If you haven’t caught on, pay-to-play is as real as ever, especially in the social media world. On top of shrinking organic engagement, the days of organic social media are falling to the wayside – especially after Facebook announced it would prioritize content from family and friends over businesses, solidifying the pay-to-play model. This is why it is crucial for businesses to allocate a budget for social media advertising.
So how do you spend your budget efficiently? Here are a few tips.
Spend on “Viral” Moments
Going viral is on every brand’s checklist. The exposure and media coverage generated from a viral social post can catapult brands to a new level.
Going viral is difficult to plan, but there’s a way to make it work on a smaller scale.
For example, if you notice one of your social media posts performed well organically, “boost” it, or put some advertising dollars behind it to expand reach and exposure. If users were engaging with the post organically, chances are others outside your usual organic reach will, too.
Spend on Your Events
Many organizations host and attend large conferences, trade shows or events where they showcase products, feature demonstrations and make new announcements.
Maximize your investment by promoting the social posts for it, either by geo-targeting individuals in the area who plan to attend, or targeting by industry and interests, or both.
Say Company ABC is attending Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and wants to maximize the reach of their announcement and get people into their booth. Create a social post highlighting the announcement and inviting people to come see a live demo at the tradeshow booth; then, target the social post to those in only in Barcelona (Geo-Targeting) with interests in Technology (Industry) and Mobile Phones (Interests).
Spend on Your Top Content
Marketing departments spend hours creating content – eBooks, blogs, whitepapers, infographics – and too often, this content just sits on the website until someone checks it out.
That’s the wrong approach. Instead, look at what website content has the most clicks/views, and promote it on social media.
Again, chances are that if your main audience is looking at this organically, other readers with related interests will want, too.
Measure Performance
Most importantly, once the dust settles, look back the social metrics. What were impressions and clicks? What was the engagement rate? Look at these key indicators to determine the advertised social post’s performance.
