Creating adverts to use on social media and tips on how to manage them successfully.
Being a digital marketing agency, we see so many businesses come through our doors who have fantastic product but aren’t reaching their full potential because they have no idea how to utilise social media ads. 3.5 billion, yes BILLION people use social media worldwide, with Facebook being the most popular. A whopping 90.4% of millennials, and 77.5% of generation X use social media, with the average person spending 3 hours per day on there!
So why wouldn’t people want to learn how to utilise ads through social channels?
Social channels are a great way to boost engagement, drive sales and gain traffic. Ever heard of the saying, “out of sight, out of mind”, unfortunately this applies with all brands in any industry! There is so much competition out there, so you want to be at the forefront of someone’s vision wherever you can, and if someone spends three hours on social media per day, that’s a daily chance to present yourself to them.
The most important thing to think about when creating social media ads is that you know who your target audience is. You can nail the design, preparation and wording, but knowing who your ad is going to be aimed at could be the difference between thousands of ad-clicks and zero.
The idea isn’t just to decide your audience, but to know them too. If your ad is aimed at youths and teens, Snapchat and TikTok are the best channels to advertise on. If your target audience is mums, Facebook is the place to be. All social media networks offer advertising, this does not mean that you should use all of them, the key thing to remember is quality over quantity.
It isn’t just the social channel that should be affected by your target audience, your design should be too. If your design doesn’t WOW you, then why would you present it to a realm of potential customers, for them to be just as disappointed as you? Understand that consumers see so many ads every day, you want to stand out.
However, with that in mind, your design should be representative of your target audience. If you are aiming your ad at vegetarians and healthy food enthusiasts, then you should use greens and bright colours – showcase a healthy lifestyle within your design. If your target audience are environmentalist’s conscious of their carbon footprint, then show off your brown packaging, or use earthly tones throughout your design. If the beauty industry is your audience, then a glamorous design is for you. Make sure your imagery resonates with your message and customers. If you aren’t a designer yourself, or don’t have one in your team, don’t let your business suffer.
Speak to a member of our specialist in-house design team at Gloss on 0121 794 0070.
You also need to design your ads with mobile in mind. Most ads are created on a computer, but more than 3.25 billion active social media users access social networks through a mobile device, not computer – so make sure it’s mobile friendly!
After you have nailed your target audience, social channels and making sure your ad looks incredible on all devices, the next step is to decide on your ads purpose. Will it be to boost sales, encourage DM’s, gain email subscribers? You need to have a clear idea of this to decide on your ads call to action. The call to action is the action that will follow your ad. It may say “Shop Now”, or “Send a DM” or “Sign Up”, and you can’t decide on which your ad will use without knowing what you expect to gain from the promotion.
A schoolboy error that people make when trying out ads, is that they think pumping loads of money into their ad will automatically generate loads of leads, and unfortunately this can not be the case. You wouldn’t see a new lipstick that you like the look of online, and order 10 of them. You would order one, try it first, then if you like it order more, if not try another shade.
This is the case with ads. You need to try a few methods to see what works for you. Fiddle with your audience, age range, location, interests until you find something that works for you, and that’s when you grow your budget accordingly. A top tip is that if your budget isn’t starting small at first, then you’re doing ads all wrong!
It is important after your ad has ran to sit down and look at the stats. Contrary to popular belief, the button underneath your ad that says ‘view insights’ isn’t there for nothing, it’s your best friend! It is a massively helpful tool there to show you how effective your ad-aiming choices were. You need to have all this data jotted down somewhere, to refer to and see what has worked best for you. This way you can eliminate the parts that aren’t working for you and really utilise the ad promotions!
At this stage you should be a social-ad expert, and be able to run a successful ad campaign for your business! However, we know it isn’t that easy for everyone and if you have any trouble or don’t even know where to start with the complex realm of social media algorithms, there are plenty of people out there to help you build a killer campaign – so don’t worry! Get in touch with a member of our team for a free, no obligation consultation on 0121 794 0070.
