Social Ads Strategies That Capture Audiences & Convert
JD Prater is a Senior Account Manager in charge of training and education at Hanapin Marketing. His session focused on how to build a social strategy that works. Oftentimes, social is treated too much like search, Prater noted. If you want to build a successful campaign, then you have to go down a 3-step path:
- Meet and engage with your audience.
- Craft multi-channel social ads to target and capture the full funnel.
- Measure the results of multi-channel social media marketing.
Meeting and Engaging
Prater suggested that when social media ads are created, we often think that it is “love at first sight.” Marketers think that the audience will automatically buy into whatever idea is being sold on them. This, however, is not the case. Prater said that you needed to compare your social marketing plan to how a real relationship works. This means there rarely is love at first sight. You need to go through a much longer “getting to know you” phase. One clever example to prove this point was the use of a cartoon showing Cookie Monster opening a present of crackers. Cookie, is visibly upset, and says, “It’s like you don’t even know me!” This explains why you need to know your audience. Prater then discussed a few ways on how to do this:
- Make sure you know who you are, before you attempt to meet others.
- Define the audience you want – create personas, map out their journey, etc.
- Know where (which social platforms) your audience hangs out.
- Appeal to their needs by selling value, not just a product.
Crafting Multi-Channel Ads
In this phase, Prater talked about creating a relationship funnel. At this point is where you go through the stages of a relationship:
- Awareness Stage: Say hi! Make a good impression. Expose your target audience to brand content.
- Consideration Stage: This is the dating (bachelor style) stage. Generate engagement with brand content and address any concerns.
- Decision Stage: Make a commitment/ask the question. Drive the target audience to brand offers.
- Adoption Stage: Like a relationship has date nights this is where you keep that spark alive. Help the consumer stay informed about the products, etc. Drive customer engagement with brand product and/or services.
- Advocacy Stage: Make sure that your audience is “on your side.” Activate customer influencers.
Measuring & Attribution
Once you’ve gone through the “relationship funnel” you need to measure your results. Prater cautioned against just measuring the “last click” attribution, since so much of social media marketing is done on the front end. “Make sure you’re giving credit,” Prater stated. “To where credit is due.”