How many ads have you seen today? Five? Fifteen? More?
Sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle, nearly every piece of media we consume on a daily basis is an advertisement of some sort.
Experts say that today’s consumers are being served over 4,000 ads in a single day. While that number may seem astronomical, when you think about it, with social media in the equation all of a sudden, 4,000 ads definitely doesn’t seem like a far reach.
It makes sense for brands to advertise on social media; after all, 3.6 billion people worldwide have a social media presence.
The challenge that social media marketers face, however, is ad burnout. While the advent of the internet has made it so businesses of all sizes have a platform, consumers are more than desensitized to social ads.
So, what’s the modern marketer to do?
Photo: Tobias Dziuba via Pexels.com
Businesses that want to compete in the social media ad space need to be strategic, smart, forward-thinking when it comes to their social media advertising. Today’s consumers have minimal attention spans. Combine that with forgettable or lazy ads and you’re throwing money into an internet black hole.
To remain competitive, marketers must spend as much time on their social ads as they do on the content on the ‘other side of the click.’
With thousands of other ads to compete with, your ad copy needs to stand out. Writing snappy, punchy, catchy copy in your ads will earn more clicks than a generic social ad. Avoid cliche phrases. Use active rather than passive voice. Focus on your product’s unique solutions or features instead of using catch-all business info.
Write in concise, short, easy-to-read sentences; today’s consumer has a waning attention span already. Using long words or complex sentences might catch your audience’s eye, but won’t keep their attention.
To write the best ad copy possible, it is crucial to:
Edit, edit, and edit some more. The more time you spend reviewing and improving your copy, the better the final product will be.
Use the skills of copywriting agencies to your advantage. Professional copywriters have a sharp eye for grammar and editing to deliver you meticulous copy each and every time.
Unless you’re selling exclamation points, keep them out of your ad copy. The same goes for writing in all caps. These two copywriting styles will make your ad look desperate, cheesy, and insincere -- all of that damages your brand as a whole.
For example, when looking at the sentence “EXPLORE THE WINTER SWEATERS IN OUR HOLIDAY SALE TODAY!!!” it is hard not to feel like you’re being yelled at through the screen. The style feels much more abrasive than inviting, and distracts from the message that the copy is trying to relay.
Have something you absolutely need your audience to see? Place it at the beginning of your ad copy.
Social media audiences vary from platform to platform, but one universal truth about social media users is the attraction to visuals. Recall and attention span improves by 82% when presented with imagery.
By adding a video clip, infographic, motion graphic, or even a simple still image, social media marketers see an increase in ad performance. Visuals are not only for aesthetic purposes, either -- the visuals in your ad take up more real estate, which makes your ad more noticeable overall.
The hard sell is dead, and the internet killed it.
Today’s consumers have far more options when it comes to the products and services they purchase. Those who have just begun to learn copywriting tend to believe that they need to use pushy, last-chance sales tactics to persuade an audience to click on their ads, but this is actually counterintuitive.
Internet users know they have choices, and chances are there are products and services similar enough to yours that they can go elsewhere to find it. This means using phrases like “Act Now!” and “Last Chance!” will more likely result in a social media user scrolling past your ad, and later going to your competitor.
Use factual information. If you have a limited time offer, say so. Use sale end dates and other data such as remaining quantities or spaces. Be clear, be transparent. Write with confidence, and your confidence will earn the click.
The key to stellar soft-sell marketing is through implementing my tried and true FACES method. This method applies all of the above advice into one cohesive 5 step process. FACES stands for:
Facts
Appeal to your audience’s emotions
Casual call to action
Ease into the sale
Subtle sell
Here is an example of this soft-selling technique in action: Few tickets remain (subtle sell) in Saturday’s one-day only (facts) modern art installation. To immerse yourself into a world of new ideas and possibilities (ease into the sale), grab a ticket to experience our dreamy (appeals to emotion) exhibit today (casual call-to-action).
Even if you have perfected your ad copy, your message is compelling, and your visuals are engaging, if you’re serving your ads to the wrong audience, none of it will matter.
Part of an effective social media ad campaign is creating it for your target audience and then delivering it to them where they spend their time. The performance of your social media ads and when and where an audience sees it directly correlate.
Before spending ad dollars pushing out your ad to every social media platform, conduct in-depth research. Know what your audience wants, when they want it, how they want it, and how they interact with similar content. Look at message boards, blog posts, your competitors’ social media channels, and online reviews. Match their voice, tone, and cater your ad to their needs.
For example, communicating your messages to a target audience of younger teenagers should entail a more approachable, friendly, and informal tone. On the other hand, writing to a target audience for industry pros should utilize more formal, industry-specific jargon.
The most pivotal insights to understand about your target audience include their:
Demographics: these are the external characteristics that define your audience, such as age, level of education, socioeconomic status, and employment status.
Psychographics: these are the psychological factors that influence your audience’s behavior, such as lifestyle, opinions, values, hobbies, and priorities.
Like serving an ad to the right audience, placing your ad on the correct mediums is crucial if you intend on seeing any return on investment. Consider where your target audience might spend their time. For example, if you are writing B2B ad copy, a platform for business professionals is more likely to generate leads than a platform designed for the “meme generation.”
Before you spend your entire ad budget, engage in split testing. This means testing multiple ad creatives to see which one performs best. This might mean using different ad copy, a different visual, or posting on different platforms. When you find the one with the highest return, that is where you should allocate your ad dollars.
Here are a few examples of impactful ad components to put to the test:
Call-To-Actions: Both the wording and the placement of your CTA button, which is the phrase that motivates consumers to take action and click on your ad, can significantly impact its performance.
Tone: If you’re still honing in on a tone that best connects with your target audience, play around with different voices, punctuation, and even emoji’s to find a tone of copy that suits your style.
Structure: The design and layout of your ad plays a huge role in its visual appeal. Test out the length of your ad’s copy, the choice of visuals, and the use of bullet points or numbered lists to find the best fit for your unique audience.
Photo: Kazoompics via Pexels.com
Social media users clicking your ad isn’t necessarily a win. It’s what’s on the other side of the click that counts.
Where an internet user lands once they’ve clicked on your ad has to match what is advertised. Using deceptive advertising such as offering a free trial and failing to deliver will show potential customers that your business is unscrupulous. Remember, word travels fast on the internet.
A business’s advertising is a part of its overall brand. The voice, language, tone, and messaging must be consistent with all other components of the brand. For example, if your ad appeals to business-savvy professionals but the click-thru leads them to a laissez-faire landing page with a lot of slang and comedic visuals, the trust in your brand will dissipate before a user even clicks your call to action.
An ad for something overly generalized or mundane isn’t likely to retain an audience’s interest. Provide something of value to those that click your ad, rather than leading them directly to a stale sales page. Informational, engaging content that makes an audience feel like their time was well-spent will result in far more leads.
Looking for a way to add substance to your ads? Here are a few easy examples to enrich your social media ads:
Integrate impactful statistics and data into your copy
Provide links to educational blogs, landing pages, and other entertaining digital content
Encourage audience participation through comments, sharing, and entering brand giveaways
Pose interesting questions and thoughts
Above all, social media is, well, social. It’s designed for interaction, for sharing, for communicating, and connecting. While funny videos and memes dominate the large majority of social media platforms, there are still billions of people who utilize social media to share content that is meaningful to them in some way.
If you’re running a social media ad, you understand that this is a medium where your audience interacts. This means that if a user finds your content interesting or useful, they are likely to share it back to the same platform to their own followers. Making content share-worthy will not only further your brand initiatives and help you reach more of your target audience, it will save on your advertising budget in the long run.
Some examples of content worth sharing includes links to:
Videos
Blog posts
Ebooks
Podcast episodes
Coupons/contests
Share-worthy content means your audience does your advertising for you.
“If all of your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you do it?” Probably not, but if all of your friends were buying a specific product, you’d likely be intrigued.
Social proof is a psychological concept that means that individuals are more likely to partake in activities, support brands, and buy the same products as their peers. Social proof plays into the herd mentality of ‘if everyone is doing it, it must be good.’
To use social proof in your social media ads, include strong calls to action that encourage people to respond to your ad, whether it's asking for an opinion or posing a question. Not only does this improve audience perception surrounding your brand’s popularity and trustworthiness, many social media algorithms will show a user’s followers what they are engaging with, in turn reaching a wider audience.
A few simple examples of ways to integrate social proof into your ads includes:
Customer reviews and testimonials: showcase the reviews, testimonials, user-generated content from your current customers to leave viewers with a more positive impression on your product and services.
Case studies: case studies provide an example of how you provided solutions for a customer, which helps future consumers picture the ways that you can impact their lives similarly.
Celebrity and influencer endorsements: associating your social media ads with a trusted celebrity, social media influencer, or fellow industry professional works wonders for boosting your reputation and establishing social proof.
Social media advertising is a highly competitive and often oversaturated marketplace, and it can be a challenge to catch an audience’s attention or achieve your desired results. This doesn’t mean, however, that you shouldn’t expend the effort.
Once you’ve perfected your messaging, strategy, and social media ad copy and start seeing a return, you will start to see a ripple effect. With the right social media ads, your business has the potential to see exponential growth, both in sales and in brand longevity.
So, yes -- resoundingly yes -- social media ads are absolutely worth the effort.
Author: Liz Slyman
Over the past decade, Liz has worked as a copywriter and digital marketing executive for a multitude of companies from startups to and mid-sized businesses to working as the VP of marketing for award-winning, platinum-selling artists. Leveraging an understanding of the nuance of language in marketing, Liz founded Amplihigher, a content marketing and copywriting agency, designed to connect consumers to companies in a way that results in next-level brand expansion.
