4 Simple Elements of a Successful Social Media Advertising Campaign

Social media marketing is a very odd thing. On one hand, social media is a medium which enables brands to dazzle and delight users, in an effort to build trust, loyalty, and evangelism. On the other, it’s the most sophisticated aggregation of data for marketing purposes in human history. The dichotomy between “warm and fuzzy” and “tactical business value” is a difficult thing for most brands to comprehend.

From our experience, the scale usually tips too far to one side or the other, and when that happens, social media marketing often disappoints in terms of business results. Since I'm a firm believer in using the 'fun' aspect of social media to support tactically driving business, social media advertising fascinates me.

With the right strategy, social media advertising can help support almost any business goal, for almost any industry, however a few key, fundamental elements have to be correctly put in place. And while they aren’t overly complicated, each is immensely important - here are four critical elements of a successful social media advertising campaign:

1. Targeting

Knowing who you want to reach with social media advertising is the first piece of the puzzle. Studies show that 76% of U.S. consumers have purchased a product they’ve seen in a brand’s social media content, and with the right targeting, you can make sure you hit the most valuable audience at the right time and with the right message.

There are a few key targeting parameters to be aware of when crafting a social media advertising campaign:

Age – Obviously you can target users by age range.

Gender – You guessed it! You can target by gender as well.

Interest Data – Interest data is aggregated based on what users interact with on each respective social channel - if a user frequently engages with content from wine brands, for example, they'll be bucketed in the “Wine” interest category.

Behavioral Data – Behavioral data is aggregated based on what users do, both on and off the social platforms. Through data partnerships, you can target users based on buying habits and other actions.

CRM Data – CRM data is essentially your email list. You can upload your email list to almost every social channel and target users via their email address. This is a no-brainer, as long as your list is healthy. People tend to give fake email addresses to brands. Be careful.Website

Activity – Through the magic of pixels, you can target people based on the actions they've taken on your website. This could includes pages they've visited, content they've consumed, you can even find audiences that look and behave exactly like your website visitors (lookalike audiences). This is great for prospecting.

Unlocking the power of social media advertising begins with using the right targeting parameters. Be sure to research your target audience as much as possible when building out your targeting.

2. Creative

Once you know who you're going after, the next step is to consider what kind of social media creative you can use to make them stop scrolling in their feeds long enough in order to absorb your ad messaging. This is critical, since the average human attention span is roughly eight seconds.

Your creative needs to be intriguing, engaging, and enticing if you want users to stop browsing other content and spend some time with yours.

Sounds easy right? Wrong Getting social media ad creative right is tricky - here are some best practices:

Demonstrate Context – Use the visual/s in your ad to show people in situations in which your product or service comes in handy. This can help users relate to the messaging, especially if the targeting is accurate.

Use Color – As you scroll through your feed, you’ll notice a lot of photos from your friends and family mixed in with images from brands. If you add bright color to your social ad creative, it can help your content stand out a bit more against the rest of the material in the feed - a pop of color can win attention.

Have Clear Calls to Action – Social media users are familiar with ads, and what to do when they see one that interests them, however having a clear call to action is always a great idea. The reminder will nudge users to act.

Add a Value Proposition – Why should anyone click on your ad? What are you offering them? What does the user get out of the interaction? Be sure to clearly state whatever value you're bringing to the table in a clear and concise way - remember, you have approximately eight seconds, so don’t waste time. Tell people about your offer, discount, free shipping - whatever it is that your brand is offering, and do so quickly.

When you layer the right social media ad creative onto the right audience targeting, magic happens. Be sure to test different images and videos to see exactly what performs the best. 

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/4-simple-elements-of-a-successful-social-media-advertising-campaign/544903/

Original source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com