We look at how consumer insights can help improve your social advertising strategy and avoid wasted media spend and lost opportunities.
$36 billion. That’s how much marketers will spend globally on social advertising this year. Yet despite this hefty investment, survey after survey reveals that organizations are not seeing the fruits of their labor (and budget dollars).
So what gives?
The social media universe is in a constant state of flux. Social platforms rise and fall. User behavior and preferences change almost daily. Marketers are continuously struggling to understand and stay ahead of the numerous audiences present across their social networks.
And the result – advertising strategies that go from impactful to ineffective (and sometimes downright embarrassing) in the blink of an eye.
So how can you implement an effective social advertising strategy in this current landscape to finally start seeing the results your boss expects?
1. Craft Creative That Converts
Marketers aren’t lacking consumer data. In fact, we’re all swimming in it. But much of this data lacks true insights. Insights that go beyond demographics and online behaviors.
What makes your audience tick? What motivates them to take action? What makes them intrinsically attracted to your brand? Is there an important emotional connection that draws them in?
We live in a world where multiple consumer groups exist, each with unique values, cultural beliefs, preferences, and drivers that are subject to change in an instant. Brands need to be empowered with high-quality, real-time consumer insights to connect with their target audience authentically.
And that means being able to understand not just who your audience is, but what matters most to them… and why, at an individual level. Only then can you begin to craft the types of ad creative and messaging that truly resonates and ultimately converts.
2. Target Beyond Basic Demographics
You take these in-depth insights of your audience, craft an awesome, hyper-relevant ad campaign and then it comes time to target those ads.
And…
You’re back to a square one, with a list of lackluster demographics or a handful of attributes to target against. #marketingfail
In order to maximize social ad spend, marketers need to ditch this half-baked solution and start applying the same rich insights and individual attributes they used to craft their messaging to actually target their ads across social platforms. Otherwise, that campaign geared specifically toward “happiness-focused, green moms” is going to “all women aged 20-34 with children in their household”, not nearly as compelling, now is it?
3. Find More of the “Right” People
Creating compelling ads and targeting them to your core audience is one thing. But attempting to scale that process and attract new customers is a whole other beast.
The current solution for new customer acquisition generally relies on lookalike targeting that helps identify audiences who have liked, browsed or visited a brands site or a specific page. Not perfect, but good enough.
Or so we thought.
It’s time to stop relying on a handful of demographic and behavioral correlations to scale social advertising efforts and start utilizing the same in-depth list of individual attributes, including values and motivations (all of the same “why” elements from step one), for lookalike targeting that finds more of the “right” customers.
Because let’s be honest, we don’t have time, or dollars, to waste targeting “good enough” audiences anymore. If marketers want to start seeing results, it’s time to put true consumer insights at heart of our social advertising strategy.
