As of 2019, 69% of Australia’s population actively used social media. That’s an 11% increase from 2015, and the number only continues to grow.
If you haven’t added social media into your advertising plan yet, your business is missing out on a huge marketing opportunity. But jumping into paid social ads without a strategy is a recipe for wasted money.
Before you spend anything on social network advertising, check out our step-by-step guide to creating a successful campaign.
1. Outline Your Campaign Goals
Before doing anything else, decide what your objectives are for your social media ad campaign. Are you hoping for direct sales? Or do you just want to increase brand engagement and visibility?
Your specific campaign goals will help you decide what types of content to produce and what social platforms to use. Avoid spending money on advertisements that won’t directly help you achieve your campaign goals.
2. Know Your Target Audience
Knowing your target audience is one of the first steps toward creating any marketing plan, not just on social media. If you don’t already have one, build out a detailed “ideal buyer persona” for each of your target clients.
If your business is new, you may not have the metrics needed to figure out specifics. If so, investigate what types of people purchase from your competition and start there. This information will tell you what audiences to direct your advertising content toward.
3. Decide on Your Bidding Budget
Paid advertising on social media is a balancing act when it comes to budgeting. It’s easy to assume that paying more will always get you a higher ROI, but that’s not always the case.
When deciding on your bids, consider the relationship between your cost per client acquisition (CPA), cost per click (CPC), and conversion rate. You don’t want to overpay, so find a middle ground that gives you the highest potential conversion rate for the lowest costs.
4. Investigate Your Social Media Platforms
Most of us are familiar with the major social media platforms—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, et cetera. But which one is right for your advertising strategy depends on both your business and your audience. Let’s take a quick look at the pros and cons of each platform.
Facebook is the best platform for marketing to a wide demographic. It’s flexible enough to tackle both B2B and B2C marketing and allows you to gather valuable consumer data to better target your audience. Facebook is a great “home base” to post content of varying types.
Moreso than other platforms, Instagram is based on visual branding and aesthetic. If your business is in a trendy niche that lets you create highly visual content, you can use Instagram to boost engagement, sales, and web traffic. However, you have to gain a large number of followers before you can use some of the ad features, and you can’t embed links in posts.
Twitter’s largest con is the 140 character format, so skip this one if you want to focus on long-form posts. That being said, it’s perfect for promoting a product launch, building a follower base, and growing brand awareness.
Snapchat
Snapchat advertising is based on short, attention-grabbing videos and location-specific geo-filters. If you’re promoting an event or attraction or hoping to increase engagement with your brand, Snapchat is a great choice. Avoid this platform if you’re targeting an older demographic.
The LinkedIn audience is a global network of business professionals. It allows the flexibility to post longer thought-based pieces with external links while still allowing your business to engage directly with your customers. This is the best platform if you’re trying to establish authority in a specific business niche.
5. Create Your Targeted Content
Content is queen when it comes to advertising, so make sure that your content matches your target audience and the platform you’re posting it on. Also, repurpose long-form content pieces for the most impact.
For example, you could write one long blog post with a video interview and post it on your website. Then, tweet a quote from the blog, post a video snippet on Instagram, and share the header image with a short description on Facebook.
Make sure that all social media content you create is optimised for mobile as well as traditional web browsers. With over 3.7 billion people using mobile devices to access the internet worldwide, you can’t afford to miss out on marketing to this segment of the population
Once you’ve created your targeted content and optimised it for each platform, use an automation tool to schedule out future posts. Experiment with what types of content produce the best reaction from your audience.
6. Develop Your Advertising Plan…Then Develop It Again
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to develop a social media advertising strategy and never revise it. Your plan should always be dynamic, responding to your audience’s reactions to it.
Most social media platforms will provide you with analytics so you can track engagement and sales from each ad. Use this information, along with any consumer data you gather, to continually improve your media advertising. If your content grows stale, potential customers will stop interacting with it.
Enacting Your Social Media Ad Strategy
Getting started in social media advertising is a major undertaking. If you need big results and don’t have time for trial and error, it may be best to hand this project off to the pros.
Here at ZipZipe Media, we use social media advertising to help small businesses of every sort to increase their online traffic—and fast. We’ll work with you to create a strategy, design content, and represent your brand in a way that attracts your ideal customers.
So what are you waiting for? Don’t take a chance on your social media advertising plan—contact ZipZipe today. Let’s work together to start getting the marketing results you want.
