Why Social Media Will Be Pay To Play In 2021 (And How To Get The Most For Your Cash)
It's hard to believe, but just a decade ago the internet was full of articles asking how Facebook makes money.
Nobody asks that anymore.
Today we understand that advertising is the lifeblood of all major social networks. Paid social media has become an important part of many brands' marketing strategies. The more people who have access to these platforms, the more money they make with companies that sell their products to these people.
Just look at Facebook's audience growth since late 2008. Despite a few small errors, everything is fine:
The net result? The platform's annual revenue has grown even faster, with the vast majority of that money coming from ads:
This has had inevitable consequences for marketers. As social networks become more focused on increasing ad revenue, it becomes more and more difficult to grow an audience organically.
Facebook is the most criticized for this, but it's the same with Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and almost all other platforms. They don't want you to reach your audience for free (at least not that easily).
3 reasons why social media is chargeable in 2021
Before I talk about why paid social media is so important today, let's clarify the differences between paid and organic media.
In short, organic social reach is about creating and nurturing an audience without paid advertising. The specific tools available to you vary from platform to platform but include the following:
- Ticketing
- Hashtags
- engage in relevant conversations
- Responding to comments from the audience
- following potential customers
Anything related to ad dollars is paid for on social media, whether it's an integrated ad campaign or a one-time sponsored post. Often times, costs are charged per click, although other methods are available.
Here's why social media has become a pay-to-play environment.
1. Paid social media are cheaper
Sure, paid social media costs money. That doesn't make it any less inexpensive than organic social, however. When you weigh the effort (and the results you can get) it is actually more cost effective.
On Facebook, advertisers achieve average conversion rates of 9.21 percent. In other words, for every 100 interactions with your Facebook ad, nine converts to a lead or sale. That's a pretty impressive number, and even higher in some industries:
Of course, Facebook isn't the only social network, and results vary by platform. For example, on LinkedIn, advertisers pay up to $ 8 for a single click.
That's not to say LinkedIn isn't inexpensive. Four out of five LinkedIn members drive business decisions, and on average, it costs only about $ 2 more per click to reach a senior decision maker than a junior employee.
In that context, it's actually a fantastic value.
2. Paid social media increase brand awareness
If your marketing goal is to increase brand awareness, paid social media should be part of your strategy.
While the average cost of a 30-second TV ad slot during the Super Bowl has more than doubled since 2002, it has actually become cheaper to get in front of your audience through social ads.
That's true; The average cost per mille (or cost per 1,000 impressions) on social media actually fell by nearly a dollar to $ 4.33 in Q2 2020.
In other words, brands pay less to have their ads appear in users' feeds. From a conscious point of view, this is fantastic news.
3. Paid social media increase reach
From Facebook to Instagram and LinkedIn to Twitter, the organic reach has decreased on all major platforms.
For example, the organic reach on Facebook is now just 5.2 percent, which means that roughly every 20th fan sees the unsolicited content on your page.
If you have 10,000 followers, the organic posts you have lovingly designed will only reach around 500.
Do you want to reach a wider social audience in order to generate more leads or generate more sales? Paid social media is your best friend.
How to improve your paid social media results
Still with me Then it's a safe bet that you are getting the value that paid social media can offer.
Just because Facebook and Twitter want you to invest your marketing dollars in them doesn't mean you're guaranteed success. I've seen many brands blow huge social media advertising budgets only to get terrible results because they didn't execute their strategy properly.
Fortunately, I also know a number of brands that used their budgets smartly, invested in the right platforms at the right time, and captured a ton of leads or sales. Here are four tips to help you do the same.
1. Increase the quality of your content
I've already noticed brands are spending more and more on social ads. In fact, revenue across all US social platforms is expected to reach nearly $ 51 billion by 2021.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that as more and more money is invested in paid social media, it becomes more and more difficult for brands to stand out.
Now think about how much branded content is already there. On average, brands share:
- 60 posts per month on Facebook
- 25 posts per month on Instagram
- 195 posts per month on Twitter
This is so much activity! To avoid the noise, your content can't just be good. it has to be extraordinary.
What constitutes “extraordinary” social content?
There's no such thing as perfect social media content because audiences are so diverse.
What works on LinkedIn, a platform with seasoned B2B buyers, is unlikely to resonate with TikTok, which is popular with teenagers and young adults.
However, we know what works on certain social platforms. One study checked 101,421,493 posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and turned some useful (and often surprising) statistics upside down. For example:
- 20.7 percent of all posts on the three platforms contain emojis in the label. These positions have an above-average engagement rate.
- Every tenth contribution contains questions for the audience. However, the engagement rates in these posts are below average.
- Posts with emojis, image carousels, and short captions are especially good on Facebook and Instagram.
Meanwhile, thought leadership on LinkedIn ensures the best results. Decision-makers spend more time consuming thought-provoking content every year, with most doing it at least an hour a week. The quality of this content is critical. Most say they only increase in value about half the time.
The lesson here is that a single approach to social content won't work no matter what your ad budget is. Focus on what the audience wants to see on each platform rather than trying to incorporate news that resonates across all platforms.
However, one tactic seems to work equally well on all social platforms: video.
A staggering 96 percent of marketers have posted video ads on social networks, and 91 percent say they are satisfied with the return on investment they have seen. Additionally, 93 percent of brands gained a new customer from a video they ran on social media.
2. Optimize ad performance with A / B testing
In baseball, if a batsman goes down seven times in ten, he's one of the best in the game. Even the greatest of all times technically fail more than they are successful.
Marketing is similar. No matter how brilliant your technical skills are, how great your content is, and how well you know your audience, you won't get it right every time.
In fact, you should be open to doing something wrong because that's how you find out what works.
If you run the same old campaigns targeting the same audience over and over again, you'll see the same old results. In fact, over time, your performance gets worse because people get bored of seeing the same ads over and over again.
A / B testing can help you find out what works (and what doesn't) to improve your paid social media performance.
There are many misconceptions about A / B testing. People often assume that the point is to run two completely different ads at the same time and then declare a winner.
In reality, differences should be kept to a minimum, with only one key element being changed.
Otherwise, how do you know why one ad is doing better than the other? Tests do not have to be limited to two variants at a time. In one particularly obsessed example, Google tested 41 shades of blue before settling on the color of its toolbar.
You likely don't have Google's resources. So keep the start simple. For example, try to test:
- another copy with the same motif
- different motif with the same copy
- the same motif and the same copy, but different calls to action
Even with a limited ad budget, you should generate enough impressions and clicks to determine a winner after two weeks. Keep the top performer, leave the other variant behind, and then introduce a new element into the test. Rinse and repeat!
3. Design your posts for cell phones
When it comes to our social media, mobile is king. Four fifths of Facebook users access the website exclusively via mobile phone, while only 1.7 percent use a laptop or desktop.
Unsurprisingly, Facebook says mobile-first ad themes are 27 percent more likely to drive brand recovery.
Creating social-first-social ads isn't rocket science. For non-video ads, all you need to do is follow the design specifications for the platform you choose. Here are four of the most common:
It gets a little trickier with video ads because you have to tap the headspace of someone viewing your ad on mobile. Consider these best practices:
- Keep it short: Create ads that are no longer than 15 seconds and get your core message across in the first three seconds.
- Draw attention to yourself quickly: Fast videos with a lot of movement and different scenes stop thumb scrolling more effectively.
- Don't rely on sound: Mobile users typically scroll with the sound turned off. Audio should be an added bonus that isn't critical to communicating your message.
4. Research your target audience before choosing your platform
If you don't have Nike's marketing budget, you probably don't have the resources to focus on every social channel at once. Also, it probably doesn't make sense to advertise on every channel. It's much better to focus on the platforms that have the greatest impact.
By researching your target audience, you can understand where they are online. Create a profile of your average customer (or multiple profiles if you have multiple types of customers) using tools like Google Analytics and Facebook Audience Insights, taking into account the following factors:
- Age
- gender
- Location
- Job title and industry
- Level of education
- Household income
- relationship status
Next, you need to choose the social platform that best suits your customer profile. Fortunately, a huge amount of data on audience composition is available on various social platforms.
For example, a survey by the Pew Research Center offers a lot of useful information about who is audiences on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. This data tells us the following:
- Facebook: Widely used in all age groups, with strong coverage in all population groups.
- Instagram: Skews female, urban and younger, with a big difference between 18-29 year olds and older viewers.
- LinkedIn: An older audience (30-49 is the sweet spot) aimed at college graduates and non-rural residents.
Conclusion
We'd all like to get something for nothing. Unfortunately, the days of major social networks where we can grow and freely engage our audiences are quickly disappearing. Unless you're consistently able to go viral, organic social networks won't keep a close eye on your content.
That said, if you haven't already incorporated paid social media into your broader marketing strategy, it is absolutely time to start. It'll drive awareness, sales, and leads in ways that organic social networks just can't (at least not anymore).
What's the main goal you want to achieve with paid social media?
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