[pullquote]Social media for business requires strategy, understanding of new trends and guidelines and analytics to ultimately grow your business. (halfabubbleout.com)[/pullquote]Long term marketing success relies on a brand’s ability to adapt their voice to a local audience.  That is easier said than done.  According to a Salesforce report, 70% of marketers plan to increase their overall social media spend in three major categories including social media advertising, marketing and engagement. Limited organizational and financial resources on most marketing teams make it difficult to give specific social media programs, including Facebook advertising, the attention they need.  To achieve social media success with Facebook’s constantly changing advertising opportunities, standards and creative guidelines, advertisers must be dedicated to a strategy, diligent about local optimization and constantly drawing on previous experience. Good ideas fail because the basic disciplines of smart decision making aren’t, or can’t be followed. Getting professional support to assist in developing a custom audience, optimizing campaigns weekly and managing creative are essential to maximize Facebook ad spend. Social media advertising for business requires strategy, understanding of new trends and analytics to drive return on investment and sustainable business growth.

 

Audiences

[pullquote]Facebook ad revenue grew from just under $2 billion in 2010 to almost $27 billion in 2016,[/pullquote]According to research compiled by Hubspot, Facebook ad revenue grew from just under $2 billion in 2010 to almost $27 billion in 2016, with ads on the popular social platform accounting for more than 9% of total digital ad spending and 18.4% of global mobile digital advertising.

One area that professional support can really make a difference in is the understanding of how Facebook can be utilized in creating a custom audience, something essential to success.  It is one thing to boost a post…it’s another to build a cost effective ad campaign.  Facebook provides the opportunity for a business to use thousands of targeting options with extensive user data gathered from its own platform as well as data from a select group of third party providers such as Quantium, Acxiom, Experian, Epsilon and Oracle. Advertisers today have access to incomparable targeting opportunities in the platform and through valued partners. These partners provide targets based on offline behaviors such as home ownership, brand affinities, public records, surveys and loyalty programs. Using them effectively can mean the difference between an ad that hits an audience primed to respond positively and wasting your ad dollars messaging to users who share no common characteristics or buying behaviors to the primary target.  Social media professionals can help businesses ensure a more cost effective ad spend by leveraging their experience with this comprehensive data and the targeting tools the platform provides.

Audience retargeting is also essential to campaign success.  Every 20 Minutes, 1 million links are shared, 20 million friend requests are sent, and 3 million messages are delivered.  That’s a lot of activity. Social media advertisers can benefit from outside help to efficiently retarget recently engaged prospects.  Facebook allows for pixel based retargeting for remarketing to past visitors which in turn engages users who have shown interest in a service, brand or product.  Installing and utilizing these retargeting pixels or tags normally requires assistance from a professional with website management experience

 

KPIs

Professional support can also help advertisers understand campaign performance by assigning key performance indicators for specific campaigns. Facebook allows for ten different campaign types, each focused on a different KPI.  If the main KPI for a campaign is link clicks, Facebook places ads in front of people most likely to click on the ad based on past behaviors.  If the KPI is brand awareness, Facebook will show the ad to as many customers as possible, as inexpensively as possible. Social media professionals help advertisers continually optimize campaigns to their KPI’s.  Optimizing Facebook campaigns to specific KPI’s is absolutely essential to maximize return on ad spend.

Facebook changes constantly and having a dedicated professional who is aware of the complexities of data-mapping and targeting is essential to help businesses meet their social media goals.

 

Creative

Facebook has over ten ad formats with new formats being developed continually that help a business better convey their message to potential customers.  Facebook strives to maintain a balance between advertisers and users that provides a platform for effective advertising but is not disruptive to user experience.  A social media professional can provide creative assistance to helps determine the best ad formats to engage customers for a specific campaign.  They also have current knowledge of the ad trends, changing size and text standards and the strict creative guidelines that can keep a business’s ads from being rejected.

 

Experience

Hiring a social media professional can greatly improve your social media advertising while saving you time. Professionals provide the experience gained through the running of hundreds of campaigns a year serving millions of impressions per month.  Most have been involved in the development and executions of campaigns across multiple categories including food and beverage, home improvement and retail.  Support in creative allows for the development of multiple creative versions that may be included in every campaign at no extra charge. Experience in optimization enables businesses to constantly update and adjust campaigns as they are running to ensure every dollar is spent effectively.  Social media professionals include monthly reporting that is detailed and goal specific for each campaign. They can help boost business results to consistently perform above industry standards. By enlisting the help of a social media professional, businesses can establish a social strategy that maximizes budget spend, raises brand awareness and turns potential customers into brand advocates.