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Simply put, paid social comprises of any post on a social media network that has dollars supporting it. The truth is, organic social posts don’t usually gain many views or reach most of the audience following a page. To get content in front of brand-new or returning customers, brands need to pay up!
Today, that means moving beyond boosting posts and tapping into the various buying options that exist within platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit.
The great news is that advertising on social media is a very effective way to reach just about any audience. While all social networks offer some type of advertising, the first step in determining where to buy is to identify which networks are the most popular with your target customer.
You can also look at which platforms perform well for you organically, which ones your competitors are leaning into, and which ones have the best targeting options to allow your message to get in front of the right person.
For example, Pinterest is a great place to reach women. Their targeting options include (but are not limited to) creating audiences based on what users are interested in, the search terms they use to discover new ideas, and the actions they take to engage with pins and websites.
Facebook and Instagram have very similar targeting options, but may allow you to appeal to a wider customer base. If you’re looking to reach millennials or younger consumers, Snapchat or TikTok might be the right choice. And if a more business-focused client is the key to growing sales of your product or service, you can try LinkedIn’s very detailed targeting options to find folks based on their skill set, job title, industry, group memberships or employer company.
You’ll also want to consider the different methods of buying that are available on these platforms. They all offer the option to secure ads in a real-time biddable auction that you can access self-serve. Ads in the auction can be optimized toward the lowest possible cost per result.
This is different than buying solely based on impression cost, because the auction serves the ads to the person who is likely to take action after viewing the ad. This is particularly advantageous when the goal of your campaign is to gain long-term brand awareness, ad engagements, website traffic, online conversions, leads, app installs, or online or offline sales.
Outside of the advertising auction environment, many social networks also offer specific reserved inventory (or types of ads) that can be bought at a flat rate. Examples include Reddit subcategory takeovers, premium Facebook video ads that show in front of curated content, and Twitter trending topic takeovers. To secure one of these types of ads, you’ll need to work directly with a representative from the social network, or with a company that has partnerships to leverage on your behalf.
The final consideration when buying a social media ad is selecting the ad format you want to use. Photos, videos and carousel ads that feature multiple images or videos in one ad unit are now commonplace across all of social. Depending on your campaign goal, you might want to consider A/B testing different types of creative to see what performs best, or experimenting with more interactive ad formats like augmented reality lenses.
The good news is that, regardless of the creative format you choose, all of these ads can be bought in the same ad auction and optimized within one campaign to meet your primary business objective efficiently and effectively.
Learn more about how Basis creates effective paid social strategies for our clients here.
Many marketing experts predict the retail industry will be forever transformed by the Coronavirus pandemic. While some retailers have struggled to survive and store closures are on record pace, others have embraced new business models designed to cater to consumer demand for convenient shopping, shipping, and return methods.
eCommerce sales, for example, are expected to jump more than 35% this year, according to eMarketer. This shift in fulfillment has forced many retailers to get creative in order to keep revenue coming in because of the differences in building awareness for new products online, pressure on supply lines to meet demand, and increased costs associated with processing online orders.
In order to source sales in new ways and meet consumers where they are spending their time, retail marketers are turning to an array of digital advertising programs. By following these digital strategy tips, retailers can build brand awareness, create long-term customer value, and drive immediate sales.
Share of voice is crucial in retail marketing. It’s important to ensure you’re reaching your target customers with enough touchpoints to influence purchase consideration and sales. For maximum impact, consider a well-rounded digital media mix that takes advantage of programmatic mobile and display, high-impact units, paid search and paid social.
This level of omnichannel marketing will ensure an optimum amount of frequency to encourage purchases. Build out well-rounded, full-funnel programs that are optimized to guide the purchase journey with cross-device and cross-channel targeting.
The most powerful tool any retail marketer has available to them is their own first-party data. Knowing what your core, high-value customer looks like, and using that data to nurture sales can create incredible impact. For example, you could target a specific set of previous buyers who have not visited your store or website recently and show them a special offer based on their past purchase habits.
You can also use that data to build a new prospecting audience modeled off of those who have purchased specific items in the past. When combined with additional data points (such as Facebook data showing what products people are likely to be interested in, or third-party data that captures people who have recently visited a competitive store or website), you can effectively reach new audiences with your message.
One challenge retail marketers sometimes face is tying ad engagements and performance to product sales—especially when products are sold offline. Often, the data needed to connect those dots is siloed or disparate. Ecommerce marketplaces like Walmart, Amazon, and Instacart help facilitate closed-loop sales measurement because the same company is running the ad and selling the product advertised.
Retailers who operate their own brick and mortar shops must also look for ways to integrate web and mobile campaign analytics with online and offline sales data. If a significant amount of your digital media is run across Facebook, for example, you can look to integrate in-store POS data into their Attribution tool to credit sales based on media exposure touchpoints.
Today’s retail consumer expects relevant, personalized product recommendations. In order to provide that, focus on opportunities that are designed to know what product a person is interested in, and immediately direct them into a frictionless, mobile shopping experience that makes it convenient to buy.
Shoppable ads, for example, bring together a catalog of product information and user data in order to dynamically show an individual items they are likely to be in the market for, based on which products they have been browsing online.
These types of ad programs are commonly found on social platforms like Facebook or Snapchat but can also be implemented programmatically on display and mobile devices, or on the Google Search Network.
Alternatively, if your brand or product needs additional awareness, consider interactive, high-impact, or video ad units that will leave lasting impressions for potential customers—but be sure to align the format and messaging with the audience you are targeting.
Ultimately, it’s important to remember that retail consumers have a lot of product and shopping options available to them today. Whether your products are sold in-store on online, keep the customer experience in mind in order to build better media plans and shopping experiences.
Connect with us to learn more about retail marketing with Centro.
Determining how to set appropriate budgets for social media advertising is not as simple as it sounds. Every social campaign strategy varies based on individual business goals, desired target audience and creative messaging plan.
All of these factors play a role in setting budgets, as do related elements like seasonality, competitive share of voice, other marketing promotional schedules, whether or not this is your first time investing in social ads, and inside business data such as sales figures or profitability. In short, depending on the circumstances, social ad budgets can vary from hundreds of dollars a day to hundreds of thousands (and then some.)
When your company begins budgeting for social media advertising, it's important to set the business goal and KPIs you are trying to accomplish first. For example, if you want to sell 100 widgets a month, the average price of a widget is $100, and you need to maintain a positive ROAS (return on ad spend): a starting goal of $10,000 a month might make sense.
However, let’s say your overall digital marketing budget for the month is only $10,000 in total and that also needs to cover creative production or campaign management assistance (in other words, it can’t all be considered ad spend). In that case, you'll need to adjust your paid media budget down to accommodate those fees.
While doing so is certainly possible, it will mean the performance of the media strategy is even more important than before, in order to meet your goal of selling widgets for under their $100 price point. A good strategy starts by identifying the right platform for the job.
While many social networks offer advertising opportunities, it’s often best to invest your time, resources, and budget into a select few. Select the platform that is most likely to be frequented by your target audience and the one that you have the capacity to design ads for. (For example: if video is not your strong suit, you might want to avoid TikTok for now.)
Speaking of target audience, it’s important to consider them before setting your paid social budget. Finding a very small, niche group of potential customers might cost more than if you’re targeting a very broad base of national users.
Those people could be in high demand from other advertisers (or competitors), who will drive up the price required to win an impression from them in the ad auction—however, in some cases, it may be worth it. If the only people likely to buy your widgets are within that target audience, it’s probably worth paying more to get in front of them.
At the same time, you’ll want to avoid spending money on cheaper impressions if they are wasted (meaning those individuals are not converting as you’d hoped). Take elements like reach and frequency into account, to project out how much budget will be needed in order to create impact within your target audience or market. Many of the social networks offer reach estimates for certain audiences in their planning and buying tools.
Finally, one of the most important factors in a successful social media campaign is the creative. Designing mobile-first ad formats that encourage engagement and action on the first go-around can be tough! By A/B testing different versions of ads within your campaign, you can gain insight into what motivates your audience to act.
While it’s important to brainstorm and test several options for each ad, if your overall paid social budget is limited, you’ll want to be thoughtful about keeping the volume of creative you run at any one time to a controlled amount.
This is important to avoid overwhelming the real-time algorithms that these platforms use to determine which ads are likely to generate the best response. While A/B tests are great, too many ads with too little budget behind them will produce little learnings for your creative team and could potentially damage the performance of your campaign.
Ultimately, the best formula you can use to set a paid social advertising budget is the one that takes into account general market conditions, business goals, target audiences, creative strategy, and additional fees you may need to cover as part of your advertising investment.
Interested in using native advertising as part of your social advertising strategy? Learn all about Native Advertising with Centro.
Marketers know they need to be active on social media, but what exactly does that mean? Sure, it's important to engage with your audiences and comment when discussions arise, but there are customer conversion opportunities you may be missing if you're not utilizing the power of social media ads. You can't just slap an ad on the Internet and call it ‘good.’ There are best (and worst) practices that can bolster sales or ruin reputation.
The best Facebook ad examples incorporate relevant messaging, visual stimulation, and enticing value propositions.
Here are effective social media ad writing practices:
Use Your Brand Voice
You've likely designed a particular persona for your brand. Be authentic when talking to potential customers. If your brand is edgy and quirky, the voice used in your ads needs to speak in the same tone. If your brand voice is authoritative and fact-based, that needs to come across in the advertisements you display to the public. Utilizing a narrative that's true to your brand will attract the customers you want.
Simplify Ad Copy
Keep it short. Really short. Social feeds are cluttered with ads and distractions. Provide simple ad copy that hold audiences’ attention in as few words as possible. Use photos or videos to captivate people so they're engaged with the message you're trying to send them.
Remove Anything That Doesn't Have Immediate Value
Get rid of fluff, extra words, and anything that doesn't instantly communicate value and the benefits your brand offers people.
Make Benefits Immediately Apparent
Why should anyone buy your product or visit your site anyway? Your audience needs to understand the benefits you're bringing to the table from the beginning.
Start With a Question
What works for social ads? Questions are a great way to pique the interest of people who may otherwise just scroll by your ad. Start with a question relevant to what your target market needs or wants. Then, immediately answer the question with a solution you're able to provide.
Use ‘Revealing’ Words
It's all about creating buzz and making people feel like they're getting insider information nobody else has. Use evocative words that step outside the box and get readers' attention.
Speak Directly to the Reader
You're talking directly to your audience, so they should feel connected to the words you're saying. Use "you" to address your audience as much as possible. Your ad is really a conversation between two people.
Use Brackets
People are more likely to click on a title when it includes brackets. For example, your title might be, “The Power of Increasing Social Media Ad Sales [Webinar].” In this instance, your audience already knows the benefits you're going to provide, and the bracketed information gives them greater insight, thus enhancing overall interest.
Use Strategic (Not Spammy) Capitalization
There's a fine line between proper grammar and going overboard when it comes to online ad space. Make sure you're using proper capitalization, and add strategic caps when warranted, but be sure to avoid ultra-spammy capitalization. That can immediately be a turn off to readers.
Utilize Ellipses
Ellipses (the three dots that typically add suspense to a statement) can really draw readers' attention to your ad. What are you going to write next? This arouses intrigue without using important ad space.
Experiment with Ad Lengths
Everything digital is an experiment. It's a continually evolving process, which means you will constantly adjust your approach to help ensure you hit the right position. The definition of "appropriate lengths" varies from platform to platform. On Twitter, you have up to 280 characters, but the recommended length is closer to 120. Some of the most successful ads on Instagram only feature two or three words. On Facebook, the recommended text space is 125 characters.
Test Calls to Action
Steer clear of using the same call to action on every post. Get creative with your approach. "Learn more" tends to be consistently effective on Facebook. Look for ways to touch your audience and incite them to take action. Instead of "Contact us" try "Reach out to us." Replace "Call us" with "Send us a line." Mix it up.
Test Display URLs
URLs should be short, clear, and concise. Test different display URLs until you achieved optimal visibility. Effective URLs are not only great for customers who have already found you; they'll enhance your online visibility by making your site more SEO-friendly. This is a win-win that'll also get you "in" with the search engines.
Keep these tips in mind as you launch your next social ad campaign.
We received a lot of questions during our April 3T paid social webinar. Because we like to keep these bite-sized presentations under 45 minutes, we were unable to answer them all, so we've enlisted our fearless speaker, Amy Rumpler, to answer them on our blog.
How do you improve on your relevance score for Facebook ads?
Since the relevance score is based on the amount of positive or negative feedback your ads receive, you want to minimize the amount of times someone hides your ad. A few easy ways to address this issue:
What's your opinion on the new 'Snap-to-Store' Snapchat feature that will be able to tie ad vies to in-store visits/purchase? Will that be compelling enough for advertisers to jump on board with a clearer path or track ROI in place?
I certainly hope so, but it's unproven at this point. What we do know is that Snapchat has good offerings already tied to local events and activation (like their filters and lenses), and they can use ambient Wi-Fi, beacons, and other data (check-ins and posts) to know within a reasonable doubt when someone is in-location. Unfortunately for Snapchat, so does Facebook. And Facebook still wins in terms of scale, reach, data implantation, ad products available, etc. Not to mention that Instagram (owned by Facebook) is offering Instagram Stories as a direct competitor to these Snap Ads. I think for the right advertiser looking specifically for that younger audience, it may make sense. But for the vast majority of advertisers, they'll continue to lean toward Facebook/Instagram for ROI.
Are you able to order campaigns with a certain number of impressions on Facebook? How about the other platforms?
Ads are purchased in a real-time bidding environment, like a lot of programmatic exchanges. So, you bid for ad space/inventory based on how much you're willing to pay for impressions. You can usually back into a projection of about how many people you expect to reach, and based on average frequency for how often the ads are served, determine a benchmark for expected impressions. It's not a guarantee, however, that you'll receive those impressions. A lot of other factors are at play, such as:
With Instagram, how are people getting so many followers with only a few posts?
It depends! Ads could be the cause. You can still pay for additional page likes. There are other not-so-reputable sources and programs people use to buy fake page likes, too. I've even heard of people following pages of influencers and other bigger brands in their space – actively commenting and participating in engaging with their content – as a means to piggy-back on their community and attract followers. I do think in these cases, it's hard to keep those followers. I encourage you to think beyond followers/likes and look toward “harder" metrics as evidence of how pages are performing (and ads) to drive business – things like engagement rate, clicks on links, conversions, or ad recall, to name a few.
With Facebook ads, I usually just have them pick the bid automatically. Is that a best practice?
Sure! It's where most of us start. The advantage in doing so is that you let Facebook optimize the rate you're paying in the auction based on the type of ad you're buying, targeting you set, etc. Theoretically, Facebook will give you the best value they think they can.
But: As your campaigns progress and you start to get a better idea of what you think you should be paying for a CPM or a click or a lead generated, I'd encourage you to test manual bidding, too. With a little experimenting, it's definitely possible to drive just as efficient of results at a lower cost.
When talking about optimizing a post and submitting a bid, is that different than just boosting a post? If so, how?
Yes. Boosted posts are the most basic forms of advertising you can run on Facebook. They take content from your Facebook page (something you posted organically) and amplify it to a specific audience (reaching more of your current page fans, or an additional audience). The goal with those posts is usually just to get more people engaging with your content.
Facebook's ad products are more advanced, and allow you to tailor the ad content to a very specific audience – and they're designed to meet your specific campaign goal. They do not appear in your page's news feed at all. The auction we referred to and bidding types that are available (CPM, CPC, optimized bids) are used in the ad auction. Boosted posts are priced on reach – and how much you're willing to pay to have more people see your content.
Can you talk about your approach to promoted posts vs. paid ads and when to use them?
I think promoted posts are a good place to start if you've never spent money on social before. Boosting or promoting posts is very simple. You use content you've already organically posted to your page, and put paid spend behind it to increase the reach of that content – either to people already following your page or to another targeted audience. Promoted posts are useful when promoting short-lived events, for high-funnel awareness, or to grow engagement with your content.
Ads, on the other hand, are more complicated and more feature-full. To name a few benefits: We have many more targeting options available through the ad placement process, and you can custom design the creative to help drive toward your goal (for example containing clear call-to-action buttons to drive to a website; featuring multiple products/offers/images in a carousel format; or generating specific outcomes like downloads of a whitepaper, purchases, ticket sales, lead generation, form completions, etc.).
Ads also give you more options in terms of bidding optimization (paying for the specific outcome you want). Paid ads are where you probably want to go for campaigns that require certain outcomes, budgets, targeting strategies, or creative control.
What is the best way to gauge how much money you should be spending on a FB ad?
Work backwards based on the outcome you're trying to achieve. Set clear goals and be realistic about what success looks like to you. If your goal is to drive 1,000 sales or 10,000 clicks, understand that your budget is going to have to support that effort. If you want to test 10 different targeting tactics, you need enough budget allocated to each ad set to collect effective results. At the same time, understand that you have to start somewhere. You can always test, turn off what isn't working, and scale what is – growing the budget as you go.
With Facebook, it's a safe bet to use their automatic bid setting initially to get an idea of what your CPM or CPC should be coming in at, and then manually adjust from there. When you select the manual bid option within the Facebook platform, they'll recommend a range they think you should bid within to be competitive, based on the length of your campaign, your overall or daily lifetime budget, and the audience target parameters you've selected. And as a side note, Facebook requires your daily budget to be 5 times your bid rate. So if you bid $4 a click, factor on spending a minimum of $20 a day.
At Centro, before recommending a budget to our clients, we start by clearly outlining the campaign objectives, flight dates, and tactical plan. Then we test the audience size available in that target set – to make sure our budget recommendation is aligned appropriately.
Can you talk about the methods you use to estimate ad performance prior to launch?
We regularly log in and test audience size by creating a test campaign that is not activated. You can build out “fake" ad sets and vary the geographical area, demo targeting, or interests you layer on to see how your audience availability is affected.
Once we know about what our daily reach potential is, we can use an estimate of ad frequency to calculate impressions. Due to the high-volume of campaigns we run on behalf of our clients, we also have access to historical campaign performance data that breaks down by client vertical, by ad objective, and by creative type. Our team uses all of those past performance metrics to help indicate what our CTR, CPC, CPA, etc. should be.
The best way for agencies or companies just getting started to establish those same kinds of benchmarks for your campaigns is to test. Once you get started, track performance across each campaign you run, and use that data to help optimize future campaigns.
When talking about KPIs, how do you measure brand effect or ad familiarity?
Facebook has an algorithm that calculates it for you. They utilize metrics like number of people your ad reached, time spent with the ad (dwell time), and historical information from over 300 Nielsen brand studies that indicate the types of ads people are likely to remember.
You can also look like metrics like Ad Relevance, and the amount of positive/negative feedback your ads are receiving to measure how well they're connecting with your target audience.
What creative do you recommend to use on Instagram in order to get the most user engagement? I have found that it's difficult to get users to engage with posts because Instagram is such a scroll-heavy platform.
Any kind of video! Seriously, if you're not using videos, you should be. And they don't have to be complicated or overly produced. There's a great example I like to share from Inspiralizer, who used the Boomerang app to show one of their spiralizers turning a sweet potato into cool spirals. It was simple to produce, but highly engaging, and it linked directly to their website where you can buy the product.
Is it possible to over-saturate your social audience with ads, especially if you are targeting to one specific geographic area?
Definitely! Ad wear-out is a very real thing. You can avoid wear-out by running a few different versions of your ad creative concurrently, and rotating in new creative from time to time (monitor your results and be aware of drop-off in response).
Also consider mixing things up with a full-funnel objective strategy. For example, a brand awareness campaign that is “always on" and a website traffic or video views strategy to promote specific events/promotions.
For some of the Instagram ad options: Do you need to build and set up within Instagram instead of Ad Manager for Facebook?
No. All Instagram advertising is now managed through the Facebook Ads Platform (Ad Manager or Power Editor).
Any tips on how can I leverage Facebook platform to generate leads effectively?
The best ad options for this goal are typically conversions ads (driving to your website) or lead ads. Lead ads let you collect lead information directly within the platform without having to click off-site. They can be highly effective for businesses with non-mobile-optimized or non-user-friendly websites.
There are also lots of great targeting tactics that can be used effectively to drive additional lead generation, such as retargeting people who have visited your site but didn't fill out the form; people who opened your lead ad but did not complete the form; or conversion look-a-likes, which can reach people who are similar to people who have filled out your form previously.
Does Instagram's shoppable/tagged product feature potentially take away some of those same buyable pin ad dollars from Pinterest? Or will advertisers focus more on direct targeting on Instagram, vs. the less targeted discovery option on Pinterest?
The shoppable products on Instagram are currently only an organic offering – meaning you run into the same constraints as you do with any other organic post (only a small percentage of your organic followers will see that content).
If/when these expand into a paid offering, they will definitely compete with Pinterest. Where Instagram will win is on scale – even though Pinterest does a good job of reaching a certain percentage of the population, Instagram has way more reach in every demographic.
What are the minimum spends for the vertical video Snap Ads?
Our recommended starting budget is $30,000, although the strict minimums that apply to other types of Snapchat ads (filters/lenses) don't apply to this format. We've found that it takes a substantial investment to achieve reach and collect meaningful insights. The ideal investment depends on the market and audience you'd like to reach, of course, but in general, we haven't seen great results from campaigns spending below this amount.