Social Media Ads: Choosing the Best Platform For Your Campaign
Social media has become a powerful tool for advertisers. There are opportunities for cross-platform ad campaigns and a chance to secure your share of the 4.48 billion users across social media platforms. But with different campaign goals and a limited budget, there needs to be a lot of thought into the platforms you use for social media marketing. Below, we share some helpful tips for choosing the best social media platform to run your campaign.
Who is Your Ad Targeting?
The most important thing to consider is who the campaign intends to reach. If you’re targeting Gen Z girls, you’ll want to consider running a TikTok campaign. To appear in front of high-earning professionals, LinkedIn will be the best place to advertise. You’ll find more success reaching a Gen X audience on Facebook than on TikTok.
If you’re less familiar with social media habits among different audiences, plenty of resources are available to help. There is plenty of accessible data that displays social media use amongst different demographics.
Small features between platforms differ, but the overall concept is the same. Similar display features, campaign management tools, and interactive features are present. That’s why it’s so important to know your audience. There is no point wasting money on your message to reach somebody who could not care less.
Look at Your Options
Different platforms provide different benefits for advertisers. Facebook ads are successful when they’re visually engaging. Video, stories, and carousel ads allow you to optimise your campaign to meet your goals. Swipe-through carousels are ideal for promoting products, videos are engaging and great for brand awareness, and stories have a ‘swipe up’ function for an easy path to conversion.
Both run by Meta, Instagram ads work similarly to Facebook. The most important thing to consider is that conversion through Instagram is primarily successful for clothing brands. Due to the platform visual nature of Instagram, it’s harder for ads to pop out and capture the attention of prospective customers. As popular social media among millennials, this is the perfect place to target them. Still images with appealing content are more likely to perform well on the platform.
Pinterest is also a great option to reach millennial women and sell them your product. Pinterest is often used to discover new trends, clothing, and homeware and is just a place to go for inspiration in general. A perfect spot for your brand to swoop in and drive conversion.
YouTube bumpers are perfect for grabbing attention and establishing a presence as a brand. Bumpers last for 6-seconds, so you need to use each one wisely. All video ads you run should start with a bang to grab your viewer’s attention. On social media platforms, video ads should be around 30-seconds but capture attention in the first five.
Know Your Budget
Even if you’re appealing to multiple demographics, you must allocate your budget effectively to see the best ROI. Facebook ads can cost you between $0.2 – $5 per click. LinkedIn requires a $2 minimum bid for their pay-per-click and pay-per-impression campaigns.
If you understand the platforms available and know your audience, you shouldn’t have too much of an issue finding the right platform for your campaign. If your budget permits, you can trial different campaigns and see where you receive more clicks and engagement.
Extra Tips for Running a Social Media Campaign
If you’re only starting with social media marketing, Facebook is an affordable option with the best reach. Millennials are the ideal audience for Facebook ads; however, with almost three million monthly users, there are opportunities to reach several demographics.
Social media campaigns are easy to manage and help you figure out what works best to achieve your campaign goals. A/B testing is a great way to learn which ads perform best for your target audience.
On platforms like Facebook, where ads are more affordable to run, it’s a good idea to create a couple of variations of the same campaign. You can see analytics of what performs best, where you’re successfully driving engagement, and other insights to optimise your campaign.
If your campaign isn’t receiving any clicks or impressions in any variation, it’s time to reevaluate your digital marketing strategy; look at other popular platforms used by your target audience.
Running a business is a tough job. For companies across NZ, digital marketing agencies can take care of your campaigns. Digital marketers work with businesses to develop a strategy that performs successfully.
User Experience
Although not a definite ranking factor, improving user experience is still beneficial to SEO. Elements such as site navigation, mobile optimisation, and call-to-actions work to make your overall site experience better for users.
An easy-to-navigate site, where content is clear and accessible on various devices, helps minimise bounce rate and encourages users to further click through your site. Clearly and accurately presenting information or answers users search for makes the experience easy for users. Customers digging through endless and irrelevant information can get in the way of a possible conversion.
Page speed is another contributor to user experience. If page speed across your site is slow, users are more likely to move to a different website. Google’s Maile Ohye explains the importance of page speed, emphasising the importance for E-commerce sites to load within 2-seconds. In regards to the search engine itself, Ohye states, “We [Google] aim for under a half-second.” Page Speed Insights tool identifies areas to improve load speed and optimise your site for its Core Web Vitals.
Ultimately, user experience is about making everything easy for your site. There is no point in bombarding users with irrelevant information. You want to show the users what they want to know and where to go now that they have the information. Call-to-action buttons help show users the next step and help improve conversion.
Mobile-Friendliness
In this day and age, all websites should be mobile-friendly, but this is not the case. A non-mobile-friendly is essentially ignoring more than half of all the search traffic.
If users need to zoom in or scroll horizontally to navigate content, your site is not mobile-friendly. Mobile-Friendly Test will tell you whether your site is well-optimised for mobile.
Relevance
A common throughline with SEO is relevance. Backlinks, keywords, content, and images must be relevant for success. There is no need to create several pages only to add meaningless content.
A strong focus on relevancy is crucial. Search engines will catch cases of ‘keyword stuffing’ and give more authority to websites with valuable content relevant to the search. Type your keywords into Google and check the People Also Ask section. These questions will provide direction and indicate what people are searching for concerning your business.
These questions, answered with relevant and reliable information, can also improve your chances of getting a Featured Snipped on search engine results pages.
Stay in the Loop
SEO and digital marketing are continually unfolding and evolving as the industries are still new. Google is constantly rolling out new features to benefit your business or changing its ranking factors. One of the most beneficial things you can do for your site is to stay up-to-date with the industry. Utilise the tools available at your disposal, and you will start to see the areas where you need to improve your SEO strategy.
Keen to receive templates, tips and industry knowledge to help you take your skillset to the next stage? Check out our range of courses: from short courses in social media marketing strategy and SEO to a full Digital Marketing Diploma. NZIE is waiting for you to take the next step in your career; and ready to support you every step of the way!
