You already know that Social media marketing is a powerhouse for attracting new customers, building your brands reputation and converting sales but as a new or growing business, building successful social media advertising campaigns can be a daunting task, if handled incorrectly you may be left with a less than satisfactory result.
For businesses starting with Social media marketing or looking to improve their results there can seem to be an endless amount of overwhelming information out there, luckily I've compiled the most effective tips for the 3 popular social media advertising platforms which you can implement into your campaigns to generate better results.
Plan your campaign
Before we dive in, it is important to mention that the planning and goal setting stage is perhaps the most critical step for any Social Media campaign. The first step is identifying your target customer and the best way to do this is to build an avatar (no not the blue alien!). Your avatar is a profile of your target customer which includes relevant information such as:
Age
Gender
Location
Ethnicity
Marital status
Occupation
Income
Level of education
Once you have built out your avatar, you'll need to identify the pain points and interests for this demographic then map out which social media channels are best for reaching them.
Facebook Advertising
With over 2.4 billion monthly Facebook is the biggest player in the game. Around 90% of businesses are reported to use Facebook ads when advertising online and for good reason, Facebook ads deliver results.
Avoid boosting boosts - this provides little value when compared to running an ad campaign
Try and limit your audience size to 1 – 5 million people per ad set
Focus on the LTV (Lifetime value for the customer) - breaking even is a desirable result if you have acquired a customer that will continue to make repeat purchases
Create your desktop, newsfeed and mobile ads separately – this way you can optimize each ad individually
Use convincing testimonials and compelling offers for ads – try to have at least 1 video per ad set and avoid using stock images
Instagram Advertising
Since Instagram is integrated with Facebook, businesses are able to utilise Facebook's huge arsenal of tools to create high performing Instagram ad campaigns.
Instagram offers story, photo, video, slideshow and carousel ads – determine which one is best suited to your businesses by reviewing your business goals.
Use targeting to get your ads placed amongst relevant influencer stories – this is a great alternative to hefty paid promotions by influencers
Optimize your ad campaign objectives – Instagram to date offer 8 different conversion objectives such as brand awareness, traffic and conversions, use the one that is most suited to your business goals.
Split test different call to actions – Instagram offers various call to action button and it can be hard to know which one will convert best, split testing your ads on a small sample can give you a good indication on which one to invest more money in.
Constantly measure and optimize your results – Just like Facebook ads, it's important to analyse data from your ads and make adjustments when necessary.
YouTube Advertising
Boasting 1.8 billion monthly active users, YouTube is the second most powerful platform for engaging with new customers.
YouTube offers Trueview, Pre-roll or bumper ad formats – it is important to make an spend a bit of time and doing research when deciding on which format to select, each offers unique advantages and disadvantages. Consideration should include factors such as the length of your ad, whether you are trying to raise awareness or sell a product and your budget.
Make sure your logo or branding appears in the first 5 seconds if using Trueview Instream – The Trueview format offers 2 subcategories (Instream and Discovery). Discovery ads appear in the search results for YouTube and Instream ads are shown before or during a video but is skippable after 5 seconds.
Create separate targeting campaigns - When targeting your audience it is best to create separate campaigns to target different user groups rather than targeting them all in one campaign
Include a compelling call to action at the end of the video – encourage viewers to click on your ad and then direct them to your landing page or website.
Optimize your results – when analyzing your 4 main analytic metrics you'll be able to see your conversions and ROI. You may need to fine-tune your targeting or change your ad if you are not seeing the results you anticipated.
The social media marketing landscape is constantly changing and so should you. By incorporating these tips hopefully, your ad campaigns will be better tuned to delivering the goals you anticipate. This is only the basics and there is a lot more that goes with it so be sure to keep optimizing your ads and strategies as new trends emerge and algorithms change.
If you're not sure how to plan or implement your Social media marketing into your business then that's something we can help with, Elyptus Digital offers full service Digital Marketing including an expert Social media marketing team, we have offices in Melbourne, Australia. Auckland, New Zealand. New York, USA and service clients worldwide. We can also help you fine-tune your Social media marketing strategy.
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