Though social media has become ubiquitous as a marketing tool for brands of all sizes and industries, not everyone is getting the most out of their strategy. As with any paid media advertising plan, when all facets aren’t optimized, budget is being wasted.
The benefit of social media marketing is its accessibility for companies of all sizes. The downside of this accessibility is that it’s not uncommon for someone to take over a social media ad strategy without having the knowledge or experience to execute it at maximum efficiency. In this article, I’ll explain the most common mistakes brands will still make in 2022.
1. Using Organic Content to Sell Products
You want your social media channels to be a “community.” It sounds cliché, but the algorithms in place reward brands who make this a priority. Nearly all inexperienced social marketers try too hard to sell products through their organic content strategy. Not only is this unrealistic, it could actually be working against you.
There is a place for selling on social, but it’s not going to happen through your everyday posts. These should revolve around generating engagement with your audience or starting a conversation around your brand. Asking for feedback, featuring positive reviews, and demonstrating how your products or services work is much more productive than simply trying to push what you’re selling.
2. Not Investing in Paid Ads
In the world digital marketing – not just social media – the phrase “you get what you pay for” could not be more accurate. It should be noted that a large budget doesn’t guarantee success (no amount of money can make consumers buy something they don’t want/that’s overpriced/etc.), but it certainly gives you the best opportunity to generate revenue via online leads or sales.
If you think you’re going to double your sales with organic posts reaching a few hundred people at a time, you’re not going to be competitive in your industry. Businesses should make it a priority to allocate a substantial part of their marketing budget toward paid advertising in order to see the ROI that boosts the bottom line.
Social media makes it affordable to reach thousands of people, and most ad platforms will allow you to target the exact type of person who would typically be a customer. Because there’s limited expenses associated with creative (a single image can be effective)\ and no cost barrier to setting up an ad platform, nearly all of your budget can be used toward getting in front of the right people.
3. Choosing the Wrong Platform
Not choosing the best platform for your brand is one of the most common issues seen amongst inexperienced marketers. Just because you prefer spending your time on Instagram and Snapchat personally does not mean that you should be advertising your plumbing business, for example, on these platforms.
Facebook might be the exception in the sense that it represents a one-size-fits-all solution if you only have the budget to advertise on one platform. Despite what you might hear, the data suggests users of all ages, from the young to the very old, are still active. Not to mention, advertising on Facebook means your ads will show across Facebook’s entire ad network, which includes Instagram.
If you’re in the B2B space, LinkedIn is a must. If you’re trying to reach younger audiences, TikTok is the way to go. Brands with visually-appealing products may want to use Facebook’s platform to advertise exclusively on Instagram.
The bottom line is that each network features a different demographic in terms of its users base. Finding the right fit for your ads could make all the difference in the results you see from your campaigns.
4. Not Using a Remarketing Strategy
It used to be considered an expert-level component of digital marketing, but now it’s become standard operating procedure. Of course, I’m talking about remarketing.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it simply refers to serving ads to users who have already interacted with your content, whether that’s through engagement with your social channels or a visit to your website. Remarketing allows you to get in front of an audience that should already be familiar with your brand, making them prime subjects for more “sales-focused” efforts.
You can remarket using a few different methods, but the most common is by installing a “pixel” on your website. To explain it in simplest terms, a pixel is a small snippet of code that helps capture data about your website’s visitors. This data can then be used when setting up an ad campaign to help you target these users specifically.
You might feel a little hesitant due to the recent emphasis on privacy concerns, but rest-assured that remarketing isn’t cataloguing intimate details. Rather it’s simply categorizing people as an anonymous number that doesn’t compromise any of their personal data.
5. Ignoring New Offerings and Capabilities
Social media companies rely on the effectiveness of their ad platforms to drive revenue. If they can’t sell ads, they don’t make money. With that in mind, they’re constantly releasing new products to help their advertisers capitalize by using their platform instead of their competitors.
When Facebook, for example, gave advertisers the capability to use their “catalog” feature, it gave online retailers a huge boost in terms of how effective their ads could be on the platform. When brands increase their investment, social media brands bring in additional revenue. The incentive is always going to be there for constant evolution, and marketers need to stay on top of the latest news in order to take advantage.
Wrapping Up
If you don’t feel confident that you’re using social media marketing to its full potential, there is no shortage of options to help you turn things around. Bringing a partner on board – either an experienced professional or an agency that’s full of them – can give you a major return on investment. Not to mention, it allows you to focus on other parts of your business with the peace of mind that your social media advertising is under control.
If you feel like you could benefit from a consultation regarding your social media marketing plan, get in touch today to discuss solutions that deliver results with a budget you can afford.
