The realm of social media advertising is an ever-changing game. Platforms are continuously evolving, optimizing and learning more about their users. Enlisting the help of an agency that has the resources to keep on top of the trends can be invaluable, especially as the rate keeps accelerating!
Here are six trends that are delivering results for our clients right now.
GIFs
Gif’s [image files that are compressed to reduce transfer time – usually a video less than 6 seconds]. Ads using gifs as the image are great. They seem to be a match for our collective diminishing attention span (!) And they are bright moving things that grab attention amongst static images. People click away from longer videos or simply scroll past them if they aren’t connected to wifi. Gifs solve these issues nicely. They can tell a complete story than a still image, but keep it short and sweet.
Storytelling Ads
Speaking of stories – everybody loves a good story. We are seeing good results with ads that feature storytelling copy. People are more comfortable buying from people they know and like. Telling your story can help position you as an expert in your industry. It also helps gain the trust of your potential consumers as you allow them a glimpse of your humanity. Think: hero’s journey as it applies to your company’s presence in the market
Emojis
Ever seen those song lyric emoji things? …cue Beyonce interlude…🎶To the left, to the left. Everything you own in a box to the left 🎶
It’s amazing what you can communicate with those tiny pictures! We don’t recommend changing your ad copy to 100% emojis (not yet anyway – we’ll see how language evolves in the next 20 years!). However, it is amazing how much information one image can communicate. Emoji’s add colour and catch the eye drawing the reader into the text of the ad. When one image (Like that box) can replace a longer word it also enables communicating more in less space. Win-win.
Conversions
In the technical realm, Facebook has been hard at work learning about its users. It can now slice and dice the giant pie that is 2 Billion users even more ways. Which means advertisers can get more specific in who they send ads to.
Facebook & Instagram have figured out who their users are that are more likely to take action and ‘convert’ – purchase or take action on an offer. We are seeing the fruits of this when running a campaign using a conversion as a goal. Lead Generation used to be the gold standard for customer acquisition, but we are now seeing better results from Conversions.
An optimization tweak that is rolling out across the platform currently is a toggle switch to run a “hybrid’ Conversions campaign. This starts the ads out to get clicks. While it’s doing that it learns who converts in your target audience. After a learning phase, it automatically switches and optimizes to conversions.
Landing Page Views
Facebook is rolling out another option currently for ad delivery optimization is Landing Page Views. Facebook has learned who is most likely to wait while a page loads to view it. If you have the pixel installed – and you definitely should, this can take a moment longer. You can now optimize your ad sets to go to those people. This means you aren’t paying for clicks when the person bugged out before even looking at your landing page!
Instagram Ads
Advertising on Instagram isn’t exactly new news, but we are seeing continuously improving results with this platform. When Instagram advertising was brand new we found the costs for advertising on Instagram were a bit higher than Facebook. As more users join the platform and users are accustomed to seeing ads, costs have come down. Some of our side by side Instagram/Facebook campaigns are now seeing better results over on Instagram.
Interested in learning more about how we can help you with your social media marketing strategy? We’d be pleased to give you a free consultation.
