Hootsuite is a popular social media management platform that allows users to manage multiple social media accounts from one dashboard. It provides a variety of useful tools for scheduling and publishing content, analyzing performance, and engaging with audiences across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Can you run ads through Hootsuite?
Yes, Hootsuite does provide the ability to create and manage paid social media advertising campaigns directly within its platform. This includes running ads on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Some of the key advertising features offered by Hootsuite include:
- Create and optimize ad campaigns for different networks
- Set campaign budgets, schedules, and targeting
- Design ad creative and assets
- Monitor campaign performance with reporting tools
- Make quick adjustments to improve results
So in short, Hootsuite does have built-in functionality for running paid social ads across the major networks. This can streamline the process of setting up and managing advertising campaigns alongside organic social media efforts, all within a single dashboard.
Key benefits of running ads through Hootsuite
Here are some of the key advantages of using Hootsuite to run social media ads:
Simplified workflow
The ability to plan, deploy, and analyze paid campaigns alongside organic social publishing provides an integrated workflow. You don’t have to jump between separate ad platforms and Hootsuite to manage everything.
Centralized reporting
Performance data for organic and paid social content can be viewed in one place, making it easier to see what’s working across different initiatives and networks.
Unified teams and processes
Your social media teams can plan and collaborate on organic and paid campaigns using the same platform. This unified approach can foster collaboration across functions.
Time savings
Running social ads directly in Hootsuite eliminates the need to manually pull campaign data into separate reporting spreadsheets. This can save significant time and effort.
Optimized budgets
With all your social campaigns managed centrally, it’s easier to track and allocate budgets across different initiatives for better efficiency.
Key features for running ads on Hootsuite
Here’s an overview of some of the core features Hootsuite provides to create, run, and measure paid advertising campaigns:
Campaign creation
- Build campaigns for different ad objectives like brand awareness, traffic, conversions
- Create campaign assets including images, videos, and carousels
- Set campaign duration, budget, bidding, and targeting parameters
- Support for different campaign types and objectives per network
Campaign management
- Make quick edits and adjustments to live campaigns
- Add new ad creatives without pausing campaigns
- Duplicate successful campaigns easily
- View campaign delivery pacing and budget status
- Get notifications for key campaign events and changes
Performance monitoring
- Track campaign KPIs like impressions, clicks, actions, and costs
- View ad performance by creative, audience, placement, and more
- Monitor campaign delivery pace and budget utilization
- Export detailed campaign data and reports
Optimizations
- Apply learnings by adjusting targeting, budgets, bids, and creatives
- Leverage A/B testing capabilities for ad variations
- Remix top-performing content across campaigns
- Activate automated rules to optimize campaigns
Types of ads available on Hootsuite
Hootsuite’s advertising capabilities support running a variety of different paid social ad formats and types. Here are some examples of the ads you can create and deploy through Hootsuite:
Facebook and Instagram ads
- Photo ads
- Video ads
- Carousel ads
- Slideshow ads
- Collection ads
- Lead generation ads
- Catalog sales ads
Twitter ads
- Promoted tweets
- Promoted accounts
- Promoted trends
LinkedIn ads
- Sponsored content
- Text ads
- Dynamic ads
- Message ads
So Hootsuite provides quite a robust suite of ad formats across the major social platforms. You can choose the types that make sense based on your specific objectives and audience targeting strategies for each campaign.
How to get started running ads on Hootsuite
If you want to get started running social media ads through Hootsuite, here are some steps to take:
Sign up for a Hootsuite account
You’ll first need to sign up for the appropriate Hootsuite account plan based on your needs. The PRO plan ($49/month) offers basic ad capabilities while the Advanced plan ($599/month) provides more advanced and robust features for managing larger ad campaigns.
Connect and verify social media accounts
Within your Hootsuite dashboard, connect the social platforms where you want to run ads like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn. Make sure to go through the verification process for each account.
Set up billing method
You will need to set up a valid credit card within your Hootsuite payment settings. This will enable you to fund your advertising campaigns and pay for any ad spend that accrues.
Create ad campaigns
Head to the Ads module within Hootsuite and click “Create Campaign”. Choose your objective, audience, placement, budget, schedule, and creative. Review and launch your campaign.
Monitor performance
Use Hootsuite’s campaign reporting tools to track metrics like clicks, impressions, conversions, and costs. Optimize campaigns according to results.
Expand your efforts
Once you’ve got the hang of one campaign, leverage what you’ve learned to expand into more campaigns, networks, and objectives.
Pros and cons of managing ads through Hootsuite
Here’s an overview of some of the key advantages and potential limitations of using Hootsuite to run paid social campaigns:
Pros
- One centralized platform for organic and paid social
- Saves time with unified workflow and reporting
- Provides robust campaign targeting options
- Makes optimization and iteration easier
- Offers various ad creation and management capabilities
- Supports ads across multiple leading social networks
Cons
- More limited capabilities compared to native ad platforms
- Less flexibility with campaign setup and ad formats
- Pricing can be higher at higher account usage tiers
- Occasional platform bugs or issues
- Steeper learning curve if used to native tools
Overall, Hootsuite provides a scalable platform for coordinating an integrated paid social strategy, but lacks some of the depth offered by the individual native ad platforms. The ideal use cases depend on your specific brand’s needs, resources, and capabilities.
Conclusion
Running paid advertising campaigns directly through your Hootsuite dashboard provides a streamlined workflow for managing organic and paid social efforts under one roof. Key benefits include time savings, unified reporting and optimization, and simpler collaboration.
At the same time, Hootsuite’s ad tools have some limitations compared to the native platforms. For larger brands with big budgets and needs for advanced targeting and placement, native tools may provide better capabilities. But for many organizations, Hootsuite ads offer a quick and efficient way to expand into paid social.
The ideal approach depends on assessing your in-house resources, campaign objectives, and workflow requirements. Testing out Hootsuite ads for targeted use cases can help determine if it’s a fit for managing a portion or all of your paid social activities.
