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Could social advertising help your business’s reach skyrocket?
With $35.98 billion expected to be spent on social media advertising by 2017, and 72% of advertising agencies claiming online advertising is possibly more effective than traditional advertising, the future of advertising reach looks to be a retweet, a share, and a like away.
Social media strategy is incredible important for general marketing success. Although, that isn’t to say that traditional advertising is over with. Established brand image reinforcement does well with billboards, and TV commercials can be incredibly effective for brand recognition. But, for an SME, a more strategic approach utilising social media advertising would go further.
The benefits of social network advertising are many. Social media ads can be targeted to people who might be searching for your product or service as opposed to a mass advertising campaign e.g. by opening up the demographics past just location and age. Social media ads can be significantly more cost effective, as cost per conversions can be defined and ROI can be calculated. Complex algorithms can target ads alongside others based on the online footprint of a potential consumer, giving a personalised and more thought-out approach.
The three giants when it comes to social media advertising – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn – require different approaches, and reap different rewards when it comes to social media advertising.
Facebook eats a lot of our collective time. So placing ads where people are already looking (890 million people per day) has already surpassed most traditional media in terms of potential reach. But the best feature of advertising on Facebook is the ability to pinpoint a target based on interests. Niche marketing is a proven method of building a solid foundation in business (it worked for Zuckerberg). So, choosing two to three varied interests that your product qualifies for enables you to select a very niche audience who should already have an interest in you.
With Facebook advertising, you only pay for the impressions you receive – whether that be through cost-per-click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM). By choosing the specific goal of the ad, y
ou can tailor your ad to bring in the right amount of views for your purpose – reach, followers, engagement, or traffic.
For Valentine’s Day 2016, Tesco and Facebook experienced a lucrative dalliance when Tesco introduced a 2-for-1 Valentine’s meal deal ad campaign in which customers could use Facebook ads to create personalised meals. The immersive experience called upon videos, imagery and interaction to not only showcase the products on offer, but increase customer engagement. The metrics for success were all reached with an 11-point increase in recall, and a 17-point increase in product awareness.
Twitter
Twitter ads are comprised of promoted tweets, promoted accounts, and promoted trends. By selecting your goal (engagement, website clicks, conversions, video views, follower growth), you can select which mode of Twitter ad would best suit you. If you wanted to increase website clicks, you would probably choose a promoted account linking directly to your Twitter handle and website. Twitter ads are effective in the way they can target specific networks of people. For example, you could target the network of followers that follow competitors and other similar brands.
Northumbria University ran a successful Twitter campaign that helped them halve their cost-per-engagement (CPE) when advertising to the same audience. By using the call to action to get potential students who have received hoodies to upload selfies in them, Northumbria created an immersive campaign. This was alongside specific network interests for specific courses left through clearing e.g. those 18-year olds interested in both marketing and fashion.
LinkedIn ads are also effective in a different way to the other social media. LinkedIn allows you to select to use premium display ads, sponsored content direct InMail ads, or direct updates appearing in the timeline. Due to the business nature of the platform, LinkedIn is effective at targeting specific companies or employees. Ads can be tailored based on industry, position, and seniority. LinkedIn ads can help remove the cloud of corporate banality from B2B marketing to create memorable and innovative ads.
Fruit of the Loom utilised LinkedIn to target those who had recently started a new job to offer them a complimentary pair of underwear, because “great-fitting underwear can help you start your workday in a great mood.”
Whatever your business goals, social advertising can be lucrative, and as you pay for what you get, incredibly cost-effective – as long as you select your criteria, plan and manage your campaigns effectively. Social advertising can go hand in hand with good SEO and digital marketing campaigns. Feel free to contact us to see how we can help you incorporate social advertising into your marketing strategy.
Is your business utilising social advertising already? What social advertising campaigns have you seen that stand out? Are you business-ready for the Christmas rush?
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