Social media continues to dominate today’s digital landscape with the number of users hitting 4.62 billion in January 2022. The average time people are using social media platforms is higher than ever, at around 95 minutes per day. That’s a lot of people spending a lot of time scrolling through social media!
Unfortunately, organic reach is becoming much harder to achieve and the days of going viral on Instagram without boosting your content are a thing of the past. Boosting organic content can help to reach a wider audience and achieve better overall results. This is known as paid social media, a method of displaying sponsored ads or marketing messages across social platforms to reach your target audience. With various algorithm changes and updates to the platforms, social media strategies need to be adjusted accordingly.
When you first enter the world of paid social media it can seem a bit daunting. Figuring out a social strategy and knowing how to implement it can be tricky, but it’s definitely not impossible! Below are our top tips to help you get the most out of your paid social media campaigns:
Establish your goals When starting any marketing campaign, establishing your objectives will affect the choices you make going forward. In the world of paid social media, your goals will influence how your campaign is set up, your ad set preferences and your ad options. Think about what you want to gain from your campaign – do you want contact information to reach out to prospects? Make sure your ad includes a form to fill out. Do you want people to click through to a page on your website? Make sure you are including a call to action to find out more on your website.
Know your target audience
Knowing your target audience is key in any marketing strategy, as it allows you to gain an insight into your audience and gives you a deeper understanding into the way people think to better reach them.
This includes understanding where their unmet needs lie, the nature of that specific environment and where best to reach those people. This will then allow you to better develop your marketing strategy to target that specific audience and use your budget more effectively.
Choose the right platform for your social ads
Whilst all the major social networks now offer advertising opportunities, that doesn’t mean you should be using all of them. Once you have established your target audience, this can help you decide which platforms to advertise on. Do some research into where those people are engaging the most and where you are most likely to reach them. For example, the slightly older generation will be more active on Facebook, whereas if you are targeting a younger audience, Tik Tok is the place to be.
Another factor to look at is where your organic content is performing well. This means that you are reaching your target audience and they are responding positively. This is probably a good place to start implementing your paid social media strategy!
Make the most of retargeting options
You know when you have been speaking to someone about something, or you search on Google for one item and then all of a sudden your social media feed is full of adverts for that exact thing? That is retargeting in action!
Before pushing any campaigns live, it is a good idea to make sure you have everything in place to allow for retargeting. This includes:
- Facebook tracking pixel
- LinkedIn Insights tag
- Google Analytics Tracking
Every social media platform has their own type of retargeting and tracking tool, so it is a good idea to spend a bit of time reading about your chosen platform.
Retargeting is a great tool that shouldn’t be neglected. Say someone clicks on your ad and lands on a webpage, if you have the Facebook tracking pixel in place it will match them to their Facebook account and retarget ads to them in the future. You also have the option to create a ‘Lookalike Audience’ that uses the people found through retargeting to find others with similar interests to target.
Set-up your audiences right at the start
I just spoke a bit about audiences, and this is something we recommend setting up right at the start of building your campaigns. You can personalise who your ads will be targeting, and that is why it is so important to establish your target audience. You can target people based on various parameters:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Interests
- Profession
It’s fairly easy to see why creating the right audience for your campaign is so important, and why it is something that shouldn’t be rushed.
Create your content
Now that you have everything logistically set up to reach the right people, perform how you want it to and achieve the goals you are after, you have to think about what people are actually going to be seeing. You can use elements of organic content by promoting a post that has performed particularly well or use visuals from organic social, etc…
With retargeting set up, you could run multiple ads to different targeting audiences, and you can also A/B test ads once they are live to figure out what performs best.
Analyse your ads performance and optimise
Social media platforms like to keep you on your toes and never seem to sleep! They are constantly changing their algorithms and this affects how content, both organic and sponsored, perform. Keeping an eye on your campaigns and how your ads are running will allow you to see what is and isn’t performing well. From here, use this analysis to optimise your campaigns. This might involve:
- Adjusting your targeting
- Changing budgets
- Changing the artwork or copy of your ad
Paid social media can feel like a bit of a minefield, but once you get your head around it it’s not as scary as it sounds! If you are thinking of implementing a paid social media strategy and would like some help or advice from an experienced team, get in touch by email at online@signifydigital.com or give us a call on 0207 288 6206.
