We’ve all seen it happening, big brands getting into paid social media campaigns without a concrete strategy and failing to get the desired results. But, why? Because even the most intricately planned campaigns fall into the most common traps that plague social media advertising. Targeting irrelevant audiences, using bland creatives, or just overspending without a strategy are all examples of the pitfalls that brands do. Creating ads with these tactics will add a presence of your brand in the digital landscape but will not make you memorable.
The present approach that successful brands use to succeed in the paid advertising landscape is all about precision, creativity and adaptability. So, rather than focusing on how much you are spending, you should focus on the strategy part. And this guide is your masterclass for creating that ultimate paid social media campaign that stands out. So, let’s begin!
Step 1: Define your objective
Every successful campaign has a clear objective. I mean you are clearly not driving a campaign just because you have an excessive marketing budget, and you don’t know where to spend that. While setting objectives you should have two important things in mind:
- Your paid social media campaign’s objectives should align to the business goals.
- Your campaigns should also align with your sales funnel.
Keeping these things in mind will ensure that you create objectives that are measurable at the same time align with your sales funnel. Just to give you an example; your company has just launched a new product. So, your objective for the first 2 months would be to create awareness regarding the product via. social media channels. To make it measurable you can keep the objective of increasing website traffic through social media campaign by 15%. Tailoring your objectives at the funnel level will keep you ahead in the game.
Step 2: Stalk your audience
Who said stalking your audience is bad? It’s not if you do it legally and know the right information by not breaching their privacy. When we talk about targeting the right audience in paid social media advertising, we just don’t mean demographics but understanding their psychographics too. What motivates them? What scares them? What do they search the most? What kind of ads do they like – humor or serious?
By using the right tools, you can reach out to the micro level in targeting. Furthermore, creating buyer personas also aids you in creating ads that resonate with the audience. Don’t forget to consider local cultural nuances and language preferences as native advertising is really picking up. As a social media marketing company in Ahmedabad, we suggest that while targeting your audience you should look beyond just the insights that tools give you, you must look at the ads that resonate with your audience.
Step 3: Choose your platform
Choosing the right platform that aligns with your audience will amplify your ads result. Most brands often choose platforms that are popular but don’t align with their target audiences. For instance, Facebook might look like an ideal platform for your brand, since a variety of brands target their ads on Facebook and gain their results. But the question you need to ask yourself is, is my target audience someone who purchases products after viewing ads on Facebook?
If the answer to the above question is yes, you are on the right track. If the answer is no, then you need to rethink which platforms you should run your ad on. Otherwise, you might end up overspending without getting any results. In paid social media advertising, you need to understand that each platform has its strengths, and you need to know which one to leverage. So, before you jump onto your next paid social media campaign, have a look at those buyer personas you created and choose the platform, also for your retargeting campaigns too.
Step 4: Hit them with your content!
It’s time to create content which hits them like a dart in the bull’s eye! The right content strengthens your campaign by creating the impact you want. Content with unclear messaging and no clear action will only make customer rethink before considering your brand. Also, you make note of things such as the colors that you are using in your creative or the CTA which you would be adding.
Additionally, you should keep in mind which kind of ads would work the best for you. Is it the video advertisement? Is it static? Carousel? All these things depend on the goal of your paid social media campaign as well as the product you are trying to push. Also, keep in mind the content should align with your brand’s voice. All these things will ensure that your content performs as per your viewers’ expectations and resonates with them.
Step 5: Be smart with your budget
Not keeping in mind, the budget while planning the campaign will only result in unexpected expenditure. So, before aligning a budget to a campaign you need to ask your stakeholders certain questions. How much are they willing to spend on a single customer acquisition? How much are you willing to pay for each conversion? All these answers will help you determine the budget in a smart way.
As a social media marketing company in Ahmedabad, we suggest going with the 70-20-10 rule when it comes to your campaigns. By this we mean, you allocate 70% of your budget on strategies that give definite results, 20% on strategies to strategies where you feel it has potential and 10% on experimenting. Also, when you are trying to attract local customers, factor in the budget you need to allocate for local advertising.
You can now hit that start button and launch that campaign once you have figured out all these aspects of paid social media campaigns.
Final Step: Watch and Learn
As much effort you have put into creating a social media campaign, an equal effort should be put in optimizing it. If your click through rate is high but your conversions are low, it’s time to correct the content on the landing page and create a seamless journey for your customers. If you are getting thousands of impressions, but no engagement it means you need to relook at the targeting part.
Just a pro tip, in paid social media campaigns, optimization does not mean, you have iterated once, and it is done. Now, there are lot of auto optimization tools which largely reduce your burden. And then there are tools which you can learn and optimize your ad for a better performance. Take lessons and apply them to your next campaign. In case you feel this is too much you can even hire an agency to do the job for you.
Wrapping up:
The landscape of paid social media is constantly evolving and to keep up you need more than just the budget muscle; you need to experiment and take risks to stand out. The brands that win in this landscape aren’t the ones who have deep pockets but are the ones who are not afraid of taking risks.
Taking risks reminds us of the team that is not afraid to take risks and stand out i.e. Communication Crafts. We aren’t just a bunch of creative minds; we help brands get to the next level by achieving WOW results for them. So, if your brand is looking to create the next WOW paid social media campaign, you know where to find us.
