The Ultimate Guide To Social Media Advertising In 2022
However easy people may show it to be, getting your content noticed is an arduous task. With constant changes to Google’s search results, the content gets hidden further, especially when it concerns competitive commercial searches.
In reality, the organic reach in social media is almost nonexistent. Half of this content does not receive any shares, and only 0.1% is shared more than 1000 times. Facebook has also announced that they will not push your content in front of the people who have no relation with you. Moreover, the internet marketing conversion rate remains less than 1%.
How Content Marketing Doesn’t Work
Now, we will talk about how content marketing works as such. Content marketing is usually a three-step process.
- Creating your content
- Sharing the content on various social media platforms
- People will purchase your products
- Yet this never happens
Most of the content becomes useless. The purchase journey of the consumer takes time to be completed. So do you think there is a better way to increase your sales using the content?
Advantages Of Using Social Media Ads
But the good news is that social media ads cab turn your leads into customers quickly. Plus, you do not need a huge ad budget to get that done. So now a sensible content marketing process would be:
- Produce content and then share it on social media
- Now, choose the best content and promote it on social media
- Tag your visitors with a cookie and get some remarketing audience
- Apply appropriate demographic and behavioral filters on the audience
- Now, remarket to this audience using social ads, display ads, and remarketing lists to promote various offers
- Note down the qualified leads or sales
- Repeat this process again.
What Is Social Media Advertising?
Social media advertising is like expanding your advertising and marketing strategy. You get to create and publish ads on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. They will promote your product and expand the reach of the ad campaign.
It is an integral part of marketing that gives marketers the chance to unleash their full creativity. It is also suitable for marketers who want to increase the awareness of their brand. They can now portray an image of the brand which they want their customers to perceive.
Social media advertising platforms give marketers the chance to find out what will work for them. They can also find new and better audiences and understand how they can engage with the content.
You could be uploading image-based content or display ads daily that match the social media. You can also work with influencers and use the advertising tools given by the social media platforms.
On some occasions, you would want to choose a community-focused approach. This means that you will have to directly communicate with the customer or have deep conversations with other businesses.
How Effective Is Social Media Advertising?
Social media ads are definitely effective because they give a quick ROI, and you also get immediate access to the insights. So if you post sponsored content in the morning, you could know if it worked by afternoon. This means that you could adapt the tactics as you need. By using external tools and insight features, you may get all the data to determine which parts of your social media strategy yielded the required results.
With social media, you get direct access to future customers and business insights in an instant. You can then integrate them across the other facets of the organization. Also, it gives you a chance to reach out to more people than your other content could ever get.
Since organic reach is hard to get, social media advertising can be a better choice. You get features that you can turn on and off, which will help you know what will work for the brand and its demographics.
Main Advantages Of Social Media Advertising
There are many reasons why any company should adopt social media advertising. Here we will tell you the four most critical reasons are supporting it.
Increase Brand Awareness
In 2021, there are 4.48 billion people actively using social media in the world. With so many people using this platform, you can understand why sharing the content about your products and company can help you increase brand awareness.
Social media boosts brand awareness by increasing engagement. Its engagement comes through likes, shares, re-posts, and comments. Apart from that, social media diverts traffic to your website. This increases brand awareness too. This you can do by adding the direct links of your website to the profile, posts, and bio.
It Increases Lead Generation And Boosts Conversion
Promotion and sharing of products on social media are the best ways to increase lead generation, improve conversions and increase sales. Here we will tell you ways in which you can use social media and get more leads.
Here are some examples of ways you can use social media to generate more leads.
- Creating contests in which the visitors and followers can participate.
- Add links to the website to the profile bio.
- Share or host live videos and make new product announcements. Also, you can provide details about anything exciting happening in the company.
- Implement a marketing campaign on any of the platforms.
You can also sell your products through social profiles. For example, on Facebook, you can enable their Shop section or on Instagram their Shopping feature. Such features help the followers to click on the products that you have mentioned in posts and see details like price, size, and material. Visitors can then check out through this platform and buy your product.
You Can Build A Long-Term Relationship With Customers
When you engage with social media followers, you can forge a long-term relationship with them. You can do this by interacting with them on the posts, answering their comments and questions, and giving them any help they require.
You may also ask them about your products, the pain points or add contests that help in establishing trust and show how much you care for their support.
You Can Keep An Eye On Your Competitors
By being on social media, you can keep an eye on the competitors. You can find their social media tactics and the products being promoted, along with knowing their interaction details with their followers.
Social media also lets you have a look at what worked and did not work for the competition. You can decide what you can change for yourself. Plus, by checking the competitor’s social accounts, you can ensure that your marketing efforts are unique and different.
Most Effective Types Of Social Media Ads
There are multiple ways in which social media platforms can be used. Starting from display ads to personalization to collaborating with influencers, here are details of different types of advertising and their benefits.
Facebook Ads
The world of FB ads is rather vast. You can increase your brand’s visibility and set their demographic, locality, and time of the day. This will ensure that the correct audience sees your ads.
Types of ads you can use on Facebook
Single image adverts – As per a study by Facebook, single image ads overcome other advertisement types.
Video ads – These are similar to single image adverts but have short snappy videos that grab the attention of customers leading to more click-throughs.
Canvas ads –These also show in a user’s news feed like a standard post with some space for copy, a link to the product you are promoting, and an attractive image.
Carousel ads –Do you want to promote a product range? Carousel ads give you the facility to add various images in an ad.
Collection ads – Now feature a product range in one advertisement that users can click through and get to know more.
Messenger ads –You may also opt for the adverts that show in the messenger app in between people’s conversations. This is a perfect tool for people who want to start a conversation with a customer. Send these ads to your targeted customers, and they keep coming up to remind them of the product and brand.
Automated app ads –Facebook also has automated app ads that improve efficiency and work for you. They target the users on the basis of their age, location, and interests. This means you can place the brands in front of those customers who will engage with them.
Snapchat Filters
Though Snapchat filters are not as popular as before, you can still use them to add an interactive aspect to your ad campaign.
Nowadays, brands use this format to create an AR experience. For example, Gucci launched their shoe try-on campaign. It allowed their users to see how the products would look on the customers. This led to increasing in sales and more engagement with the brand.
Influencers
Choosing the right influencer for your brand can help you in sustaining a broader marketing campaign.
In 2021, Micro-influencers are the in thing. Brands are moving away from influencers with a vast audience to those who are niche-based. By doing that, you are able to present your brand in front of a more minor yet highly engaged audience and will not burn a hole in your pocket.
Around 9 out of 10 marketers are using influencers which means that it is an overall marketing strategy. Most of the influencers operate on Instagram, and 79% of brands promote their brand with influencers working on Instagram.
Instagram Stories
The sponsored posts on Instagram are shown either on Feeds or on Stories. As per eMarketer, 31% of advertising budgets are allocated to Stories.
This Stories feature implies that the ad will come in between the user’s followers’ stories. You may add a click-through link and state your message in multiple installments-adding elements like video. Instagram says that 58% of customers show interest in a brand after seeing its Stories ad, and 50% of customers move on to visit the brand’s website.
You could choose Carousal stories also as their users can see up to 10 cards or Collection ads that help you show multiple products in a collage form.
How To Create An Effective Social Media Advertising Strategy
Now that you know which platform and ad type are perfect for you, here are tips you can use to devise your social media advertising strategy.
Understand Your Goals
We know the end result we want from social media advertising is to get high sales or leads for our product. But it will take time to decide what your goals are for the social media campaign. Are you planning to increase your followers? Increase the CTR? Or, send the traffic towards any of your website pages. Take time and decide what you wish to get from the social media strategy.
Know Your Audience
Next, it is crucial to understand your demographic. Only then can you modify your social media strategy as per their needs and requirement. Go through your social media channels. Who are all your followers? Is this demographic the one you had in mind, and if not, then why? Many marketers maintain a demographic, but the people who actually buy from them are different.
If the Facebook page says that the followers are women in the ’40s, then keep this factor in your strategy. There must be a reason why they are choosing you.
Make A List Of Important Dates
Each industry has its own important dates. This includes lifestyle events, trade shows, or any national days that you could use to promote the brand naturally.
A pizza restaurant will promote and offer on its social media pages on the National Pizza Day that is 9th February. This will get them engaged, and they can use any hashtags that trend around this day. This is particularly useful if you create a social media strategy that involves Twitter.
Seasonal events are crucial too. You should start thinking of your social media advertising for Christmas by July and for Valentine’s Day by December. Many Brands start working on these quite late, which leads to a rushed campaign, and hence the message is not so impactful.
Treat Different Social Media Platforms Differently
Being consistent is essential when advertising on social media; you also have to remember that every platform comes with its own rules. Facebook is the platform where you can chit-chat, share your customer stories, and post news about the business. On the other hand, Twitter can be used to answer customer queries and send updates. For inspirational content, you turn to Instagram and Pinterest, and LinkedIn is used when you want to meet similar business owners and consumers. Every platform needs some sort of planning so that you can fulfill the customer’s expectations.
Be Consistent
Some elements of your social media strategy should be consistent. These include:
How your display ads appear –You will have to modify them so that they match the dimensions of each platform and are as per the demographics which is looking at them. For example, Instagram requires more visual content. But you have to maintain consistency in the look and feel. You can use a CMP to do all this from one location.
When you post – You might have to test a little bit before getting to know this. But once you get to understand when the users will engage, you will also know when to put your advertising out. Keep this factor consistent so that your tracking does not get changed because of any other factors.
Who you target – You may need some thinking before you figure out what your demographic is and will it be influenced by the social media platform you are planning to advertise on? But it is necessary that you keep promoting the business to the consumers who will most likely buy your product.
Identify Types Of Content You Want To Share
The content type you wish to use in your ads also needs some sort of planning. For example, if you create video content, you need to see what it features, who has made it, and its overall cost. The cost may be varied, and it depends on if you are planning to use a videographer or a stock library.
Create A Content Calendar
The content calendar is a document that has all the plans you have made. You can maintain as many content calendars as you want. This includes on-page focused plans for paid advertising and the details of your social media campaigns.
Be Flexible With Ad Campaigns
Social media advertising gives marketers the chance to be flexible with ad campaigns. You can also take advantage of the latest viral celebrity or trending news.
But that does not mean you jump on to every new trend that you see. Just be mindful of them and modify the message to increase your brand awareness.
Think Of Using Video Content
If you have not used video before, you should think of using it for your next social media campaign. 54% of the consumers, when asked, said that they wished to see more video and that they spent around 6 hours and 48 minutes consuming such video content.
However, you do not need to run and buy expensive cameras or rent studio space. You could create a video with stock content or through smartphones. The smaller your business is, the less glossy you can make your content.
Use a Creative Management Platform (CMP)
Gone are the days of excel spreadsheets and the use of numerous documents. Instead, now you can bring everything under one CMP and use it to do all the tasks like reconfiguring adverts or designing posts to modify them as per the platform used.
Final Thoughts
Social media keeps changing its algorithms frequently, so it is always best to remain on top of the latest trends.
Many of us were not so sure about the potential of TikTok. But now, the app is a popular choice for most content creators. The brands are using it to reach out to the younger audience. This popularity of TikTok and Reels feature of Instagram videos will continue to remain popular.
Also, ephemeral content will show a hike in popularity. Brands will use the stories feature in Instagram, and the Fleets function on Twitter to create content that will leave the users aiming to know more.
