In tomorrow’s webinar, guest Kim Celestre from Forrester will present research from the recent Skai Social commissioned study, The Key To Successful Social Advertising, How To Choose The Right Tactics To Achieve Your Social Advertising Objectives.
In my previous posts, I’ve presented some of the interesting findings uncovered by Forrester Consulting when they surveyed 105 large social advertisers (i.e., social media and advertising professionals whose companies spend more than $100,000 per year on social media ads). The goal was to understand how both organic social media marketing (i.e. unpaid assets and placements on social networks) and paid social media advertising (i.e. paid ads and promoted content on social networks) are working to achieve these advertisers’ business goals.
One of the key findings is that marketers have yet to fully take advantage of the advanced targeting offered on these social advertising platforms. Although 60% of respondents revealed that they use ad rotation as an optimization tactic, only a third reported targeting small, specific audiences or using A/B testing to determine the best targeting or creative. Less than a quarter (23%) of those surveyed use automated bid management tools.
The study not only details many interesting points regarding both organic and paid social advertising, but also recommends four simple steps for marketers to improve results with their social marketing programs:
Start with clear marketing objectives. Marketers must define their most important priorities and objectives before they choose social advertising tactics and then focus on the tactics that will help them reach their objectives.
Promote your brand and your content. Many marketers still think of social media as a free channel. But the data is clear: Marketers who used paid social tactics reported that they’re more successful than those who don’t.
Take advantage of robust targeting. Granular social targeting enables brands to increase the ROI of their advertising efforts on social networks.
Develop a holistic approach for greater success. While different paid and organic social advertising tactics play different roles, smart marketers will consider how all of their social opportunities fit into the customer journey and into their broader marketing initiatives — and then take a holistic approach to managing and measuring those programs.
I hope to see you tomorrow for the webinar! Beyond having Kim Celestre from Forrester share key insights from the study, Brian Quinn from Skai Social will share ways our platform can help marketers make these findings actionable and generate strong results from social media through advanced targeting and optimization.