Being a ‘billy no mates’ personally on Facebook is bad enough, but is your business whistling in the wind on social media?
It’s getting increasingly tricky to make enough impact with organic social media activities across all platforms. This can even happen when your social media content is indisputably fabulous. The tech giants claim it’s simply their ranking algorithms advancing. Hmmm… it’s also their way of driving companies towards paid-for posts.
The trouble is social media advertising can be expensive and disappointing (just like that meme you posted that got no LIKES. Whyyyyyyy?).
That’s all the gloomy stuff out of the way. Now let’s brighten the mood with a look at how to stand out with paid-for social media posts.
Who you talking to!
You may have only a blurry idea of how you know some of your social media ‘friends’. However, when it comes to your business, you need to get up close and personal to your audience, and where they tend to hang out.
They may love watching dog rescue videos and people falling over on Facebook, but is that where they would go for products or services like yours? Though of course, Facebook is ‘head and shoulders’ above the rest. With 2.6 billion active users and around 80 million small enterprises using its business tools to communicate.
What you can’t do, is make it all about this giant platform. Your consumers are not all sitting on it!
Your consumers may be soaking up information somewhere else. For instance, LinkedIn offers business to business online ad opportunities, while younger audiences love YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok (with TikTok being the marmite of this genre).
In fact, over two-thirds of Instagram users are below the age of 35. So, ‘IG’ is ideal for products aimed at that demographic.
Don’t overlook alternative social media advertising opportunities too. Did you know that 87% of Pinterest users make purchases after seeing products on there? Making Pinterest a ‘sharp’ business move, to promote consumer products via recipes, how-to posts and other creative, value-added content.
Experiment and innovate!
To nail paid for posts that stick out, they must be grounded in solid intel (see what we did there?).
Each social media platform offers different advertising opportunities, so ask your creative agency to mix, match and test things out for you. (A bit like that Facebook recipe for spinach and ricotta dip, where you used chocolate and cream cheese instead.)
All forms of online advertising can be measurable and easy to amend in the right hands. Preferably hands with a long track record for building constructive social media campaigns.
Manage campaigns, and expectations too
The aforementioned hands need brains attached too (grim image but bear with us!).
To stand out in social media ads, you must have a strategic plan.
Work out exactly what results you want – the fancy term for these results is ‘Key Performance Indicators’ (or KPIs for short). Then, build campaigns around clear objectives you can measure. Especially ways to generate authentic leads that result in actual sales.
Through experiment and insightful assessment, you can then do more of what works and ditch the ads with poor results (kind of like how you’d ditch that friend request from Sergei in Bulgaria, who’s curious about what bank you use).
Be fresh, unique and visually impressive!
Are you a big fan of cute kitten GIFs, photos of celebs in compromising situations or DIY videos? You’re not alone!
Nowhere is visual content more important than on social media, including expanding opportunities to load and enjoy Livestream and marketing videos.
Clearly then, to stand out in social media advertising, your graphic design capabilities need to be top-notch. With a steady supply of original infographics, explainer videos, strong images and other visual content to grab and hold attention.
You don’t need kittens (though you can use kittens if you want – who are we to judge!), but humour, storytelling techniques and the latest news are all killer ways to frame your content, rather than bland ‘sales speak’.
Using a top-performing creative agency
One of the best ways to stand out in social media advertising is to get an agency in your team that knows what it takes to make you highly visible. Across all digital marketing channels.
That would be Creative Jam then!
Get in touch to discuss social media advertising that has a high ROAS and genuine potential to build sales – with or without furry animal involvement.
