Social Media Advertising Strategies
Who doesn’t like winning? When you’re in social advertising, you’re in it to win it. New social media and technology advancements make this an exciting time for social advertising. However, when it doesn’t deliver the results we so desire, it’s a frustrating disappointment.
This article offers strategies you can use to achieve winning results in your social advertising campaigns. There are a lot of great strategies, but this article covers some of the best ones to use across all of your campaigns.
Social Advertising Campaign
Clear Goals and Objectives
Any social media campaign is going to fall flat if there aren’t clear goals and objectives. What do you want your campaign to accomplish? More website visits? More conversions? Signups? Having a clear answer to this question is the number one strategy for all social advertising campaigns because it lays the foundation for a successful plan.
Luckily, social media platforms like Facebook make it easy to obtain your main business objective. Facebook offers various advertising objectives to help guide and inform your campaign, such as brand awareness, reach, traffic, video views, app installs, and many others.
Customer Reviews and Testimonials
Got glowing customer reviews? Use them! Display them with pride. Dedicate video ads to customer testimonials. Customers trust other customers more than they trust the business trying to make money.
The skincare company Curology uses testimonial videos very well across multiple social media platforms, including Facebook and YouTube. The professional-quality videos feature real patients who used Curology products. This gives viewers the opportunity to learn about real experiences with the products. The more testimonials there are, the more potential customers see the popularity of the product or service.
Brand Narratives
Social advertising is a great outlet for sharing your brand’s story. Customers enjoy reading or listening to the story of your product’s beginnings. The best part: all you need to do is be honest. Take that honesty and use it to tell your story in a creative, high-quality video or a well-written article with stunning photos throughout.
MyPillow is a good example of how a brand can tell a story creatively through video. The creator and founder of MyPillow shares the story of how he invented the perfect pillow. The video includes creative transitions, a conceptual timeline of the creation process and the product’s success, and a fun music track. It doesn’t even need to use words or captions to tell the narrative. It’s simple and clear.
Problem Solving
Why should customers buy your product or service? Demonstrate the ways offering will help potential customers solve a common problem. You can show how it solves the problem in a video of the item in use.
For example, Dollar Shave Club offers a solution to paying expensive prices for a good shave and a solution to after-shave irritation, with its subscription razors and pre- and post-shave products. In one particular short video, the company communicates this message in just 16 seconds, with the simple statement by the founder: “My razors will get you a high-quality shave at a very economical price.” It’s as simple as that.
Humor
Younger users in particular enjoy ads that incorporate a little bit of humor. You want to keep it professional, of course, but adding a little wit will make your brand more likeable. A short video with captions or a photo collection with witty messages relevant to your products or services will be well-received by younger demographics.
Dollar Shave Club is also a good example of this strategy. In a humorous GIF of a man with a long beard out of which an arm pops out holding a Dollar Shave product, the company says in the description: “We’re bringing a brand-new product to your beard. Introducing Dr. Carver’s Softening Beard Oil.” It’s so simple and silly, but it makes you chuckle. Video Reference
Messenger Conversations
As social media advertising continues to advance technologically, customers are no longer calling businesses about inquiries. Because of this change, it would be almost neglectful to not use Facebook Messenger to communicate with customers. In your social campaigns, you should offer the option to start a Messenger conversation with your business.
It may be as simple as including a button on your ad that starts a conversation in Messenger or sending a message to an existing customer. In any case, making your business easily accessible from any mobile or desktop device through Messenger will make it easier for customers to engage with your business.
Platform and Ad Format Testing
Facebook, Snapchat, or Twitter, oh my! With so many social media platforms to advertise on, you want to overcome your stubborn loyalty to just one. Test campaigns across different platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and beyond) to see which delivers the best results for your objectives. Many brands choose to use more than one platform, which is ideal, but if a platform doesn't seem to work for your business, don’t focus unnecessary money or energy on something that won’t work.
You should also test which ad formats your customers respond best to. Are they more receptive to video ads? Collections? Articles? Test, test, test!
Location Marketing
If your business operates out of a brick-and-mortar store, you can target an audience based on the proximity of your business’s physical location. Rather than waiting for customers to come to you, you show them you’re willing to bring the information about your business to them. And it feels personalized because you’re recognizing how they might find your business valuable based on where they live.
With Snapchat’s Radius Targeting, for example, you can specify an area or radius surrounding your business’s address to deliver targeted ads. This allows you to customize and direct Snapchat ads to potential customers that live near your business, subsequently driving foot traffic to your business’s location.
Influencers
Influencers who have a massive social media following often work well in social media marketing campaigns. Brands often work with influencers to get the word out about their products because followers tend to trust influencers over brands.
Huda Kattan, for example, is a popular beauty blogger and makeup artist influencer on Instagram. She has over 22 million followers and posts about beauty products, tips, and more. A beauty cosmetic brand could reach out and ask her to try one of its products then post a review about it. This marketing exposure allows the brand to reach 22 million fans.
Research influencers relevant to your brand and reach out to them. It could turn into a great long-term partnership.
Transparency
After the controversy about the data firm Cambridge Analytica harvesting personal information from over 80 million Facebook users, being transparent on social media is crucial to any campaign’s success. Giving users clear links to your policies, making sure they understand all the terms of signing up for a subscription, informing them how you intend to use the contact information they provide—these are just a few ways to be transparent in your campaign.
The more transparent you are, the more users will consider you trustworthy. Users buy from brands they can trust.
Conclusion
Now you’re fully equipped to create a winning social advertising campaign. Keep in mind that, just like you should test platforms and ad formats, you should test which strategies work best and deliver results that align with your objectives. For example, you might find that humor doesn’t work for you but working with an influencer does. Or you might find that both of these strategies work. Only after you’ve zeroed in on your optimal set of social advertising strategies will you come out a true winner.