When coming up with ideas for the business marketing strategy, social media ads are always brought into the discussion. From a far distance it seems natural.
They are a simple straightforward way of letting the target audience know about you.
[bctt tweet=”But do ads actually bring the results you want?”]
There has to be a bump in the number of clients when you advertise discounts on social media. But are the orders constantly growing after a few campaigns? Or maybe it’s just a short-lasting success.
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Let’s explore the 6 main reasons why Social Media ads can turn the sweet success of your business into a bitter waste of time:
1. Understand How Social Media Ads Work for Businesses
When the subject comes up, you talk about it unknowingly. Unfortunately, in many business meetings you come to decide whether to use one platform or another based on the information you already have.
“I’ve never heard of LinkedIn. Let’s not waste time on that platform.” Sounds Familiar?
But the sad truth is that a big part of the general population has not heard of many of those platforms and that shouldn’t be a concern for you.
Research and find out on which platforms you’ll find your target audience. They might not be part of those 7% of Americans that haven’t heard of Facebook or those 41% that had no clue LinkedIn existed.
The people that will buy your products might already know the platforms better than you think.
If your Social Media ads don’t respect the needs of the users of this platforms, your business might not understand how to use these channels to achieve success.
[bctt tweet=”People spend time on platforms to get in touch with friends, be informed or even for entertainment. “]
Keep in mind that people won’t buy your product if they have their life invaded by messages from your company that constantly tell them they need to make a purchase. Don’t forget that when you plan your campaigns.
2. Ads Are Seen by Fake Audiences
As proven by a recent study from the Association of National Advertisers, most online ads are mostly seen by malware software.
As the article states: “Eleven percent of display ads and almost a quarter of video ads were ‘viewed’ by software, not people.”
How does this all work? Quite simple. Your company pays for ads on different sites. The main idea is for those ads to reach the target audience when they need your product.
Then the companies that own the sites your ads appear on pay other companies to boost their traffic.
Some pay people who are not particularly interested in that subject to watch videos or visit websites, but others just use bot software to prove that they have more traffic.
This pretty much proves, for a good part, that the “audience” that sees your ads is not targeted or human.
3. Fading into the Overflow of Content and How to Overcome It
The attention span people have on the Internet is getting more scattered each minute. You check out a website and after 5 minutes you forget why you are there.
Sponsored ads want to get you to buy some products. Pops change your screen to let you find out about the latest updates on the platform and then the native content of the platform catches your attention.
In the end, the Social Media ads you created are lost on the page. Or they are simply disruptive information that people can’t wait to skip over.
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But you have other options. Create inbound content that will make the audience be interested in what you have to share, thus making them come on their own to visit your website.
Some types of eye-catching content you can create today are:
- Articles that solve the audience’s problems with the products you offer.
- Videos that show people how to use the product to get the best out of it.
- Infographics that present the steps your clients have taken in their own success story with your service.
- Interviews about the main subject in the fields you work in.
Your audience wants to be informed and they need to know they are making the best decision when buying. Find out more about how a Content Marketing Strategy can help you solve this problem.
4. Creating Consistency so Your Social Media Ads Will Achieve Marketing Success
When you decided to start the Social Media ads campaign, make sure that what your profiles and website represent a clear connection with what the ads say.
[bctt tweet=”Create supporting content with the details of the ads campaign.”]
Let the design of the home page help them find the campaign as well. Also, make sure that the landing page the ads takes them to refers to the same campaign mentioned in the ads.
5. The Wrong Infrastructure for Interdepartmental Communication
One big internal issue regarding how long-lasting success connects with social media ads is that not all departments know how to relate to it.
Most of the times, marketing takes care of it and, for them, it’s clearly connected to some ongoing campaign. However, that isn’t enough.
[bctt tweet=” All the Social Media campaigns should be aligned with the Business Goals.”]
That way, each department knows the purpose of the campaign and knows how to relate to it. Social media is a communication channel like any other. Paid ads can generate tasks for sales, PR and other departments that need to have a fast way to respond.
6. Small Technical Issues That Can Cause Big Problems
Beyond the ads, you need to make it easy for your audience to find you. Small tasks like a Content Marketing Strategy for your profile can cause a major problem in converting leads.
[bctt tweet=”Also double check that all the landing pages work properly.”]
You might lose lots of possible clients who click your ads just because they don’t manage to use your website, since various errors keep them from doing it.
How do you make sure that you are still winning after 6 months ?
Social Media ads might be the best channel you have right now to get clients. But make sure that this is the solution that will help your business constantly grow.
To ensure that your company is not investing money on non-human content, make sure that the approach you are taking creates incentives for the audience.
Here are a few tips you can use:
- Consider Platforms based on your Target Audience, not your Team’s Experience.
- Always take into account why people are using Social Media.
- [bctt tweet=”Create eye-catching Inbound Content that makes people come to your site. “]
- Make sure that your Profiles and Website send the same messages as the campaign.
- Remember that all departments need to understand the purpose of Social Media Ads.
- Check that all the relevant pages work properly.
This presentation can make you see how ads can be a great idea, but how they also need to be backed up by content in order to bring long-lasting success.
If creating Inbound Content sounds like an demanding task, just order it. The Squirrly Agency can offer you great articles that will increase the traffic on your website and improve lead conversion rates.
