The era of organic reach is over on each and all of the social media platforms. The rule is simple: if you are a business and want to reach potential customers with your posts, you have to pay. You are probably aware of this social media marketing trend by now. However, 2018 promises to bring some important changes in terms of social media advertising.
In a nutshell, social media ads are becoming diversified and are tending to look more like native content than ads. This is the overly simplistic reason why you should invest in social media advertising next year. But the details are those that really matter and will help you create a realistic social media ad budget and a sustainable strategy.
Here is what we have gleaned on this topic of great interest for you:
- The Governance for Social Media Ads Will Become Stricter
Facebook™ was hit by a major scandal concerning ads created by various Russian agencies to manipulate the US presidential elections. At the same time, fake news spread like wildfire across the social media platform. These two issues made the Facebook™ team reconsider the way they validate content shared by users.
Through the implementation of artificial intelligence capacities, Facebook™ will become more scrupulous and proactive in screening fake and abusive content. What does it mean for you? That your ads will have less competition from fake or malicious ads, and that your chances of reaching your audience will increase.
- Generation Z Becomes the Target of Social Media Advertising
We tend to lose count of generations with names such as baby boomers, X, Y… but you should pay attention to these gaps between age groups and the specific interests and demands of each of these groups.
Right now, Generation Z starts to enter into the paid labour market – the oldest of them being 22 years old. They are your future customers and you should know where they like to hang out: on Snapchat and Instagram. They are mostly influenced by visual media and you should devise your social media advertising budget in a manner that includes these two platforms.
- Influencers Are Your Best Advertisers on the Social Media
Both millennials and younger generations trust social media influencers. They follow their channels on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms and model their behaviours after them.
To give more veracity to this statement, a study conducted among marketers showed that 90% of them who have endorsement agreement with influencers are satisfied by the results they obtained. Among the brands who use influencers are big names like Rolex and HubSpot.
- Social Media Advertising Remains the Most Cost-Efficient Option for Brands
Google AdWords and search ads has become a battlefield for the giants. The amount of money spent per click or to promote a keyword has increased tremendously year after year. And, once you set up your campaign, you have to keep it running and watch it drain your accounts, or stop it altogether.
On the other hand, social media ads can be tweaked and modified as they are running. You can change the budget, the duration, and even the specific days and hours when the ads are displayed to your target audience. Simply put, you are in control and you decide how much money you spend and in what manner.
- The Only Advertising Platform with Truly Measurable Results
Social media backend panels for advertisers are highly detailed and give you the precise data you need to know how effective your ads are. Compared to other digital advertising channels where you can estimate results, with social media advertising you can clearly attribute each sale you get on your website to the platform and campaign which generated it.
This means that you can invest your money in smarter ways and get the maximum ROI for each ad, instead of spending money without having a clear image of how much you’ve earned from your advertising efforts.