You can do so much more than showing your post to more audiences and get more exposure.

Introduction to Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising, also referred as social media marketing (SMM), are one of the most straightforward marketing tools for small businesses and start-ups to get hold of.

While social media ads are often being compared to search engine ads, we see them differently.

We often use social media ads before Google Ads for new businesses or those without a substantial online presence. Social media ads are more similar to traditional marketing which repeatedly broadcast your brand and products to the public. These messages will create brand awareness amongst those who have seen the ads.

As the brand becomes more well known, Google Ads is the harvester that we use. Search engine ads can collect those audiences who are actively searching for a relevant result.

If we are putting social media ads onto the customer-based brand equity model, social media ads are the bottom two levels – brand identity and brand meaning – that build a brand before customers are willing to interact with a brand.

Misconceptions to Social Media Advertising (or Digital Marketing in general)

The ultimate goal of all marketing and advertising campaigns is to increase sales. However, the time required to reach a significant difference in conversion is not as instant as it seems.

We often regard this issue to the “instant” nature of our lives currently. Because our computers, the Internet and our lives generally are more convenient than before, most of us are used to the culture of instant gratification that extends to the expectation in influences of digital marketing.

Yet, the building and maintenance of a brand is never an overnight wonder. It requires long-term dedication before a significant change can be seen. And this seemingly old school understanding of perseverance is a characteristic that is much needed in digital marketing.

The effects of social media advertising require time to be seen and more effort to maintain. One example that marketing schools and myself love to use is Coca-Cola. The iconic brand stood firm over the decades because of its branding, not because of innovative products. Coca-Cola was not conservative on any marketing, spending up to 60% of its revenue on marketing to maintain its brand awareness.,

So, what didn’t other agencies tell you?

Over our time in the industry, we have clients that previously worked with other digital marketing companies. And we have very mixed feedback from them in understanding social media advertisements.

Benefits that they can bring

To describe some of those, we would love to use an Aussie word: “dodgy”.

Because of the general lack of understanding in digital marketing, some agencies take advantage of such to promote their business. One of such is making false claims.

Some agencies will say that they can double your sales with social media adverts. While this sounds appealing, it is not a reasonable claim in most cases.

The general lack of digital marketing facts forces most digital marketers to continually test and trial for an optimised marketing campaign. And these come down to the variables in a scientific experiment:

• Independent variables
• Dependent variables
• Controlled variables

The independent variables in social media advertisements are our copywriting, images and videos. And the dependent variables are the ad’s responses, including impressions, likes, comments and other engagements.

On the other hand, sales are mostly referred to as “conversions” in social media advertisements. However, conversions are often not direct from social media advertisements that are not dependent on the ad.

Making claims on something that is not directly related to a campaign is not a fraud, but definitely, an action that requires more research and understanding of social media advertising and their abilities.

More often than not, these claims are used as bait for customers. Concluding the experiences of our clients, we have not seen many successful cases in reaching their claims.

Use of advertisement budget

It is undeniable that advertising needs money. But, most of the time, is your money being used in the right place?

Yes, the fees you are paying to the agencies shall include their working hours and the expertise and experience. But it does not mean that you have to spend huge sums.

Social media advertisements are so beloved by marketers, mostly because of its ability to dial down to a particular demographic group. Such allows some of the most effective uses of marketing budgets that the world has ever seen.

For example, selling baby formula for different ages is more accurate with social media ads. These platforms can help marketers match individual advertisements to new parents, parents with older kids, or even couples expecting a newborn.

The marketers’ expertise and experience can help pinpoint the best audience for your social media ads that maximise your advertising budget’s effectiveness.

Some agencies without the knowledge will spend a huge budget to maximise reach and impression of the ads. With a highly extended reach, more exposure can lead to more conversion. But it also means your advertising budget is not generating the performance that you should be expecting.

Remarketing

Remarketing is a relatively new concept to advertising benefitted by the trail of data we left.

A common case that you will experience remarketing is when you visit a website recently, you will soon begin to notice advertisements from that particular brand.

Remarketing is an excellent marketing method as those who see a retargeted ad are 43% more likely to become a conversion (or sales for easier understanding).

Yet, retargeting is neither simple to set up nor easy to execute. And most agencies will not mention remarketing in most times.

Valuable statistics for your business

Your social media advertisements’ traffic and impression can often provide insightful statistics for your business in both online and offline performance.

Some of those statistics include:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Interest
• Affinity to other markets
• In-market
• Operating System

While the source of these statistics is limited to your online audience, the numbers still served as significant references to your brand’s performance and offered insights to new business opportunities.

With the use of insights tools in social media and website tags, like Google Tag and Facebook Pixel, these statistics should be readily available to social media agencies. However, it is totally up to their willingness to share with their clients and enjoy a better success for both parties.

How to choose your next social media advertising agency?

Honesty and trustworthiness should be the most sought after characteristics when you look for your next social media agency.

These characteristics are a great foundation of the relationship with the agency and the credibility of the agency.

While significant growth should not be expected within a year, you should be able to see some changes in three months. If no positive change was seen, or even showing negative issues, it is best to find another agency.

Most of the time, agencies should not be hesitant in sharing statistics to you as those are data specifically from your business. And administrator access to your social media page should also be welcomed by the agency.

Even if you do not know how to read such statistics or use a business social media account, you shall still access those aspects.

Still, looking for a social media marketing agency? The Comma Creative is here to help.