The Road to Success Through Paid Social Amplification
One of the most significant factors in social media’s pivotal role in online marketing is the ease with which marketers can pay to promote ads alongside their social profiles, videos, and feeds. The goal of paid social amplification is a bit of a no-brainer: when you have five thousand Facebook likes, all from people who willingly said they:
1) have a positive connotation of your brand
2) what to get more of your content and learn more about your service
…it would be crazy not to advertise directly to this audience. Would a company that specializes in ground beef advertise to a vegan restaurant, or the burger joint down the street? Ignoring this prime advertising space is simply ineffectual marketing.
But the actual carry-through for these social ads isn’t always easy. After all, each social platform has all kinds of different means for advertising, and their various ads show up in all kinds of different places on the site, interact with news feeds and “liker” profiles in different ways, and have unique structures depending on their placement. This means paid social amplification is a definite necessity – but it’s something you may need to some schooling for.
Never fear – we’ve laid out some of the most common mistakes businesses make when creating and promoting their ads on social. Let this be a guide – or a fair warning – of what NOT to do when amping up your social.
You Have a Direct List of “Fans” – Target Them
If you had a line of people standing outside your home or business, all of whom had directly said “I like this product. I want to know more about it.” Would you advertise to them? Or would you go into town and advertise to a street of random people?
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when deciding who your ads should target is focusing on “non-fans.” Sure, you want to build an audience, and you want to spread the word of your brand outside the realm of your likes – but when Facebook fans reap 700% more click-throughs, and increase conversions to over 400%, it’s usually best to focus on this important group first. Users “like” a page because they want to be actively engaged with your product or service. Don’t disappoint them.
Spend Your Time Wisely
Users will look at an ad on Facebook for only a few seconds – sometimes less than one. This means your title, content, and images need to purvey the meat of what you’re saying fast: you’re hiring position at this location, you’re discounting this specific product, a sale begins on this date, etc. Always make sure these are not only clear, but that they truly target your audience. If an add is supposed to link in teenage girls who are about to start prom shopping, an ad for a department store should specifically say “Prom Dresses 25% off” – instead of a more generic title that may simply allude to “apparel” or “teens.”
Testing, Testing, 1…2…3?
In the physical world, we wish we had the type of opportunities we can use online. If a store could test different kinds of storefronts, window dressings, and the like on a mall full of potential customers, anyone with any sense would. Online, particularly on Facebook, you have the advantage of testing your ad images to see which pull the most people in.
A surprising number of marketers don’t use split-testing, as 20% of businesses reported that they had no strategy in place for testing even their most important landing page ads. Many simply assume they know whatever ad image will work – but when you have the resources to tell you exactly which, use them!
Know When the Race is Over
We all know it’s important to start an advertising campaign at the right time. What many don’t know, is that there’s also a good time to end it.
Letting ads run for too long can do many deleterious things to your brand image. It makes you look outdated to run the same advertisement for too long – and any holiday sale leftovers that aren’t immediately updated or replaced when sales are over will simply end in frustrated customers.
Divide and Conquer
Paid social amplification is an incredible tool on a marketer’s belt. It offers a world of information and details about your clients, how they interact with your products, and what you can do to connect with them. Out of all the mistakes listed above, the most important one to avoid is ignoring social media advertising entirely. There are 1.5 billion socially connected consumers you have the potential to connect to. Here’s an infographic on how to reach them.
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