Brian Meert's Blog, page 75

Email vs Social Media Marketing: Understanding How They Intersect

FEB. 21, 2020

Email and social media are two major aspects of digital marketing that feel like they are on opposite spectrums. Some marketing teams treat both of them in isolation while others ignore social media completely. However, there are some brands that have perfected the art of combining email and social media marketing to reach the ultimate goal: conversions.

To understand how email and social media marketing intersect, cast your mind back to the number of times you’ve gone on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn to check out a company that has just sent you an email.  How did you feel after seeing an inactive social media profile? This is one of the clearest demonstrations that social media and email marketing have to co-exist for any digital marketing campaign to yield the best possible results.

This article looks at why email and social marketing are important pillars in digital marketing and how their intersection can help you reach your marketing goals faster.

Social Media Marketing

With social media marketing, the goal is to promote branded content on various channels with a focus on increasing brand awareness and leads.  Presently, 3.2 billion people use social media around the world. 

Various social media channels provide marketers with a platform to engage customers more directly and build brand loyalty.  Other benefits of social media marketing include

Improved inbound traffic Higher rankings in search enginesHigher conversion ratesImproved customer satisfaction


Email Marketing

In email marketing, businesses send highly targeted marketing materials to prospects and existing customers.  When done properly, these subscribers progress through the sales funnel, all the way down to conversion.  

Email marketing is highly effective because more than 3.7 billion people check their emails daily, with 60% of them preferring to receive messages from brands.  Additionally, email marketing yields up to 4400% in ROI.  Other benefits of email marketing include

Access to an already engaged audienceEasy audience segmentationImproved revenueAccess to a global user base

How can email and social media intersect?  How can you combine both methods to ensure more success with your campaigns?

Using Email and Social Media to Build Brand Consistency

When a prospect looks at your content, they notice subtle elements that communicate your brand ethos.  Basic elements such as your brand voice, colors, and graphics help differentiate your brand from the competition.

When your email and social media marketing teams are operating in isolation, it is easy for these fundamentals to get mixed up.  If a customer receives a fun and informal email from your brand but then sees serious content on your social media feeds, they will notice a disconnect between your social and email marketing strategies. You can lose prospects because of this, as it implies a lack of consistency. If you can’t get basic branding principles right, how can you be trusted to deliver on lofty promises?

With proper integration of social media and email marketing, you can highlight your brand’s consistency and double down on your message.

Using Email Analytics to Ensure the Success of Social Media Ads

Social media ads are a great way to spread the word about your brand.  With the help of email data, you can improve the results of your campaigns.  If A/B testing emails shows you an effective call-to-action (CTA), use that in your social media. The same also applies to the choice of graphics and other design elements, such as your choice of subject line.

A similar strategy is to upload your email list to Facebook’s Custom Audiences, Twitter’s Tailored Audiences, and LinkedIn’s Matched Audiences, so you can ensure better targeting for your ads. This way, you can re-target people who have already come in contact with your business through social media ads or choose to only target people who have never heard of your brand before.

Facebook’s Custom Audience allows you to upload email lists.

Email marketing can hand you a cheat sheet of what already works with your target audience, and you can use that to rack up conversions for your social media ads.

Doubling Down on Content across Social Media and Email

With proper collaboration between your social media and email marketing teams, you can reduce the cost of content development.   For instance, you can re-use social media content, such as reviews, in your emails. This tactic has some benefits.

First, it saves you time and resources that would have gone into creating new content, and second, it points your subscribers to your social media profiles.  This can also work the other way round. If you developed interesting content for your email subscribers, you can share it on social media to attract more of them. With regular content exchange across both social media and email, you can further improve brand consistency and ensure steady engagement.

Using Email to Build Your Social Media Followers

If you put social media links in your emails, you will gradually increase your followers across various platforms. A subscriber to your email list interested in your products or services will want to check out your social media pages.  However, the vast majority of such people will not take the time to find your social media accounts. If you include links, you are saving their time and nudging them toward your profiles.

Include social media links in your emails.

Since people are more likely to purchase after seeing social proof, finding your social media page (and your interactions with other people) could be what gets a subscriber to purchase.

Using Social Media to Grow Your Email List

You can use your social media pages to promote your email subscription. Tell your followers what they will gain by subscribing and include a sign-up sheet in your post.  Add the link to your bio where possible. Create Pinned Tweets and Instagram Stories that discuss the benefits of your emails to make it easier for visitors to find. Facebook’s call-to-action buttons present an even better opportunity for promoting your emails on social media. 

You can include an email sign-up form on your Facebook page.

But the work doesn’t end there.  Consider publishing every edition of your email newsletter on social media as well.  This way, your target audience can see the type of content awaiting them when they sign up. 

Running Cross-Platform Contests

How many times have you received those emails that encourage you to follow a social media page or share content on social platforms for a chance to win something? What about contests that encourage you to sign up to email lists for a chance at winning a prize?

Contests offer a tried and tested way of growing followers. They can also be used to build an email list.  Many companies tap into people’s fear of missing out (FOMO) by teasing email updates that feature exclusive deals and discounts. Others use email to announce a contest that will be held on social media.

You can replicate this strategy. As long as the offer is enticing, this method of combining social media and email marketing is almost always certain to generate results.

Using Social Media to Find Your Ideal Customers

Are you trying to populate your list with a specific group of customers? Social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, make this process easier.  On LinkedIn, for example, you can input your ideal customer profile into the Sales Navigator tool to generate a list of individuals who can be your ideal customers.  

LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator helps you create a list of ideal customers

Once you have this list, devote your resources to getting them to sign up to your email database. For this approach to work, however, you need to have something of value for your target audience. 

Think about an e-book or a free sample of a physical product.  If you communicate your intention in the most personalized way possible, you have a great opportunity to grow your email list with engaged subscribers who already value your brand. 

Using Social Media Influencers to Grow Your Email Subscribers

Influencers on social media are already trusted by the audiences you are looking to attract.  You can tap into their reach to generate more subscribers for your email list (retweets, shares, etc.).  To do this, find influencers who are relevant to your industry and build a relationship with them. You can judge relevance by monitoring demographics and interests. Keep a budget in mind and be ready to negotiate.

If your brand is not yet an authority in your niche, it is advisable to avoid cold-calling influencers. They may decline your request for collaboration or charge rates that are far above industry standards.  Additionally, avoid working with influencers whose audience is hard to reach. In many cases, a properly selected group of micro-influencers can yield similar results—or better—than working with one superstar influencer.  

Conclusion

Digital marketing has always been an encompassing field. Anyone who wants to generate the best results has to understand the intersection between all the major players in the field, to recognize that social media and email cannot exist in isolation.  Now that you have understood how those two intersect, it is time for you to bring your social media and email marketing teams together, working towards one common goal.

By Rithesh Raghavan

The post Email vs Social Media Marketing: Understanding How They Intersect appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

How to Find the Right Instagram Influencers for Your Brand

FEB 19, 2020

Social Cut / Unsplash

Influencers are aptly named for their ability to influence their followers. According to Emarketer, they can sway the purchase decisions of millennials and gen Zs. The data company found that 22% of gen Zs and 20% of millennials surveyed admitted to buying a product based on an influencer’s recommendation.

Still, you shouldn’t partner with any influencer who accepts your proposal. You need to find the one. In this discussion, you’ll learn how to choose the right Instagram influencers for your brand, with tips on identifying the right type, using free influencer search tools, and determining whether an influencer is legit. 

The Different Types of Influencers

As you’re researching influencers, you may have stumbled across these terms: mega, micro, macro, and nano. What in the world do they mean? Influencers are categorized by the number of followers. A mega influencer, for example, has millions of followers. A micro influencer, in contrast, has thousands. It’s important to understand these terms to better find the influencers who you can afford. The more popular they are, the more money you have to pay.

Mega Influencers

Mega influencers have incredibly large followers. People commonly consider someone to be a mega influencer if the following count is at least 1 million. Kim Kardashian, who is followed by 160 million Instagramers, is a perfect example of a mega influencer, a celebrity who uses her social accounts to gain sponsorships with brands.

Kim Kardashian has 160 million followers to date.

As you can imagine, mega influencers are expensive. Back in 2017, Kim Kardashian was known to charge $500,000 per post. That amount is likely to be much higher now. Is hiring a mega influencer the right move for you? Sure, if you have a big budget. Otherwise, it’s better to find someone with less celebrity status.  

Macro Influencers

Macro influencers are a step below mega influencers, with a following that ranges between 40,000 to 1 million. This group is comprised of celebrities who aren’t as famous as mega influencers and regular, everyday people who have become experts in their niche or industry. Sonia Andres (@soniamariandres on Instagram), is an example of a macro influencer, with 536,000 followers to date. Influencers like her usually charge between $1,000 to $3,000 per post, depending on the number of followers and engagement.

Sonia Andres is an example of macro influencer.


Micro Influencers 

Micro influencers typically have 1,000 to 40,000 followers. They are ordinary, everyday Instagram users who focus on one niche. Gabriella Sibaja (@gabriellasibaja on Instagram) is an example of a micro influencer, with 24,000 followers. Micro influencers are more affordable than mega and macro influencers. Gabriella, for example, charges between $150 to $500 per feed post and $60 per Story. Of course, the exact amount depends on the type of content the influencer is publishing and the number of engagement per post.

Nano Influencers

Nano influencers are said to have less than 1,000 followers, but certain agencies consider people with 5,000 to 20,000 followers to be in this category. This type of influencer charges less than micro influencers, but again, the exact amount depends on the post type and engagement numbers. Nano influencers may also be more receptive to receiving free products as payment, but how you compensate influencers for their work should be agreed upon before bringing them to your marketing team.

The type of influencer you choose–mega, macro, micro, nano—depends on your budget. You can use influencer calculator tools, such as Influencer Marketing Hub, to find the typical amount an influencer chargers per post. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t rely too heavily on the amount that tool gives. Always talk with your chosen influencer and finalize a deal before partnering for a campaign. 

Free Influencer Finder Tools

Spending hours scouring the internet for the right influencer is exhausting and time-consuming. Fortunately, free tools that help you find influencers according to rank, countries, and categories exist. 

Hype Auditor

Hype Auditor helps you find influencers according to their global rank, quality of followers, and number of engagement. The reports also include the main topics the influencer posts about and the country where the followers are located. 

Hype Auditor / YouTube

Upfluence

Upfluence gives you real-time information on influencers, including audience demographics, brand mentions, engagement rate, and cost per post. You can search for influencers according to keywords, location, social media platform, or number of followers. Upfluence is also available as a Chrome plugin. 

Upfluence Inc. / YouTube

Post for Rent

Post for Rent is a tool used by both brands and influencers to find one another. You create a profile about your brand, describe the type of influencers you seek, and wait for them to apply. Alternatively, you can manually search for influencers yourself. Each influencer profile contains rankings and reviews that help you determine which one is best.

Post for Rent / YouTube

Things to Do Before Hiring an Influencer

Because influencers have a large social media following, they are useful partners for brands reaching big audiences. According to an Emarketer study, 89% of marketers believe influencers have a positive impact for brands on consumers. Yet, an influencer who has a massive following isn’t necessarily a good fit for your brand. Finding the right influencer takes some research and careful consideration. Here are seven things you should do before hiring an influencer.

Look for Common Interests

It’s important to find an influencer relevant to your brand. If you own a clothing store, and you want to promote your latest lookbook, find an influencer who will be a logical fit, like a beauty guru, model, or stylist, someone who is interested in fashion. It won’t make sense to hire a food journalist or a public speaker.

Similarly, if you’re promoting travel services, find an influencer who is a travel or lifestyle blogger, not a hardcore video gamer who knows nothing about travel. To find the right fit, write down your brand’s goals so you can clearly identify the influencers who best align with them.

Determine the Platform You’re Using

Does your brand perform better on certain social media platforms than others? Do you want to see growth on a particular platform? This is an important factor to consider when choosing an influencer. If you’re focusing on Facebook, don’t choose an influencer who primarily uses Snapchat. Both platforms are drastically different, featuring different tools (Snaps versus News Feed) and catering to different audiences (millennials versus gen Zs). Research influencers based on their popularity on the platforms you want to focus on then find the one who is the most successful and active.

Know Your Budget

Base your influencer research on the size of your budget. If you have a small budget, look for an influencer with a smaller following who will charge less per post. If you have a large budget, look for big influencers with a larger following. Buy what you can afford, but don’t underpay influencers for their contribution to your marketing efforts. Crunch the numbers and clearly define your budget. Use influencer calculator tools, such as the one from Instagram Marketing Hub, to determine how much an influencer charges per post.

Instagram Marketing Hub offers a free influencer calculator tool.


Make Sure the Influencer Is Legit

An unfortunate byproduct of social media platforms is the creation of fake accounts and bot followers. When researching influencers, double check that their followers aren’t fake. Sometimes users who want to look like influencers buy followers to falsify a reputation.

To spot a fake influencer, check the account’s engagement-to-followers ratio. Does the account appear to have more followers than would make sense when you look at its post engagement? If an Instagram account shows a significant number of followers but has little to no engagement on many of its posts, it’s probably fake.

You can also use an easy mathematical calculation to determine an account’s engagement rate. Take the average number of engagement an influencer gets per post and divide it by the number of followers. You can also check the profiles of an influencer’s followers to see if they’re bots. An account is likely a bot if it has the following red flags:

It has a maxed-out following count. Instagram only allows you to follow up to 7,500 users. It’s rare for an account to reach the maximum unless it was set up to automatically follow other fake accounts.It posts low-quality stock photos. If a profile only posts random photos of beautiful people or includes spam-like text, it’s definitely fake.It has very few posts. A fake Instagram profile sometimes has only two to five posts (along with a low-quality profile picture).

There are tools that help you spot fake accounts. SocialBlade is a popular one because it generates charts of day-to-day behaviors. For example, you can see if there’s a dramatic spike or drop in an influencer’s following. Such patterns indicate that an influencer is probably recruiting fake followers.

Make Sure the Influencer Is Appropriate for Your Brand

Some brands are more casual with their personas than others, based on what works with their product, service, or mission. For example, if you own a razor store, you may want a more conversational or humorous voice for all of your promotional messages. In contrast, if you own a business that sells religious items, you may want a more professional or respectful tone.

The influencer you choose should be appropriate for your brand’s persona, using a style or approach that won’t contradict yours. For example, you don’t want to hire an influencer who posts provocative pictures if your brand is family-oriented. If the content is not appropriate for your brand, the influencer is not for you.

Look At the Influencer’s Audience

Before you decide that an influencer is right for your brand, research the audience. You want someone who will attract followers similar to yours. Write down the traits of your target audience, including geographical location, age, religion, education, gender, ethnicity, and income. Does the influencer have an audience that matches your requirements? If the answer is yes, you’re heading in the right direction. You can see reports on influencers’ audience using the aforementioned influencer search tools.

Hype Auditor shows you audience information.


Gauge Their Interest

Some influencers only want to make money, unwilling to engage with your brand. You don’t want to waste money on someone who isn’t willing to familiarize with your products or services because followers can tell when an influencer is saying what a brand wants them to say. You want an influencer to be invested in your brand, who can get followers excited about your offer. Screen potential influencers to get a sense of their interest.

Take the Lead

Once you’ve chosen an influencer who will best benefit your brand, get ready to grow. If you put in the work and research to find the right person, both you and your new influencer will reap mutual rewards. Your brand will be at the head of the pack before you know it.

More Tips from Influencer Marketing Expert

If you want to learn more about hiring the right influencers for your brand, listen to the podcast below.

By Anne Felicitas and Anna Hubbel 

The post How to Find the Right Instagram Influencers for Your Brand appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

Growing Your Business with TikTok Marketing

FEB. 18, 2020

Kon Karampelas / Unsplash

The digital world is always evolving, and businesses need to find new ways to keep up. TikTok, for example, has recently sprouted in popularity. This new surge of growth on the video platform has resulted in many business owners wondering whether they need to integrate it into their digital marketing strategy. Many also struggle with how to exactly use it for their businesses. For this reason, we’re going to discuss what TikTok is and how you can use TikTok marketing to gain more customers.

What Is TikTok?

TikTok is a video-sharing platform, where you can create short-form 15-second videos ranging from a variety of topics. TikTok offers a wide selection of sounds and songs in snippet form and special effects and filters to add to the videos straight from your mobile device.

Additionally, TikTok gives you an interesting way to share posts with your audience. TikTok has a traditional sharing feature, but you can also share posts through reactions. This means you can share videos of yourself reacting to other people’s TikTok content. 

TikTok Growth Trends

TikTok has a very specific audience. With more than 1.5 billion users, two-thirds of TikTok users are under 30 years old. In fact, 60% of the app’s monthly active users in the U.S. are 16 to 24 years old. It’s safe to say that TikTok is a platform for millennials and gen Zs.

When analyzing TikTok’s growth trends, the results are almost unbelievable. TikTok generated more than 660 million worldwide downloads in 2018. This statistic is interesting, considering the app received 130 million downloads in 2017. That’s an astonishing 416% increase in growth, making TikTok a promising platform to use for marketing.

Although TikTok is still a relatively new social media platform compared to others, it is certainly a close competitor. In the U.S. alone, TikTok’s monthly downloads saw a steady climb of 1.5 billion, beating out Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat. The app also managed to surpass established platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest. 

Promoting Your Business on TikTok

TikTok is popular because it allows users to make authentic videos. This means that TikTok is a great opportunity for you to connect with your audience by creating videos that are both genuine and engaging. TikTok may cater to a relatively young audience, but this same audience has buying power. In fact, millennials alone spend $600 billion in the U.S. per year, with 63% making online purchases from their smartphones. Here are a few ways to promote your business on TikTok.

Join Hashtag Challenges

A hashtag challenge is an excellent way to get people to talk about your business. The goal of a hashtag challenge is to encourage users on TikTok to create or recreate content with your hashtag as their focus.

@zachking

Even art gets hungry sometimes. Check out the kindsnacks #KINDSimpleCrunchContest #ad

♬ original sound – zachking

Zach King / TikTok

You can encourage your audience to make a video using your product and your branded hashtag. The more people you can get to talk about your business, the quicker it will be shared with others. Hashtag challenges are extremely catchy and many users are eager to take part in these challenges.

Create Fun and Engaging Content

If you haven’t realized by now, TikTok is all about fun and creativity. These short-form videos quickly capture the attention of users because of their entertaining nature.

You may be used to creating polished videos packed with insightful information. Although long-form videos are certainly still relevant, TikTok gives you the opportunity to create content that is more laid back, that focuses more on having fun and connecting with your audience. What’s even better is that it’s completely free to do so. 

With that said, you don’t need to feel the pressure of creating meme-worthy content. You can simply create a video with background music showing off your product. The goal is to keep videos light-hearted while still managing to highlight your product offering.

Hire Influencers

Although TikTok is still in its early stages of advertising, there’s still plenty of opportunities for you to take advantage of the platform. One way to advertise on TikTok is through influencers. Just as with other top social platforms, you can leverage TikTok influencers to promote your business.

Collaborating with influencers to promote your products or services is an effective way to get the word out. This means you need to scan influencers who align with the kind of products you offer for the best results.

Pay for Advertising

In addition, you can leverage TikTok’s official paid advertising program. TikTok’s advertising features aren’t on the same level as other social platforms; however, it’s still worth looking into for your business. TikTok currently offers three types of paid advertisements: Native Ads, Takeover Ads, and Hashtag Challenge.

TikTok / ads.tiktok.com



Native Ads: TikTok’s in-feed native ads allow you to serve ads to YouTube users by bidding for spots.Brand Takeovers: A brand takeover ad means that your ad will play the moment a targeted TikTok user opens the app. If users are interested, they will hopefully click on the link, which then takes them to your content.Hashtag Challenge: We’ve already discussed hashtag challenges. However, you can turn your hashtag challenge into an ad to make more users aware of the challenge if you’re not seeing the results you want.


What Are TikTok Ads?

In addition to the Native Ads, Brand Takeovers, and Hashtag Challenges, TikTok also offers shoppable ads and branded TikTok stickers. The shoppable ad format is also known as Hashtag Challenge Plus. This feature adds a shoppable component to hashtag challenge ads by allowing users to explore products and visit your website where they can complete the checkout process. Branded TikTok stickers can also entice users to engage with your brand’s content. This provides users with a more interactive experience that’s less intrusive than traditional ads.

How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on TikTok?

Because ads on the TikTok platform are fairly new and rare, it will be more expensive to run ads compared to other platforms. The price of your TikTok ad campaign depends on the type of ads you run. TikTok’s in-feed ads start at an average of $10 per CPM. Expect to spend at least $6,000 on campaigns using in-feed ads.

There’s also a brand takeover option, which displays a full-screen ad when a user first opens TikTok. It can either be a three-second image or a three- to five-second GIF. You can link the ad to your brand’s landing page or a Hashtag Challenge with TikTok. Brand Takeover Ads cost $20,000 to $50,000. Additionally, if you wanted to run a Hashtag Challenge, you must pay a flat fee of $150,000 for six days. You’d also need additional funds to promote the challenge. In all, expect a budget of $150,000 to $200,000. 

Overall, if you’re going for a larger campaign, the budget can go up to $300,000. If you have a smaller budget, and you’re looking for more affordable advertising options, TikTok may not be the right fit for you because you need a minimum of $500 to get started. 

Which Brands Use TikTok?

Over the years, TikTok has seen explosive growth in its number of monthly active users. Today, TikTok’s popularity is steadily increasing, so it makes sense that major brands are leveraging the platform to get more exposure to customers, especially younger audiences. Which brands are using TikTok and how are they using it?

NBA

The NBA has been leveraging the power of TikTok since the platform’s early days. The brand is constantly putting out exclusive and unique content on TikTok, which usually consists of game highlights, inspirational quotes and music montages. The brand uses musical features available on the TikTok platform to lighten up their brand and make their athletes more relatable. The NBA is a great example of a brand that brilliantly shows off its personal side, which makes it more likely for users to engage with them.

Fortnite

Fortnite is already killing it with over one million followers. Its first campaign invited users to join its #EmoteRoyaleChallenge, which encouraged people to create their own dances. Winners of the challenge would get their very own emote in the game. As you can imagine, gamers couldn’t resist the challenge of possibly making an appearance in the Fortnite game. As a result, the hashtag has been used more than 250 million times.

Guess

Guess was the first brand to launch a challenge on TikTok. The #InMyDenim challenge encouraged users to take videos of themselves in interesting places while wearing Guess’s new denim line. Guess’s #InMyDenim challenge is an excellent example of a challenge that can quickly spread product-based awareness on a highly visual platform like TikTok. This challenge works so well because it shows off clothing worn by real people. When TikTok users see an outfit featured in the challenge, they might feel compelled to go out and buy it for themselves.

Chipotle

Chipotle is another popular brand that uses creativity to boost engagement on TikTok. For example, the company posts memes and music to highlight menu items. This is a fun way to show users and potential customers the Chipotle menu. Chipotle has also been successful in creating a viral TikTok marketing campaign with the use of National Avocado Day. On this particular day, people are encouraged to make avocados a part of their diet, and restaurants are urged to add avocado in some form to their dishes.

Chipotle started a dance challenge on TikTok using the hashtag #GuacDanceChallenge. The challenge urged users to create a dance dedicated to the fruit. The fast-food chain received over 250,000 video submissions. It turned out that the challenge was one of TikTok’s highest performing campaigns in the U.S.

Looking at what these brands have accomplished should give you an idea of the massive reach you can generate with TikTok.

Is TikTok Good for Influencer Marketing?

Because TikTok is relatively new, you may be having doubts about starting an influencer campaign on the platform, but the answer is a resounding yes. You can reach a vast audience using influencers on TikTok. Users spend about 52 minutes per day on the app. That’s extremely close to the number of minutes people are using other popular apps, like Facebook (53 minutes), Instagram (58 minutes), and Snapchat (49.5 minutes). Users open the app eight times a day and individual sessions on the app are the longest at 4.9 minutes. 

But what does all this have to do with influencer marketing? One word: engagement. Because users are logging into the app so often, they have ample opportunity to see influencers who post high-quality, attention-grabbing videos that are in line with your brand. 

One great example of the reach influencers have on TikTok is Victoria Bachlet’s back-to-school video promoting Target products. Bachlet has 2.9 million TikTok followers and posts about parties, self-care, and other topics teens or young adult women can relate to. Her content is on-brand with Target and aligns well with its audience because a lot of young people enjoy shopping at the store. You can follow a similar strategy for your influencer marketing campaign on TikTok, although your campaign will differ based on the products or services you offer, the audience you’re targeting, and the type of content that relates to your brand.

Should Businesses Use TikTok?

Ultimately, you should focus your marketing efforts on where your customers are. TikTok is a fast-growing platform that has a promising future for those who want to create engaging content to attract their audience, increase their brand’s visibility, and increase revenue.

With that said, TikTok is catered to a younger demographic, which means that businesses that have a significant market dedicated to millenials and gen Zs will probably see the most success with this platform.

By Malasia Johnson and Britney Sanders

The post Growing Your Business with TikTok Marketing appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

New Ad Takes Users to Your Instagram Direct

FEB. 13, 2020

Photo courtesy of Facebook Business

Instagram now allows you to bring users to your Direct conversation. The new feature was discovered today by one of AdvertiseMint’s digital marketers, Christian Sierra. 

With the new Instagram Direct option, your Click-to-Messenger ads will take users to your Instagram Direct, where they can start a conversation with your business. To use this feature, you must choose “Messages” as your objective; otherwise, it will not appear to you. 

Previously, advertisers could only direct users to Messenger or WhatsApp. Now Instagram is opening its platform for more ads. Earlier this week, social media informant and software engineer Jane Manchun Wong discovered a test that allows content creators to run ads in their IGTV videos. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri confirmed the test in a Tweet:

It’s no secret that we’ve been exploring this. We focused first on making sure the product had legs — else there would be little to monetize in the first place. IGTV is still in its early days, but it’s growing and so we’re exploring more ways to make it sustainable for creators.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) February 7, 2020

“It’s no secret that we’ve been exploring this,” says Mosseri in his Tweet. “We focused first on making sure the product had legs—else there would be little to monetize in the first place. IGTV is still in its early days, but it’s growing and so we’re exploring more ways to make it sustainable for creators.”

How to Bring Users to Your Instagram Direct

To create ads that take users to your Instagram Direct conversation, you must follow these two steps. 

Step 1: Choose “Messages” as an objective.

Step 2: Under “Message Destination” click “Instagram Direct.”

When tying Direct to advertising, Instagram must proceed with caution. Users may not mind ads that bring them to the messaging windows of their favorite businesses, but should Instagram choose to bring ads within Direct, as Facebook did with Messenger, users may not be so forgiving. Messaging spaces are private and sacred—bringing in ads may feel too invasive.

By Anne Felicitas

The post New Ad Takes Users to Your Instagram Direct appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

11 Email Marketing Tips Backed by Stats

FEB. 11, 2020

Email marketing is an older technique that doesn’t get the credit it deserves. With digital marketing advancing at a great rate, it’s easy to forget about our old standbys, such as email marketing, even though this one technique has stood the test of time. This post looks at email marketing tips informed by statistics that help you get the strategy right from day one.

Tip 1: Use Social Media and Email Marketing Campaigns Together

Emails might well be the workhorses of digital marketing. The total number of emails whizzing about online is around 205.6 billion a day. Of that total, only around 88 billion are legitimate business emails and around 12 billion are spam. 

When it comes to choosing a campaign—social media or email—the answer is to use both concurrently. In fact, companies see a 30% increase in their gross return when combining email and Facebook marketing. Granted, consumers in the United States interact with companies through emails more than they do with social media, but you should still account for the audience that mostly communicates with brands through social media platforms.

Tip 2: Use Gender-Neutral Language in Emails

Men and women are evenly matched when it comes to the devices they use to read emails. Men are more likely to read emails on their phones. Women are more likely to read emails on a tablet. Men are more likely to open your email. Women, in contrast, spend more time checking their emails. Women are also more likely to read marketing messages. When emailing women, it’s better to stick to gender-neutral language.

Tip 3: Avoid Spam Words in Subject Line

Email marketing has started to fall out of favor because it can be difficult to walk the line between useful and spam. Recipients mark a third of their marketing emails as spam off the bat. The biggest sin here is sending too many irrelevant emails.

It’s also worth noting that you must be careful with the language you use. Anti-spam software has become a lot more advanced in the last few years, thanks to artificial intelligence, which is now capable of understanding the context of messages. This means you need to draft your message very carefully. Avoid spam words in the subject line, such as “percent off,” “make money,” “collect,” “clearance,” and “claim.”

Tip 4: Automate Your Emails

More than half of the most successful companies use software that allows for email automation. This software is highly sophisticated and sends emails at trigger points you identify. You can use these automated emails to provide more information, follow up on leads, and keep in touch with clients. MailChimp is one user-friendly automation software you can use for your email marketing campaigns. You can also use Omnisend, SendPulse, and Hubspot, among numerous others.

Tip 5: Segment Your Audience for Bigger Revenue

Email marketing, performed correctly, has a significant impact on revenues. Companies using an automated system earn as much as 50% more per campaign. Companies that segment their lists using audience optimization strategies see an increase of 14% in category sales.

It’s become clear that companies can no longer rely on generic email blasts. The returns are better when using carefully segmented lists, which could focus on previous purchases or the customer’s stage in the buying cycle.

Tip 6: Include Calls to Action

More than half of your recipients take no further action after reading your email. Just under a quarter of recipients will buy online. Ninety-four percent of clients will consider buying online at least some of the time. You can push recipients into committing a desired action by including a call to action in your emails, whether that’s “buy now” for purchase, “read now” for articles, or “watch now” for videos.

Tip 7: Personalize Email Campaigns

Personalization of your campaigns is the most important step to take if you want to improve your CTR. You can bump up results even more by using the recipient’s name in the subject line.

Using social-sharing buttons can improve CTR by as much as 158%. It’s also essential to get your timing right. Interestingly enough, emails sent at 6 a.m. have the best CTR. The best day to send emails seems to be Saturday.

Experiment a bit with the day and time that you send your emails. Work out when your audience is most likely able to read the messages then stick to that time slot in the future.

Tip 8: Optimize Emails for the Right Device

Conversion rates are best on iPhones. This could be because people who can afford iPhones have more disposable income. Desktops come in a close second. Android devices account for just 8.68% of conversions overall.

The lowest conversion rates come from Blackberry devices. Do they even make those anymore? A little research shows that the devices are still in production but under license with a different company.

Tip 9: Create Targeted Campaigns for Better ROI

Working out your ROI on email marketing can be tricky. Marketers tend to focus on conversion rates as a measure of success, although it’s not an ideal way to measure return because clients may not buy straight away.

Email marketing, performed correctly, can earn you $38 per every $1 spent. More than three-quarters of the revenue is earned when campaigns are targeted.

Tip 10: Optimize for Mobile Devices

Still not optimizing your emails for mobile? That’s a big mistake — three-quarters of consumers check their emails on their phones. Again, the iPhone comes out on top as the device to read emails on.  

Tip 11: Avoid These Common Email Marketing Mistakes

To ensure your marketing messages are received well by your recipients, make sure to avoid the top mistakes, which include sending generic, untargeted emails (remember to segment your audience); neglecting to use triggered emails, and using a sender address that’s unrelated to your business name.

Final Notes

As it turns out, email marketing is still one of the best marketing methods. That said, you do have to change your approach a little. You must use targeted emails and take advantage of email automation. In the future, personalization and automation will play a bigger part in campaigns. There will also be more integration with other marketing channels. Email marketing is not going anywhere any time soon.

Full Email Marketing Infographic

The stats referenced for this article were taken from an Every Cloud infographic on email marketing.

The post 11 Email Marketing Tips Backed by Stats appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

Instagram Tests Ads in IGTV

FEB. 10, 2020

Instagram is testing ads in IGTV. In this program, content creators can run ads in their videos for extra cash. 

The test was uncovered by Jane Manchun Wong, software engineer and social media informant. Wong shared her discovery on Twitter, which includes a screenshot of the Instagram Partner Program Monetization Tool, the dashboard where content creators can enable ads for their videos.

Instagram is working on IGTV Ads to let influencers monetize their content by running short ads on their IGTV Videos pic.twitter.com/wOhbnpsfjL

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 7, 2020

The screenshot captures a message describing the tool:

“You can earn money by running short ads on your IGTV videos. When you monetize on IGTV, you agree to follow the Partner Program Monetization policies.”

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri confirmed the test in a Tweet to TechCrunch’s Editor at Large, who published a story about the IGTV test:

“It’s no secret that we’ve been exploring this,” says Mosseri in his Tweet. “We focused first on making sure the product had legs—else there would be little to monetize in the first place. IGTV is still in its early days, but it’s growing and so we’re exploring more ways to make it sustainable for creators.”

It’s no secret that we’ve been exploring this. We focused first on making sure the product had legs — else there would be little to monetize in the first place. IGTV is still in its early days, but it’s growing and so we’re exploring more ways to make it sustainable for creators.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) February 7, 2020

Although not as popular as Instagram’s other features—Stories, Discover, Direct—Mosseri’s response shows that the company sees potential growth in IGTV. After all, if IGTV doesn’t seem capable of bringing revenue to the company and value to users, there’s no point monetizing it. 

Even with Mosseri confirming the IGTV test, Instagram is coy with the details. 

Alexandru Voica, EMEA Communications Manager at Facebook, says the company is still exploring ways to help content creators monetize their IGTV content but refuses to share more information:

“We continue to explore ways to help creators monetize with IGTV. We don’t have more details to share now, but we will as they develop further.”

We continue to explore ways to help creators monetize with IGTV. We don’t have more details to share now, but we will as they develop further. https://t.co/gadf9TJaBE

— Alexandru Voica (will be at #MWC20) (@alexvoica) February 7, 2020

IGTV is Instagram’s long-form video hub, rolled out in 2018. When this new feature was launched, then Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom admitted that IGTV was a “very reasonable place” for ads to appear, although at that time the company did not express interest in monetization.

Ads in IGTV seem like a natural progression, given Instagram’s history with monetizing its products. Since being acquired by Facebook, Instagram has inserted ads in almost all of its features, including the feed, Stories, and recently Explore.

If all goes well, Instagram adds another revenue stream, an important move at a time when social media apps are becoming oversaturated with advertisements. It is also a major win for content creators, who are given another opportunity at making money off of the videos they produce. The only group left to get on board are the regular users, who may or may not take kindly to more ads interrupting their experience. 

Written by Anne Felicitas, editor

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7 Benefits of Using Facebook Advertising for Your Business

FEB. 10, 2020

Tobias Dziuba / Pexels

With almost 2.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is one of the most popular social networks in the world. However, some businesses don’t realize that Facebook is also one of the largest social media advertising platforms. If optimized wisely, Facebook ads can do wonders for your business. If you’re not leveraging the benefits of Facebook advertising yet, you’re surely missing out on many business opportunities.

You should advertise on Facebook, especially in the year 2020. Here are the reasons why.

1. Facebook Advertising Is Effective

Started as a student-only social-networking service in 2004, Facebook has become a significant part of people’s lives today. Considering the number of its daily active users, this trend does not seem to change soon. According to Facebook, the company has been continuously seeing an increase in its advertising revenue year after year, proof that businesses are finding Facebook ads effective. It’s not a surprise that businesses invest in Facebook ads, especially when Facebook users are also active buyers. In a survey, 44% of consumers admitted that Facebook influences their shopping decisions. 

2. Facebook Provides Advanced Targeting Tools

One of the major advantages of Facebook advertising is its wide range of targeting and retargeting options that allow you to reach your prospective customers. Facebook allows you to advertise to an audience based on location, age, behavior, and interests. Therefore, your ads are shown to people who have the potential to buy your product or service.  

Facebook gives adequate flexibility when it comes to creating ads, which are so customizable that you can create advertisements that best reflect your business. The platform allows you to choose the type of ad, target audience, and budget. Additionally, you can customize your ad campaign according to your marketing goals, whether you want to grow your page likes, website clicks, or improve post engagement. Facebook has even been used for political campaigns, due to its precise targeting. Candidates run Facebook political ads to influence targeted voters.

3. Facebook Advertising Is Budget Friendly

In comparison to traditional marketing, Facebook advertising is cheaper. You can advertise your product to 1,000 people for $5 to $8 if the campaign is done well. In traditional advertising, you might have to pay up to $50 to show your business to the same amount of people.    

If you are wondering how much it costs to advertise on Facebook, visit the Facebook for Business page.

4. Facebook Users Are Engaged

Customer engagement plays a significant role in the success of an online business. Not only does it build trust, but it also maintains the interest of your customers toward your product or service. However,  pictures and texts alone may not generate the engagement you need. If that is the case, there are plenty of other ways you can engage your audience on Facebook. For instance, you can get a Messenger bot to improve your communication with customers, post live videos, or leverage Facebook groups.

5. Facebook Provides Free Analytics



Lukas / Pexels

Facebook gives you comprehensive report and analytics on the performance of your ad campaigns. The reports are updated in real time, so you can immediately see what is and isn’t working as soon as your campaigns run.

You can view your social metrics and conversion rates within Ads Manager. You will see numbers on page likes, post engagement, weekly reach, performance, and more. When you have access to such data, you can easily adjust your Facebook ads based on what’s required. Facebook offers you so much flexibility when it comes to tracking the progress of ad campaigns. Since you can track and measure even small details, you can better plan your strategies.

6. Facebook Provides Effective Remarketing Tools

Over the past few years, Facebook has evolved into a robust marketing machine, through which any business can extend its reach. Facebook remarketing is one of the most excellent ways to reach visitors who saw your products or services in the past, who are still in the awareness stage. 

Suppose a person sees your product on Facebook or your site. He looks at your product and goes further without making a purchase, even though he had a little interest. Remarketing helps you show your product again to that person in the future. Maybe you can give a better price or exciting offer this time, improving your chance of converting that lead.

This is why Facebook remarketing is effective:

Because Facebook is a recreational platform, people use it during their downtime. It means you can remarket your product when they’re entirely available.You can integrate the Facebook Pixel on your website to help you target a specific audience. For example, you can show your ads to people who visited your website for a certain amount of time.Facebook drives higher conversions comparatively. Because your business becomes more recognizable on Facebook, the chances of converting your target audience increases. 



7. Facebook Offers Custom Calls to Action

Another great advantage of Facebook advertising is its custom call-to-actions (CTAs) that can help you improve your conversion rates. A call-to-action button enables you to give your potential customer explicit instructions on what exactly you want them to do, such as signing up for a subscription, watching a video, or using an app. CTAs certainly make a big difference in the performance of your ads. According to a report by Ad Roll, adding CTAs to your Facebook page can increase CTR rates by up to 285%.

Facebook currently offers the following CTAs:

Book NowContact UsPlay GameSign UpDownloadLearn moreUse AppWatch Video



Final Words

Facebook advertising has become a popular method for businesses to grow their brand awareness, sales, and leads. The list of Facebook advertising benefits are numerous. However, you can leverage Facebook ads to fullest only when you know how to run your ad campaigns correctly. If you are not sure how to get the maximum benefits out of Facebook advertising, it is advisable to work with an agency that specializes in Facebook ads. 

Written by Roman Daneghyan

The post 7 Benefits of Using Facebook Advertising for Your Business appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

New Instagram Sorting Feature Shows Who Appears on Your Feed the Most

FEB. 6, 2020

Seeing John Smith’s thirst trap is amusing the first, second, and third time you see it on your Instagram feed. Seeing it multiple times a day every day, however, can become a nuisance. 

A new Instagram feature called “Categories” allows you to moderate the visibility of your followers. It shows you the people you see the most often on your feed and the followers you interact with the least within the past 90 days. You can access this feature by going to the Following list on your profile.

When clicking one of the categories, you are given options to control how often you see the posts of a certain follower. You can choose to receive notifications when a follower posts an image, video, or live Story or mute followers you see too often on your feed. For live videos, you can further make adjustments to the way you receive notifications by choosing to receive all, some (only those that the algorithm determines to be of interest to you), or none.

Instagram already has a sorting feature in place, one that has been part of the app for some months. It allows you to rearrange your followers according to the earliest followed or the latest followed. This latest addition helps you find your most valued followers and decide whether you want to see more of your cherished accounts or less of your not-so-beloved followers.

Categories is not yet available to all users. Some may have it while some may not.

And now, a brief tutorial on how to organize and manage your followers.

How to See Who Appears on Your Instagram Feed the Most

Step 1: Go to the Following list on your profile.

Step 2: Click “Least Interacted With.”

How to See Instagram Accounts You Interact with the Least

Step 1: Go to the Following list on your profile.

Step 2: Click “Most Shown in Feed.”

How to Sort Instagram Following from Recent to Latest

Step 1: Go to the Following list on your profile.

Step 2: Click the arrows next to “Sort by Default.”

Step 3: Choose to sort by latest followed or earliest followed.

How to Mute or Restrict Instagram Accounts

Step 1: Go to an Instagram account you follow.

Step 2: Click “Following” tab under account bio.

Step 2: Click “Mute.” Mute posts, stories, or both.

To restrict an Instagram account, follow steps 1 to 2, and click “Restrict Account.” When restricting an account, you prevent that user’s comments from appearing on your posts and their messages from appearing in Direct without your permission.

How to Receive Notifications When Specific Instagram Accounts Post

Step 1: Go to the Following list on your profile.

Step 2: Click “Least Interacted With” or “Most Shown in Feed.”

Step 2: Choose to see notifications for images and videos or live Stories.

By Anne Felicitas, editor

The post New Instagram Sorting Feature Shows Who Appears on Your Feed the Most appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

(Updated Feb. 5, 2020) Top Perks of Audience Network’s In-Stream Video as Placement in Reach and Frequency Buying

Update FEB. 5, 2020: Facebook shuts down Audience Network web and in-stream placements.

Today Facebook announced that it will no longer offer the Audience Network web and in-stream placements starting April 11. 

In the announcement, the social media company cited demand as the reason for this change. Facebook says, “We see growing demand from partners, which is in other formats across mobile apps.”

Facebook warns advertisers that their ad results may fluctuate between today and April 11. The company also says it will stop responding to bid and ad requests for web and in-stream placements.

Facebook outlines the next steps for advertisers in preparing for this change:

If using demand partners or a mediation platform, remove Audience Network from the setup


Remove Audience Network from waterfall and bidding integrations


Remove all web and in-stream ad placements


Contact integration partner about the web and in-stream placement phase out

Account holders will still be able to access their data and reports 6 months after April 11. They can also still access their Monetization Manager accounts. 

Those with pending final payments will receive them on the 22nd of the month.

November 2, 2017
Anna Hubbel

Attention advertisers who use in-stream video: Facebook has heard your cries. Facebook recently announced that Audience Network in-stream video is now available as a placement for reach and frequency campaigns.

Advertisers can now use #AudienceNetwork in-stream #video as placement in #reach and #frequency buying. #digitaladvertising
Click To Tweet

Audience Network In-Stream Video

With Audience Network in-stream video, advertisers receive the following perks:

Longer video view duration-Gain longer durations of ad views that last up to 15 seconds.
Higher completed views per impression-According to Facebook, Audience Network has a view completion rate of 75 percent for in-stream video ad impressions.
More in-stream ads delivered with the sound on-Facebook says 93 percent of Audience Network in-stream videos are delivered with the sound on, which better captures the viewer’s attention.

This latest update, according to Facebook, allows advertisers to use the automatic placements functionality to reach more viewers in reach and frequency campaigns using in-stream video.

Audience Network’s category exclusions and block lists are also applicable for such in-stream video campaigns.

Learn more about Facebook’s in-stream video ad options.

The post (Updated Feb. 5, 2020) Top Perks of Audience Network’s In-Stream Video as Placement in Reach and Frequency Buying appeared first on AdvertiseMint.

How to Run Facebook Political Ads

FEB. 3, 2020

Element5 Digital / Unsplash

Millions of people in the United States use Facebook to connect and share ideas, so it’s the perfect platform to spread the word about a political candidate. As the 2020 election quickly approaches, now is a great time to start planning a digital strategy for your political campaign. Here you’ll learn how to run Facebook political ads and get your message out to the people who need to see it the most. 

Getting Started

The first thing you’ll need is a Facebook page, the account from which you will run political ads. When you create a page within Facebook, you’ll be given the option to choose a category for the page. You can choose “Politician” or “Political Organization” to let people know what kind of page this is. Once your page is up and running, you’ll need a profile picture, a cover photo, and maybe even a video pinned to the top of your feed. Adding these assets can make the page more attractive to the audience, and they can help you seem more authentic and in-touch with the people you’re communicating with. 

You’ll need to set up Facebook Business Manager to manage all aspects of your page. You’ll also need a budget to run advertisements and a credit card to pay for the ads. Once you have these basics out of the way, it’s time to build your campaign from the ground up to make sure it’s effective at reaching people.

Targeting the Right Audience

You want to make sure that your Facebook political ads are getting in front of the right eyes. Facebook lets you target audiences based on certain demographics, such as age, gender, interests, and location. It’s best to narrow down your audience by location first because it’s likely that you only want people in your district to see your political ads. You can target your entire district or parts of it.

After you’ve narrowed down the location, it can be helpful to target people based on their interests. For example, you can target individuals who have said they are interested in politics or issues that are at the forefront of your campaign, such as education or the environment. You can also target those who have expressed an interest in the political candidate of your campaign. You can create different ads for different demographics and test different ad content between different groups to see what is most effective at getting people to click on your ad.

In addition to the interest, behavioral, and demographic audience you build, you can also create a Lookalike Audience using the contact list you upload. A Lookalike audience is similar to audiences you’ve targeted in the past but has a wider reach.  You can also target visitors to your website, your own personal database of voters, and people who have engaged with you on Facebook in the past.

Creating an Effective Ad

Once you have found the perfect audience to target with your Facebook political ads, it’s important to make sure your message is clear and concise. When building an ad in Facebook Ads Manager, you can pick an objective for your ad campaign. This is an important step, as it can help Facebook optimize how it delivers your ads.  

You’ll likely choose two of these objectives, brand awareness (getting your ad in front of as many people as possible) or traffic (getting people to visit your website). Depending on which of these makes the most sense for your campaign at the moment, Facebook will take a different strategy towards delivering your ads.

Facebook does a lot of the legwork when it comes to creating an ad, but you still have a few things to think about when it comes to your messaging. You have to think about exactly what you want to say and how to say it in a short and direct way. You’ll have to think of a headline and a few short words that explain your message. You also want to choose an image that catches peoples’ eyes as they’re scrolling through their News Feed. You only have a few seconds to make an impact, so be sure to choose your words and images wisely. If you have a post on your page’s newsfeed that’s performing well, you can choose to turn this into an ad.

You’ll also most likely want to include a call to action. This instructs the person viewing the ad what step to take next, such as visiting your website to learn more. Including a simple call to action can increase your click-through rate (the number of people who click on your ad). You can include this call-to-action as a text or button. 

Tracking Your Performance

Once your ad has been up and running for a while, it’s time to examine whether or not it has been doing its job. Here are some metrics to keep an eye on:

Click-through rate (CTR). If a lot of people are clicking on your ad then dropping off after they get to your website, it’s likely that your ad is great (after all, it got them to click), but they aren’t sure what to do when they get to your site. It can be helpful to create a landing page on your site that will tell them what to do next. Conversion rate. This is the rate at which your ad visitor did what you wanted them to, such as donating or signing up for your email list.   Cost per acquisition (CPA) . This number is calculated by dividing the amount of money you spent on an ad campaign by the number of conversions you received. 

Once you know these statistics, you can start to figure out whether your ad is working in the way you need it to. The great thing about Facebook political ads is that you can learn from experience along the way and keep building better ads. Even if you don’t get great results from the start, don’t get discouraged. Your message is important to voters, and it’s worth the effort to spread the word. 

Tips for Running Facebook Political Ads

The Government and Politics on Facebook group shared a series of live videos that offered useful advice to candidates on how to run successful Facebook political ads. This article shares the tips that the Facebook team shared in the last video of the series so you can jumpstart your campaign for the 2020 US election.

Use Candidate Videos

For midterm elections, Facebook released a new feature that helps you reach your constituents. You can create 20-second candidate videos that share your message and explain your political views. Anyone from governor to city council candidates, excluding assessor and judicial races, can upload candidate videos. Facebook provides appropriate, election-relevant questions you should answer.

To upload a candidate video, simply navigate to your Facebook page and go to Publishing Tools. Select Political Content, then upload your video. When you publish a candidate video, you can view it under the “Broadcasts” tab if you’re a page admin. Your audience will see the video in their News Feeds.

Candidates can create and upload videos in the days leading up to the election. If both candidates in a race upload videos, users will see them side by side.

If you’re unsure how to make a candidate video, you can find the Video Creation Tool Kit in Ads Manager. You need a few different images, either of yourself or your cause. You can then add text overlay. The tool kit allows you to create a video using one of three template options for mobile-optimized videos.

Optimize Your Video for Mobile



Photo courtesy of Snapchat

You want to optimize your video for mobile because most users look at their social media content on mobile devices. Video that is appropriately optimized for mobile screens has the following characteristics:

Square or vertical format. This ensures that the video takes up as much space as possible in someone’s mobile News Feed. It helps to film content vertically before uploading it.Text overlay. Make sure the video still makes sense if someone watches it without sound.Front-loaded content. The main point or message of your video should be clear within the first few seconds.15 seconds in length. Videos that are 15 seconds or less are ideal for users’ mobile lifestyles.



Optimize Your Ad Delivery

Because Facebook and Instagram are competitive spaces for advertising, getting your political ads out there can be challenging. There are three key ways to optimize your ad delivery:

Broaden your audience. Make your audience as large as possible to reach more people.Look at your bid cap. Having a high bid cap helps with delivery, so consider increasing it. Facebook uses an auction-based system for buying ads. A cap tells the system the highest amount you’re willing to pay for your campaign’s objective. For political and issue ads leading up to an election, it is better to manually, rather than automatically, set a bid cap because it tells Facebook’s system exactly how important it is to get your ads out there.Open up your placements. Use ad placements for Facebook News Feed, Instagram feed, and Instagram Stories to reach more users.

You can pay for ads either through bidding, as previously mentioned, or reach and frequency. Reach and frequency is an option if you have at least 200,000 people in your audience. It allows you to lock in the price you pay. In contrast, with bidding, you don’t know exactly how much you will end up paying. You are bidding on the action you’re optimizing for, such as video views.

Post Often as Election Day Approaches



Photo Reutuers/Danny Moloshok

Normally, Facebook recommends posting three to four times a day. However, in the days leading up to an election, Facebook says that you should share organic posts as many times as you want to reach more constituents.

For political and issue ads, keep in mind that they can take up to 72 hours to be approved. You don’t want to wait too long to submit your ads to publish them before election day.

Schedule Organic Content Cautiously

Although you want to schedule ads well in advance, you need to be more cautious about scheduling organic content. If you schedule a political or issue post, breaking news could make the information in your scheduled post irrelevant or even insensitive.

For candidate videos, since the feature is still relatively new, you should publish them right away after upload.

Submit Ads in Advance

Facebook requires authorization for political ads. Disclaimers also require approval. It takes up to 24 hours to get disclaimers approved, so you should submit or update your disclaimers a few days in advance. Disclaimers should comply with Facebook’s Community Standards. URLs, phone numbers, and acronyms are not allowed in disclaimers, so keep those out to make the approval process go quicker. You do not need authorization to publish candidate videos.

Use the Reach Objective

To reach as many constituents as possible before election day, use Facebook’s reach objective. This objective tells Facebook that reach is the most important goal to you and will keep this in mind when delivering your ad.

Once you launch a reach campaign, you can’t go back and adjust your frequency. Make sure your frequency (i.e. how many times you want your ad to appear to members of your audience) is set before launching. In the days leading up to an election, Facebook recommends setting a high frequency cap.

Use the Issues Tab

The Issues tab is a space on Facebook where you can spend more time in a written format telling constituents about your platform and stance on certain issues. If you want to elaborate on a message from your candidate video, you can do so in the Issues tab. Use it to clearly communicate to voters what you believe in.

Go Live

Facebook Live allows you to communicate with constituents in real time. Live video should be varied, relevant, timely, and authentic.

To generate hype for your live broadcast, post about your plans to go live the day before or send an email blast to get the word out. You should also start the live stream at the exact time you say you will; otherwise you risk losing your audience’s interest.

Opt into All Available Placements

The more ad placements you have, the more people you will reach. Available placements include Facebook and Instagram feeds, Facebook in-stream, and Instagram Stories. When setting up your ad, specify that you want it delivered for each placement.

Vary the Type of Organic Content You Post

To keep your constituents interested, offer a variety of content in your organic posts. Mix it up between video, links, photos, and live video. The diversity will add value to the content you share.

Social media is a major player in politics these days. The more prepared you are for the next election, the better your chances at delivering valuable, high-quality content that will get voters’ attention. Start brainstorming your creative and logistical Facebook strategies now. When the 2020 election comes around, you’ll be happy you did.

By Anna Hubbel and Rachel Horvath

The post How to Run Facebook Political Ads appeared first on AdvertiseMint.