Social Media Advertising - The Ultimate Guide
The benefits of using a Creative Management Platform for social media advertising
With so many platforms to consider and various types of ads to work into a social media strategy, a one-stop solution is a comprehensive CMP. Here are just some of the reasons why you should consider a CMP for social media advertising:
- You can create a comprehensive range of advert types – From static images to video advertising. With the option to alter dimensions for different platforms, a CMP allows you to do everything in one place.
- It creates consistency – Using one platform to implement your social media advertising means that ads will appear consistent in format and design. Consistent branding makes you more recognisable, improving brand awareness and appearance in the consumer market.
- You don’t need additional training – CMPs are designed to be foolproof. That means you’ll enjoy a quick demo upon sign up and then you can create and put out social media advertising quickly and efficiently.
- You can work across multiple platforms – Your CMP is not just for social media, you can manage a wider campaign that feeds into your social media advertising so everything is in one place.
- A/B testing is possible – This allows marketers to see what works best for their brand and the demographic they’re going after. Putting out variations of adverts and enjoying real-time results and insights allows you to tailor your social media advertising strategies to better suit your needs.
- Efficiency is improved – Managing assets and ideas is a whole lot easier. We know that downloading and uploading material between platforms is a key pain point for social media teams – but CMPs ensure workflows are streamlined and efficient. Creating ads and assets all in one place also eliminates any repetition across your team, so you can get back to the things that matter.
- Improved in-house collaboration – CMPs bring teams together allowing for better collaboration between stakeholders and colleagues, across in house and external teams. Showcases, instant commenting and approval tools all make this possible.
Brand success stories when using CMP for social media advertising
Audio subscription service Supla+ utilised our CMP offering to create a display ad campaign that went live for 24 hours, promoting a Black Friday offer.
The brand’s Art Director was able to create the advert design and then adapt this across a number of platforms within Bannerflow’s CMP. This made it easier to get the campaign out in a short space of time, improving efficiency and ease.
Financial group Svea also uses Bannerflow’s CMP to manage every marketing campaign, including social media advertising.
One of its latest campaigns incorporated shots intended for TV advertising and adapted this to feature in digital display advertising formats.
Svea’s Marketing Coordinator noted that before using a CMP small features of such apps – such as moving assets – would have taken a long time to create. Now, however, everything is in one place and ready to use.
Mobile should be your main focus
You’d be forgiven for thinking that all social media is viewed on a mobile device but, actually, 53.3% of the world’s web traffic is mobile, while 44% is on a laptop or desktop. Tablet computers are used 2.7% of the time and other devices like games consoles make up 0.07%.
However, this isn’t to say we need to drop our focus from mobile altogether. Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest users are predominantly viewing content on mobile devices.
This means that when creating advertisements for social campaigns you do need to consider both, but with a heavier emphasis on the mobile side of things.
Create display ads in a dedicated CMP that work across multiple platforms and ensure potential customers are seeing the very best of what you have to offer, wherever they are.
Remember to engage with your audience too
You’ve created your slick adverts and adjusted them across your chosen platforms in your CMP. You’ve also scheduled your posts and you have a plan for analysing engagement and results. What now?
Well, it’s also important to interact with your followers. The idea of a social media platform is to create a community space that users will want to return to again and again.
Adverts can look slick and content can be engaging but followers will also expect a level of engagement directly from the brand. Here are a few things you can do:
- Respond to comments – Give followers the human touch and respond directly to comments on posts that you share. This shows that you’re doing more than simply outreaching, you want to engage and support your audience too.
- Chime in on posts talking about the brand – Keep an eye out for brand mentions and don’t be afraid to drop into a comments section if people are discussing your brand. If they’re talking positively, that’s great, but even if it’s negative you can drop in to let them know you’re there if they need support. It’s a great way of adding additional value and shows that you’re a brand that’s switched on.
- Avoid copy and paste responses – Followers want to know that there’s a real-life human at the other end of your social media, so avoid copy and past responses where you can.
- Be prompt – Don’t leave it days between replying to comments, try to allocate time to respond to people as soon as possible.
- Share posts from the community – Of course, you’ll need to ask permission beforehand, but followers love being shared by brands that they’ve tagged. Plus, it’s a free form of marketing for you!
Social media advertising is a two-way street – so ensure you allocate hours to managing your social media on top of the creation and implementation of your advertising strategy.