How to Run an Effective Social Media Advertising Campaign

Do You Really Need to Advertise on Social Media?

If you're still unsure about using social media platforms to advertise your brand, you're not alone. According to studies conducted over several years and industries, increasing brand awareness is an important element in increasing sales.

This is one of the largest motivating factors that encourage businesses to take the plunge into the wide world of social advertising. Social is the best place to go to to understand your audience better and to learn how and why they buy products. On social, you can also better connect with your customers to build trust and a loyal fanbase.

Traditional advertising can seem like shooting into the dark. Social media campaigns, however, give you the means to better control every element and to measure the outcomes. Social tools help advertisers to grasp what is most effective and so continuously improve their campaigns.

It sounds like the ideal way to advertise, and it is, but it can also feel overwhelming at first. There are so many social channels, and there are so many variables, buttons, and processes. Beginners in social media marketing often struggle to find their feet at first.

That's why we've put together this beginner's guide to social media marketing in 2021. We'll look at how things work on different channels and what you need to do to run a successful campaign.

Organic Reach Declines as PPC Rises

Many brands and companies relied on organic reach in the past. Most have now found that it is no longer a reliable way to reach customers. Social algorithms can sometimes show your organic content to as little as 2% of your organic audience nowadays! Many recent studies attest to the decline in organic reach.

What is Organic Reach?

Organic reach is a term used in social media advertising to describe reaching your audience with content that is not paid for or advertised with a budget. An example would be a Facebook post you put up on your page but do not boost. The post will only be shown to a percentage of the fans who already like your page, but not to a paid audience. That is organic reach.

This means you have no guarantee about who will see your post if you do not use pay-per-click to boost its reach. If you use social ads, you're practically guaranteed to get impressions and the reach you pay for. In short, to get eyeballs on your product or brand, paid social campaigns are a must.

What's the Difference Between Organic Reach and Social Ads?

Organic posts can look very similar to paid posts, but a paid post will usually say " sponsored" at the bottom of the image. Paid posts usually focus on your product, a service you offer, a competition, or another form of promotion. It's important that you include a call to action to motivate viewers to take the next step in the marketing funnel.

What Are the Benefits of Advertising on Social Platforms?

One of the most celebrated differences in social ads is that it lets you connect with a targeted audience. A billboard, for example, is seen by interested and uninterested parties, relevant and irrelevant viewers. But a social ad can be shown only to interested parties and a relevant audience. You can choose to show your cat food ad only to people interested in cats.

This kind of accuracy was unheard of before digital marketing. Now, your brand can benefit from it. Along with interests, you can target specific occasions, genders, and a list of other demographics. With social, you can make sure those who are most likely to respond to your advert see it.

How to Advertise on Social Media

It starts with the planning phase, where you identify your audience (target market), your goals, your messaging, and the methods you want to use to reach these goals.

Missing the smallest detail can have a massive impact on your ad campaigns. That's why it is crucial to understand each step in putting together your adverts on a platform such as Facebook. Everyone wants their ad to perform well and reach those who are interested.

To get that right, focus on:

1. Imagery that is captivating and does not contravene any of the social platform's guidelines or rules.

2. Copy that is the ideal length that follows the platform's guidelines and includes a strong call to action.

3. Audience targeting that is researched and fine-tuned, considering age range, gender if applicable, focus area (e.g. city), audience behaviours, and audience interests. Targeting will differ depending on the platform you want to use. Facebook allows you to target " lookalike" audiences based on your list of email subscribers, for example. You can also run campaigns that only target people who have visited your website before.

4. Bidding strategy. Figure out your bidding strategy to optimise the results you want at the least spend possible. If you want to spend a specific amount per day, your results may look different from giving Facebook an overall budget and allowing them to allocate the spend as your audience comes online. You can also put a limit on how much you are willing to bid for a click or the goal you are advertising for.

You can set a lifetime budget or a daily budget and you can also set a date limit or limit the time-period in which the advert will be shown. In the end, what's important is that you get the most return on investment (ROI) for the money you spend on your adverts. If your goals cost too much, you could end up losing money.

5. Goals. Your whole campaign will be geared towards getting certain results. Do you want clicks to your website? Brand awareness? Leads? People to sign up to your email newsletter? You can get page likes as a goal, and even social engagements such as video views or comments and reactions on your post.

The obvious answer is that most of us want to make money from our ads. People need to buy what you are selling, whether a service or product. Often, that starts with brand awareness, continues with a visit to your website, and ends in a conversion. Sometimes, in order to convert a sale, remarketing is necessary.

What is Remarketing?

Remarketing is a strategy for online advertising where the marketer targets adverts to people who have already visited their website. In a social context, it may be someone who clicked on your advert previously but did not complete their purchase. Remarketing is popular for abandoned carts and is known as one of the highest-converting methods. In technical terms, remarketing is often executed using a pixel or java tag that puts a cookie on a user's browser.

Either way, you can set up your entire campaign to focus on reaching specific goals. Optimising your ads for the results you want is vital. If you need conversions on your webpage, creating an ad that targets video views may not be as effective.

Types of Goals for Social Media Advertising Campaigns

Brand Awareness

In order for people to buy, they need to know your brand exists, what it stands for, and how your offer can meet their needs. Brand awareness campaigns can be set up to show your ad to as many relevant audience members as possible within the parameters you set. Often, brand awareness adverts take the form of short 5 - 15 second videos or attention-grabbing imagery.

Brand awareness campaigns on Facebook will show you statistics on how many people remember seeing your advert after a few days (estimated advert recall lift).

Reach

If you want eyes on your advert for the most people possible, target reach. It is different from brand awareness in that the ad will not be duplicated to your audience (shown to the same person more than once). The aim of this campaign will be widespread reach.

Reach campaigns are often undertaken by larger brands with the money to reach the masses, but small businesses can also reap the benefits of reach within their budget.

Clicks to Website

Click to web goals are most common for e-commerce stores and webpages looking for more traffic. Your advert will target audience members whose behaviour indicates they are most likely to click on your advert and visit your website. CTW adverts can often lead to sales or other forms of conversion, like signing up to a newsletter.

Lead Generation

Lead generation adverts allow you to add a form to the advert to gather specific kinds of leads, from job applications to demo downloads, email sign-ups, and more. Often, companies use the details customers fill in the customisable form for call-backs or other forms of contact to convert the lead.

Lead adverts can often cost more per result, because not as many people will fill in a form compared to just clicking the like button.

Direct Sales

Direct sales are heavily impacted by social media presence. If you're a retailer with a physical store, your social ads can send feet to your store and result in actual sales. There are many other ways to do direct selling on social media, such as Facebook's marketplace and conversion adverts.

What Format Should I Choose for My Social Ad?

There are so many options to choose from. Look for guidelines by the social platform you are advertising on to see what kinds of formats you can use. Here are some of the most well-known advert formats that can work for just about any business.

Images

Adverts with imagery do much better than adverts without, no matter which platform. This is even true for Twitter. You can use photos, vectors, or text on a colour background. The options are endless.

Video ads

Known as the most engaged with content, videos are a hot commodity for advertising. On social platforms, shorter videos are often better. Choose either a 5-15 second video, or a 30 second - 2 min video. When people are scrolling through Instagram, a moving video grabs the eye and can get the viewer to pause and pay attention. On YouTube, 5-second adverts are often most effective.

Carousel Adverts

Carousel ads are great for displaying a range of products or getting creative with how people engage with your ad. Carousel ads have a swipe-able row of images (up to ten). They're very interactive and give you the opportunity to show off your products from various angles.

Stories Ads

Stories are short-form video posted in snippets on a feed that people can watch, click through, or swipe through. One story automatically rolls into the next. Stories are a great daily social feed many people explore. You can put your brand in someone's story feed to get noticed. Stories adverts seamlessly integrate into the rolling stories experience for uninterrupted viewing that includes your advert.

Need help getting your brand or business noticed on Social Media? Our experienced and specialised team of experts is here to revolutionise your social campaigns. Talk to us today.

Source: sproutsocial;