Most experienced advertisers and beginners immediately choose between Google and Facebook when choosing a traffic source for ad campaigns. Fortunately, few people consider ad alternatives, providing an opportunity to discover untapped traffic sources.
In this article, we’re going to review the best Facebook Ads alternatives for you to try out in 2022. We’ll explore the advertising variety, effectiveness, target audience, proficiency level, and cost of each platform.
What is social media advertising?
Social media advertising covers all forms of paid content on social media platforms specifically targeted at social network users.
The options range from a single promoted Tweet or Instagram post to a full-fledged Facebook campaign with significant budgets. Each social network offers different options, and we’ll highlight a few of the most underrated.
Why look for Facebook alternatives?
Facebook provides the most sophisticated audience targeting options because it has over 2.89 billion monthly active users, enabling you to reach any audience segment. It also offers instant forms to help businesses retain users’ attention and acquire leads without leaving the platform.
Even though you can find an audience for any offer on FB, it so happens that they react less actively to advertising. This has to do with the country where you are displaying your ad. For example, FB is almost like LinkedIn – a platform for business communications, while entertainment ads perform well in other countries. There are also restrictions on the categories of advertisements.
Even though you may have mastered Facebook advertising, you can still find a way to scale your campaigns. You already understand your audience, the types of content they prefer, and the titles that entice them to click. It’s time to take it further and increase your online visibility by using more platforms.
To Contents ↑10 best Facebook ads alternatives
1. LinkedIn ads
LinkedIn is an excellent alternative to Facebook Ads for B2B businesses and advertisers. It was voted the most trusted social media network in 2021 and accounted for more than 46% of all social media traffic to company websites. LinkedIn ads are more effective than Facebook ads, but they might be difficult and high-priced to launch.
Which ad formats are available on LinkedIn?
- Text ads — displayed in the feed or LinkedIn messenger’s top or sidebar;
- Sponsored content — these are modules that seamlessly integrate into your LinkedIn feed. They appear to be regular posts with the ‘Promoted’ label;
- Video ads — are a type of sponsored content on LinkedIn. You can launch video ads instead of static image ads;
- Carousel ads – an additional ad format within the sponsored content format. It enables you to add swipeable cards and increase the amount of space available to tell your story.
Other LinkedIn stats:
Audience size: 675 million active professionals
Best for: B2B services and products, Education, Software
Target audience: 25-49 y.o.
Advertising cost: CPC starts at $0.20
Affiliate-marketing friendly: Yes
Proficiency level required: High
Ads’ effectiveness: High
While LinkedIn advertising is generally effective for B2B, we recommend that your customer lifetime value exceed $5,000 to achieve a positive ROAS.
However, If you are experienced enough and know how to ramp up your campaigns quickly, don’t be afraid to run LinkedIn ads for products or services with a lower average lifetime value.
Apart from the high costs (the minimum CPC bid is $2), there is another apparent reason to think over your ad strategy twice — the platform’s audience.
Most people use LinkedIn for professional purposes and are more likely to engage with ads that benefit their business or career path. Entertainment ads might not spark while educational can collect many leads.
To Contents ↑2. Tiktok ads
TikTok is one of the most popular apps available today and a viable alternative to Facebook ads. The critical point here is that TikTok, like YouTube, is a video-centric platform, making it a legitimate competitor to Google’s adversary. You can access unique and highly engaging ad formats on TikTok. You can create custom stickers, filters, and more, apart from standard display formats.
To Contents ↑Which ad formats are available on TikTok?
- Brand Takeover — an expensive option: A full-screen three- to five-second image or GIF appears when a user opens the TikTok app;
- Branded hashtag challenge — the most engaging format for TikTok advertising. Brands encourage people to interact with them by announcing branded hashtag challenges and giving their promotional campaigns a personal touch;
- TopView — this feature is similar to Brand Takeover, except that videos are used as In-Feed ads can also be selected for advertising purposes;
- In-Feed Ads — TikTok’s promoted in-feed videos are similar to the ad formats found on Instagram or Facebook. They’ll appear as users scroll through their feeds;
- Branded effects — as with Instagram and Snapchat’s augmented reality lenses.
Global audience size: more than 1 billion users
Best for: B2C products and services across all categories
Target audience: 18-34
Advertising cost: CPC starts at $50.00
Affiliate-marketing friendly: Yes
Proficiency level required: Medium
Ads’ effectiveness: High
Are you still under the impression that TikTok is only for teenagers? Big brands like RedBull, Ralph Lauren, and BMW actively advertise on TikTok.
How about costs? The cost of your TikTok advertising campaign will vary depending on which solution you pick. The most cost-effective option for small-scale advertisers is in-feed ads.
You’ll need a minimum budget of $500 at the campaign level and $50 for ad groups. The platform supports the following bidding strategies: Cost per Click (CPC), Optimized Cost per Click (oCPC), Cost per Mille (CPM), and Cost per Thousand Views (CTV) (CPV).
The oCPC allows you to specify the price per result you’re willing to pay. TikTok analyzes your audience and displays ads to users who are more likely to take action.
To Contents ↑3. Display ad networks
Why do people get caught up in TikTok? It’s interactive, entertaining, and personalized. Why do people prefer mobile OS? They’re clean, uncluttered, and natural. Advertisers should access ad formats that embrace both nativity and high engagement in 2022. So Adsterra is here to help.
Weekly impressions on the Social Bar ad format exceed 1,5BN. While social networks keep the audience within their realms, display ad networks meet users on thousands of websites.
Get All Conversions With Adsterra Social Bar [Push & Display Combo Ads]
One more reason to diversify budgets and invest in display ad networks is that its publishers (traffic providers) send millions of impressions from TikTok and Facebook. On Adsterra, social traffic is one of the most highly demanded.
You can promote your services, landing pages, or content to audiences of the world’s most popular and trustworthy websites via Adsterra advertising formats. Advertisers can run native ads, popunder ads, in-page push ads across thousands of placements by working with just one platform.
Best for any product or service category: Display ad campaigns run by SaaS marketers, eCommerce brands, app marketers, small business owners, demand generation experts, and others appear on our publishers’ websites.
You can promote your services, landing pages, or content to audiences of the world’s most popular and trustworthy websites via Adsterra native advertising. Advertisers can run native ads across thousands of placements by working with just one platform.
To Contents ↑4. Twitter ads
Not sure you want to spend between $10,000 and $50,000 on TikTok ads? Let’s review a more traditional alternative to Facebook Ads.
Considering the widespread use of Twitter for both personal and business purposes, it allows advertisers to promote a broader range of products and services than LinkedIn or TikTok.
Twitter ads are also well-known for their excellent targeting capabilities. You can target people who have mentioned a specific word or hashtag in the last seven days. Since Twitter is one of the few platforms where hashtags are truly used, users actively track various topical hashtags to discuss topics of interest, hashtag-based targeting is highly effective for specific niches.
To Contents ↑Which ad formats are available on Twitter?
- Promoted Tweets — are similar to in-feed ads on Facebook and LinkedIn. They appear to be regular tweets but are labeled ‘Promoted’ in the lower-left corner. Promoted tweets can range from $0.50 to $2 per action. Likes, retweets, follows, and website visits are all examples of billable actions;
- Promoted accounts — consider promoting your brand’s entire account rather than promoting a single tweet. Users’ timelines, search results, and ‘Who to Follow’ sections display the card. Promoting an account can range from $2 to $4 per follower;
- Promoted trends — these ads appear in your timeline and on the Explore tab, under the ‘Trends for you’ section. This one is the most expensive Twitter ad format available.
Audience size: 330 million active users internationally
Best for B2B and B2C companies
Target audience: 23-34 y.o.; USA, Saudi Arabia, Europe, Asia Pacific;
Advertising cost: From $0.50 to $2 for promoted tweets per action. From $2 to $4 for promoted accounts.
Affiliate-marketing friendly: Yes
Proficiency level required: High
Ads’ effectiveness: Medium
To Contents ↑5. Quora Ads
Quora is a popular Q&A platform that marketers have utilized for several years. The question-and-answer format is ideal for advertisers and individuals looking to establish themselves as industry leaders. You can provide detailed responses and highlight relevant products or services by locating niche-specific or brand-related questions via keywords or topics.
To Contents ↑Types of ads supported:
- Image ads — are standard ads including a headline, brief description, image, and a link to your landing page. You can choose to display your image ads beneath specific topics, questions, or questions that contain particular keywords or phrases;
- Text ads — these ads appear native on Quora’s predominantly text-based platform, allowing advertisers to integrate brand messages into organic platform conversations;
- Promoted answers — this format is an excellent way to increase the visibility of your responses or the feedback about your brand. These campaigns are typically less expensive than other formats.
Audience size: 300 million monthly users
Best for Mid-price segment products
Advertising cost: CPC for promoted answers starts from $0.1
Affiliate-marketing friendly: Yes
Proficiency level required: High
Ads’ effectiveness: High
Quora ads’ primary advantage is their low competition. However, it is crucial to understand whether your product or service fits that category. Even if there are many open discussions on the subject, paid campaigns may fail to deliver the desired results.
We can conclude from our own experience that Quora ads effectively promote mid-priced products to a US-based audience (the most active audience on Quora).
To Contents ↑6. Reddit ads
Reddit has over 100,000 communities centered on a diverse range of interests, which means that the forum covers nearly every subject imaginable. It’s an excellent advertising platform for businesses of all sizes and types. However, to achieve the desired results, you must be strategic. Reddit prides itself on its opinionated and vocal users, most of whom will object to brands promoting their products or services.
Reddit allows you to target users based on their device, interests, community, and location. Your ads will be viewable across all devices.
To Contents ↑Which ad formats are available on Reddit?
- Reddit promoted posts — are posts that are pinned to a specific subreddit. You can promote both your own and other people’s posts. Remember that users can upvote or downvote your paid posts. So ensure that your posts are placed beneath relevant topics and do not invoke negative emotions;
- Display ads — are ads that appear in the sidebar. You’ll need to contact a Reddit account manager to launch a display campaign. Advertisers with a minimum quarterly spend of $50,000 are eligible for this opportunity.
Audience size: Over 430 million active users monthly
Best for: Reddit ads can be effective for any vertical if advertisers identify relevant subreddits.
Target audience: 18-29 y.o.; North America, Europe, Australia.
Advertising cost: CPC starts from $0.75
Affiliate-marketing friendly: Yes
Proficiency level required: Medium
Ads’ effectiveness: Medium
To Contents ↑7. Pinterest ads
Pinterest is a social network, and a search engine rolled into one platform. Advertising on Pinterest is almost as simple as advertising on Twitter, as users are accustomed to clicking on the links associated with the main pin. To capture your audience’s attention on Pinterest, you’ll need to ensure that your creative team has the time and resources necessary to create high-quality imagery or videos for Pinterest pins.
To Contents ↑Which ad formats are available on Pinterest?
Types of ads supported:
- Promoted pins — are typical Pinterest ads hidden among the regular pins in the news feed;
- Shoppable pins — Rather than linking to a brand’s website, these pins enable users to purchase products directly from Pinterest;
- Promoted video ads — may appear in the news feed, search results, and the “more similar to this” section;
- App install ads — available on iOS and Android devices also appear in users’ feeds, allowing them to download a promoted app directly from Pinterest.
322 monthly active users
Pinterest is a good fit for eCommerce stores, particularly those in the holiday, food, and home interior niches. Additionally, guides and tips for DIY projects are extremely popular on Pinterest.
Target audience: 18-49 y.o.; North America.
Advertising cost: CPC costs from $0.1 to $1.50
Affiliate-marketing friendly: Yes
Proficiency level required: High
Ads’ effectiveness: High
To Contents ↑8. Instagram ads
While Facebook owns Instagram, its audience makeup and growth trajectory are significantly different. Instagram’s ads are more visual and appear in a bold, linear format at the center of visual inspiration. Visual appeal is vital to Instagram advertising success, so ensure that your brand’s creative team is at the top of their game before launching an Instagram ad campaign.
To Contents ↑Facebook or Instagram ads?
It depends on whether your intended audience prefers to consume visual or textual content. Instagram is the ideal platform for developing a mobile-first advertising strategy using highly engaging images and videos.
It’s also vital to consider your audience’s purchasing path. Mobile users are constantly moving and are not prepared to purchase expensive items.
Which ad formats are available on Instagram?
Types of ads supported:
- Stories ads – these ads appear within Instagram Stories, which can be accessed from the top of your feed. As with any other type of ad, stories ads are labeled but they blend in so seamlessly with the organic content flow that users may forget they’re watching ads;
- In-feed Photo or Video Ads — these ads are typically more expensive than stories ads. However, we recommend using both placements for the best results;
- Carousel ads — a format for in-feed advertising that incorporates multiple creative pieces into a single ad;
- Collection ads — a collection ad consists of a cover image or video, followed by three product images. When users tap on a collection ad, they see an Instant Experience, a full-screen landing page that encourages interaction and nurtures interest and intent;
- Explore ads — will appear when a user scrolls down after clicking on a post from Explore.
1 billion monthly active users
Instagram is a good fit for food, fashion, health, and other consumer products.
Target audience: 18-34 y.o.; worldwide.
Advertising cost: CPC costs from $0.50 to $3
Affiliate-marketing friendly: Yes
Proficiency level required: Medium
Ads’ effectiveness: High
To Contents ↑9. YouTube ads
YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. It has an incredibly large audience, which enables you to maximize your social media reach.
Which ad formats are available on YouTube?
Types of ads supported: True-view ads, skippable instream, non-skippable video.
Target audience: 18-55 y.o.; worldwide.
Advertising cost: CPV costs from $0.010
Affiliate-marketing friendly: Yes
Proficiency level required: High
Ads’ effectiveness: High
To Contents ↑10. Snapchat ads
Snapchat is the world’s sixth most popular social media platform. If Generation Z and Millennials are part of your target audience, Snapchat is the ideal channel to reach them. Advertising on this platform can help you increase traffic to your website, app installations, and views for long-form video content.
To Contents ↑Which ad formats are available on Snapchat?
Types of ads supported:
- Sponsored geofilters — are custom geofenced filters that users can apply to their snaps;
- Snap ads — ten-second vertical video ads displayed between snaps with a swipe-up interactive content;
- Single image or video,
- Collection ads,
- Story ads,
- Lenses,
- Filters,
- Commercials,
- Dynamic ads.
Target audience: 26-35 y.o.
Advertising cost: CPC starts at $2.95
Affiliate-marketing friendly: Yes
Proficiency level required: Medium
Ads’ effectiveness: Medium
To Contents ↑Conclusion
While Facebook is still a massive social network, we wanted you to know that you can experiment on other platforms. Limiting your Advertising efforts to Facebook is a serious oversight with many advertising channels available. It’s important to diversify your budgets and try different traffic sources. The native Quora formats will work perfectly for some offers. Boutiques will find their audience on Instagram. Big brands should look at TikTok, while VPN ads, apps, sweepstakes, sales, and dozens of other offers should go with traffic from display ad networks.
