The platform for placing advertisements on VKontakte is a powerful tool for finding clients in the CIS. Despite the fact that the ad placement algorithm is quite simple, many users fail to make money on it. The result of the promotion may depend not only on the business, but also on the targeting settings and ad design.
In today’s article, we’ll look at a number of questions: how to launch your first ad, which settings are worth experimenting with, and where to look for help.
Types of advertising on VKontakte
On VKontakte, it is customary to distinguish two types of advertising: official (targeted) and unofficial (publicity). The differences lie in the choice of tasks and pricing policy.
- Targeted ads are ads that serve ads to selected users. This option can be perfect for advertising services, mass sales or promoting publics.
- Community advertising is an advertisement that is published as a post with an advertising tag in a public page.
The main advantage of the first type can be quite significant. – at any time, you can completely disable targeted advertising (the reason for this may be simple inefficiency). For a deeper understanding, let’s take a look at a small example of community advertising.
For example, we want to place a post on the public page that we are selling various electronics. We pay 3000 rubles for such an advertisement, but after a few hours we understand that there is no benefit from this – the effectiveness is extremely low. What do we want as a result? Of course, return the money back. Unfortunately, this will no longer work, unless, of course, the community administrator is our friend. His only task is to post a post, and the rest is already the customer’s problem.
In the case of targeted advertising, things are completely different. For example, we place advertisements and spend 500 rubles per hour. After a while, we realize that we can’t afford a click – in such cases, we just take and turn off ads. The funds spent, of course, will not be returned, but this will protect us from further costs.
Also, targeted advertising works well with businesses that are tied to a specific location. If you launch an advertising post in public, then its target audience can vary greatly and be located mainly in a different location, which will negatively affect the response of customers.
If you are just starting to understand the promotion of VK, then it is important to understand that at first there may be mistakes, and some of the money will go nowhere. This is completely normal.
Community advertising has a distinct advantage – audience loyalty. If the community is well developed, then subscribers can accept the sponsored post as a recommendation. Thus, many of them are likely to follow the link and order the advertised product or service. We recommend placing such ads in the community style – this way the response will be much higher than with a simple publication.
We launch advertising on VK
Above, I talked about the fact that there are two types of advertising. The second type is the placement of advertising posts in communities. There is no need to consider it, since it is a purely individual task. If you want to post a post in any public, then contact the administrator of this community and clarify all the details. We’re going to talk about how to properly launch targeted advertising. For convenience, we will place all actions in step-by-step instructions. Go!
Step 1: Determine the budget
The first thing to do is calculate the budget that you are willing to spend on advertising. The minimum amount is 500 rubles; for a lower cost, you will not be able to place anything. It is recommended to invest 3-5 thousand rubles for testing the channel – this amount will be enough for several ads. Thus, you can analyze how everything works, and then make the most effective advertising move.
Payment in VKontakte is made one-time, that is, before the launch of advertising, you will need to fully deposit funds. Thanks to this, you will not be able to spend more than you bargained for – the effectiveness will depend only on the correct campaign setup.
Step 2: Studying the VKontakte rules
Before proceeding with the launch of advertising, it is recommended to study the VKontakte rules. You will spend only a few minutes, but later this can play a very important role. Without learning the general principles and limitations, many problems can be encountered.
First, answer the following questions:
- Will the moderators of VKontakte allow advertising on my topic?
- Will my landing page (website, landing page) be admitted?
- Are the images and texts used in the ad appropriate?
Pay attention to paragraphs 1, 3 and 4 – these are the most common reasons why a moderator blocks applications. For example, blocking may be related to network marketing advertising or the lack of information on the collection of personal data on your site.
Moderation takes up to 12 hours, but usually the application is considered in 2-3 hours.
How to get help
To get help on VKontakte, there is a special community called VKontakte for Business. In addition to studying informational posts, you can also write in group messages there. It is enough to select the “Write a message” option and tell about your problem – the community administration will be happy to answer all your questions.
Step 3: choose the ad format
When the budget has been determined, and the rules are fully understood, we can move on to creating our first ad. The first thing we need is to define its format. We will talk more about formats a little later, but for now, let’s open a personal account, where all the actions are performed. To do this, do the following:
- We open the main page of VKontakte and pay attention to the left menu – there should be an “Advertising” button, which is usually absent by default. To enable its display, hover the mouse cursor over any of the menu items and click on the gear on the left.
- In the window that appears, mark the item “Advertising” and click “Save”.
- Now the “Advertising” button is displayed in the menu – click on it and go to your personal account.
- Here we select “Create an ad”.
Now let’s talk a little about the types of advertising for businesses. In this regard, VKontakte offers us advertising entries in the news feed and announcements (located on the left under the menu, not displayed in the mobile application).
For example, if we want to place an advertisement for an online store, then it is better to use ads in the feed. In this case, it is recommended to use the type “Carousel”, “Record with a button” or “Site advertisement”.
Step 4: design your ad
So, the ad type has been selected. Click “Create Record”.
Since we have chosen the “Carousel” type, you will need to specify the following data:
- The VKontakte page from which the ad will be placed.
- Ad text – its size should not exceed 220 characters, 6 emojis and two line breaks.
- At least 3 product cards – it is better to indicate specific products with links to them. A button is also indicated below them, for example, “To the store”, “Order” and so on. At the top are the headings for each of the products.
The more product cards you fill out, the better your ad can work.
Step 5: setting up your target audience
As soon as the ad is completed, the “Target audience setting” block will open in front of us. Your personal knowledge is already required here. Try to answer the question: “Who is your target audience?”: Where does she live, what is her age, gender, and so on. VKontakte has an extensive selection of different settings – you can even indicate whether a person is married.
After all the settings have been made, the total number of leads will appear in the upper right corner.
Next, we need to specify the time of the ad display, as well as the goals and daily limit. All actions are performed on the same page.
Once everything is filled in, another small window with a forecast for audience coverage will be displayed.
It remains to specify advertising sites: computer, smartphone or all devices. Next, click “Create ad”.
Done! We created our first advertisement on VKontakte, but it is not functioning yet. To do this, you need to replenish your account and launch the campaign. We will talk about this further.
Step 6: launch your ad
After completing the above steps, a personal account page will be displayed in front of us, which will tell you about the created advertisement. There is also a “Run” button that allows you to activate an advertising post in VK. If we click on it, then money will be required from us. To add them, you need to click on the “Deposit” button in the upper right corner.
Select the type of payment, agree with the placement rules and click “Continue”.
After the funds are deposited, go back to the main page of the announcement and click “Run”.
Congratulations! You have launched your first ad on VKontakte. But this is only the beginning – now the campaign will have to be analyzed and, possibly, corrected. At any time, you can pause advertising activities and change your settings.
Experiment, and then your services or products will be in demand among VK users.