Organic promotions helps you keep your clients that are often attracted by paid advertisements. 

Before you go into spending your budget on ads make sure you have a content plan and enough content on your pages. Think like a customer. Imagine that you have come across a nice ad on Facebook the other day and want to know more about it. You follow the link and end up on a page with barely no information. Will  you stay? 

Or imagine a page with contact information, good portfolio, maybe a few reviews and a bunch of nice and interesting posts to  go through. Will you trust this person more? Are you more likely to follow this page even if you don’t need a makeup artist right now but might  need in a month or two? 

So when do I need to pay for promoting?

First of all, when you and your business is ready. It means you have a website with your contact info, services you provide and pricing. Your portfolio showcases what you are capable of and you have enough high quality photos to attract new clients. 

Secondly, when you have chosen the main platforms to attract customers and you have enough content to make them stay after they end up at your page. 

Then it’s time to use the paid advertisement. Think about your goals? Do you want to attract new customers? Do you want to introduce yourself to the market?

How to promote?

Before you launch your first marketing campaign, do some research. Check out the social pages of other makeup artists and point out their advantages and disadvantages. Take notes on what you like and what should be changed. 

Then study how advertising works. Major social networking sites offer guidelines on how to manage  your ads. Go through them and study the difference between different options they have to offer you. 

Create two or three adverts to try out and track the results. All social media provides numerous statistics to track the success of your campaigns. Make sure you study them carefully before launching a new ad. Experiment with photos and text and see which one works best for you. At first you might not get the results you are looking for, but as any activity it takes time and practice to get the most out of it. 

Advertising Will help you grow your business if you are persistent in what you do. Follow your content plan and adjust it on the go according to new trends or results you’ve achieved. But keep in mind that it is an ongoing process. If you stop generating content, you might stop attracting new customers which is fine if you have a lot of regular clients.  But it often happens that promotion and advertising gives its results, you get a lot of clients, become very busy and stop generating new content. And some time later you end up having fewer and fewer clients and you go back to the start. That’s why it is important to plan your strategy and your resources.