To be effective with social media advertising is not as straightforward as most would think it to be. And any brand that has been using social media advertising for the last 12 to 24 months without a measurable return! They are beginning to understand the need for expertise in this area (social media advertising) to guide them.
This article will show us the different ways to make social media advertising work for you or your brand.
Advertising
Firstly, your content, advertisement, must achieve its purpose. That purpose is to make the consumer notice your brand and be emotionally engaging, creating a bias for action. A lot of brands think that creating a campaign with the same image or video everywhere is the best way but unfortunately this is not how social media advertising works. You are of course competing for attention. And not just with your competitors, but everyone else who is targeting your demographic. And with social that now includes their friends and family.
So the campaign you may have spent a lot of money creating may fall short in less than a week based on real audience engagement. Social media advertising provides real-time feedback on how good your campaign is and has in mind, you have less than 800 milliseconds to engage your consumer properly.
Your Audience
Unfortunately, your audience is not everyone. You have a core demographic and target market that is interested in your product, and or service. And targeting your ideal audience is paramount to effective social media advertising. Even if you manage to create the most effective advertising, targeting the wrong audience will see you fail. And unfortunately, you may then assume the ad was wrong! When in fact it was poorly targeted. Social media platforms let you create advertising that is particularly targeted to the right audience.
For social media audience-based targeting the right data will amplify your position. Worth noting even if your ad is average, precise targeting will compensate. Then you can iterate on your advertising copy and content from there.
Related: 7 Mind-blowing Social Media Tips For Startup Brands
Social proof
No matter how good your advertising is. Social proof is now a factor in effective social media advertising. Does your advertising match the experience the consumer has with your brand? If not the right targeting will do more to hurt your brand than help it. However, if your social proof is strong, the right social media advertising will help amplify your brand exponentially. Good product/service + strong positioning/advertising + the right audience = strong performance.
You have targeted the right audience, and they are looking for a product/service like the one you are selling. They see your ad, with the positive comments by existing customers. They then head over to your Facebook page and see an extensive list of positive reviews, good informative content, and a strong fan base. Their decision becomes an easy one. And your social media advertising works!
To use an analogy to simplify the above example. Let’s say you are traveling the countryside, and arrive in a small town that has two cafes you can choose from. One is full of locals, and the other has no one in it. Your decision becomes easy.
You rely on the crowd to help you make your decision. We all do it, as in a world where we are faced with so many decisions daily, we rely on factors we can trust to help make those decisions. As the world continues to adopt social media at an unprecedented rate the need for brands to become active on this mainstream medium is intrinsically linked to their success.
Social media advertising will work for you if you get to follow these simple steps and see your brand go to the next level.
