We’ve created this helpful Quick Guide for Using Paid Social Media in ETF marketing to raise awareness and attract investors for your asset management firm’s ETF.

In a previous article, we looked into the incredible power of paid social media for ETF marketing.

To recap, paid social—which refers to ads displayed on social media platforms—gives exchange-traded funds (ETF) providers easy access to a colossal audience of billions of active users on sites like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and many others. This type of advertising is highly targeted, allowing investment management firms to connect with qualified investors, depending on the targeting criteria that you set (e.g., their location, how old they are, what types of pages they follow on that social media platform, and so on).

In addition, paid social for ETF marketing allows customization of your ads and makes it easy to stick to your advertising budget. In short, paid social is a very effective digital marketing tool that can help you gain more ETF investors.

Understanding the benefits of paid ads in social media, you’re probably eager to start setting up your own paid social advertising campaigns. The good news is that we’ve developed this easy-to-read Quick Guide for Using Paid Social Media in ETF Marketing.

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What Makes Paid Social a Vital Component of ETF Marketing?

All over the world, the financial services industry is undergoing a digital transformation. Although this specific market has already been quite reliant on technology and digital products (such as computers and the Internet) for decades now, the rapid changes in our modern world have made it crucial for investment management firms to keep up by ensuring that not only their products are digital-friendly but other parts of their business as well. This includes their marketing strategy.

If your asset management company offers ETFs, you need to make sure you’re aware of and—more importantly—leveraging online marketing tools to get the best results for your efforts. An essential digital marketing tool you should know about and strive to use actively is paid social media advertising (frequently shortened to just ‘paid social’). This is because, as of 2021, there were already roughly 2,700 registered ETFs just in the United States.

Although that may sound daunting, here’s the good news: the ETF market is booming, with the biggest ETF provider in the globe even reporting that an estimated 22 million people in the U.S. already own their ETFs.

Here’s even better news: The U.S. population is at least 330 million as of June 04, 2023, so there are still many people whom you can turn into your ETF investor. In addition, 7 out of 10 survey respondents expect the global ETF assets under management (AUM) to rise to at least US$15 trillion by the end of June 2027. These statistics demonstrate that people have a strong confidence in the value of having an ETF investment, therefore giving your company a large pool of prospects to target in your ETF marketing campaign.

To capture qualified investors and turn them into your client, financial service providers and asset managers need to know how to make the most out of paid social media ads. These are some of the most essential things you need to understand when using paid social media for your ETF marketing campaign:

The Value of Setting Your Paid Social Media Objectives

Prior to starting a paid social media advertising campaign for promoting your ETF, your asset management firm must have a crystal-clear objective or list of objectives.

What you want to accomplish from your paid social depends on your company. However, common objectives in ETF marketing through social media ads are lead generation, brand awareness, and—of course—increase in sales (in terms of the amount that investors have invested in your ETF/ETFs).

Just like in other marketing strategies or tools, setting your paid social objectives is essential. Your unique objectives will guide your campaign and help you select the most suitable bidding strategy and ad format to employ.

Target Your Paid Social Ads to Niche Audiences

Target Your Paid Social Ads to Niche Audiences

One of the unique selling propositions (USP) of paid social media campaigns that even other modern digital ads don’t offer is their ability to micro-target niche audiences. Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and others have advanced targeting features, enabling ETF providers to set their preferred audience for their ads.

In spite of some slight differences in their dashboards, all social media platforms that run paid ads have a standard set of features for ad targeting as well as campaign reports. Learn them and use them properly. By doing so, you can spend your advertising budget more efficiently since users who will see your ads are the ones who meet your set criteria (e.g., users who have the characteristics of your ideal customer profile).

Also, exploring the platforms can help you see which features, metrics, and reports are most important for your company to monitor and improve.

Spend Your Paid Social Ad Campaign Budget Wisely

If your investment management company has never run paid social media ads before, we recommend you first test the waters with a smaller budget. This is particularly important if your firm has a limited budget. Doing so can help you ensure that your paid social budget is spent wisely on targeting relevant audiences: people likely to have the financial capacity and interest to become an ETF investor.

Over time, as you become more familiar with social media advertising, you can increase your paid social budget and still maximize your return on ad spend (ROAS).

Adopt an 'Always-On' Marketing Strategy

etf marketingExperts in paid social media advertising recommend ETF providers have an ‘always-on’ digital presence. Most of the time, advertisers only use social media ads to announce the launch of a new ETF or some other milestone or special update, and run the campaign for only a limited period of time.

However, having an ‘always-on’ presence on social media means your asset management firm will constantly provide valuable content and engaging messages to potential ETF investors. By doing so, your prospects—potential ETF investors—can see various content types on your social media pages, such as thought leadership posts, links to your blog articles about the current state of the financial market, infographics about financial products, and so on. Seeing these can boost the power of your social media ads by establishing your company as a knowledgeable and trustworthy investment management company. And as you may already know, getting people’s trust is an indispensable step toward gaining their business and investment.

Ready to Boost ETF Awareness and Attract New Investors?

Paid social offers an amazing opportunity for businesses, such as asset management companies, to be seen by their target market, raise awareness of their company and ETF offerings, and gain new investors.

Using clear objectives, wise budgeting practices, effective audience targeting, and an ‘always-on’ strategy, your investment management firm can market their ETFs to millions of potential investors in the United States and even overseas.

Book a free call with our digital marketing agency’s advertising experts for help with your ETF’s paid social media advertising strategy.