Navigating the Shifts in Social Media Advertising
Blog
Sep 12
Over the past year, advertisers faced challenges like changing privacy laws, SEO updates, and economic uncertainties. These factors have reshaped social media advertising. To boost your marketing efforts, it’s crucial to understand how user behavior and brand strategies have evolved.
An Overview of Social Media Advertising
Much of a brand’s success on social media pertains to that brand’s perception. Social channels allow two-way communication, and the advertisers who win are those who listen when their audience has something to say.
Social listening encompasses hard metrics as well as engagement quality. What are loyal customers saying? What about the brand-new ones? How did they react to a recent promotion? Is your profile page buzzing with activity or growing stale?
The answers to such questions are critical to driving social media advertising ROI, ushering in the era of what is now coined the “sales flywheel.” As opposed to a sales funnel model which focuses strictly on the linear customer journey from discovery to conversion, the flywheel model invests additional time and effort into customer service, user-friendly interfaces, relatable brand voice, buyer referrals and other strategies designed to perpetuate a user’s brand loyalty.
By analyzing how customers interact with your Facebook storefront and the feedback they share in your behind-the-scenes TikToks, you can quickly identify any issues or inconveniences that may be hindering the customer experience and slowing down your sales momentum.
Initial Brand Discovery Remains a Moving Target
Inviting new audiences to discover a brand via social platform is becoming something of an art. Messaging must be personalized but not all-knowing, images eye-catching but not overwhelming, brand voice down-to-earth but never cutesy. AI, though powerful, has yet to fully zone in on how to act like a normal person that uses a regular amount of emojis and authentic speech.
Attempts to connect with users on socials at volume remain the territory of smart market research, testing, campaign-building and targeting. Oh, and enlisting the help of a micro-influencer doesn’t hurt either.
Winning Campaigns Remained Data Driven But Privacy-Conscious
Privacy laws reshaped the digital marketing landscape in 2023 and will almost certainly continue to do so. Growing consumer awareness of their own private data’s availability online isn’t likely to diminish. Strategies built around contextual targeting or first-party data acquisition and utilization are on every marketer’s priority list.
Marketers kept their edge last year by focusing on social strategies backed by solid performance data, despite rising privacy concerns. Brands are increasingly prioritizing authenticity to engage specific demographics without intrusive tactics. This trend benefits businesses that have a deep understanding of their customers.
Driving Social Media Conversions Moving Forward
The response to these emerging trends offers a glimpse into the future of social media advertising. Expect brands to leverage increased marketing flexibility, prioritize privacy and security, and engage more actively with individual users. Brands are likely to leverage these trends to stay competitive in the evolving social media landscape.
Additionally, other upcoming innovations are likely to challenge our current understanding of the future of digital marketing:
AI, AR, and VR
The AI wave is poised to revolutionize social media, even if it hasn’t fully hit yet. Social platforms are actively seeking new ways to enhance interactivity, opening unprecedented opportunities for creativity and innovation in advertising. EMARKETER projects that by 2028, the number of AR users in the US will soar to 116 million, signaling a significant shift in how marketers can engage with their audiences.
Ad Fatigue Signals Opportunity
A growing sense of alarm always seems to accompany any mention of “ad fatigue,” the natural result of brands endlessly seeking attention online (and not always hitting the mark). For savvy marketers, a user’s ad fatigue represents the ideal time to innovate.
Nearly 5 billion social media users are starving for newness. Browse each social channel’s 2023 user insights report and you’ll find the same trends bubbling to the surface (interactivity, creativity, authenticity) but these are merely foundational. The rest of the blueprint is up to the marketer; telling stories through a new and more compelling structure and providing organic visuals (as opposed to AI-generated images) is just the beginning.
Almost 5 billion social media users crave fresh content. When you look at the 2023 user insights reports for each platform, you’ll notice common trends like interactivity, creativity, and authenticity. But these are just the basics. It’s up to marketers to craft engaging stories and use organic visuals, rather than AI-generated images, to truly captivate their audience.
The digital marketing world is always changing, requiring marketers to remain flexible and think quickly to master social media strategies. To improve your future campaigns, it’s important to analyze how user behavior and brand tactics have shifted over time. By examining past efforts, you can see how these elements have evolved, helping your brand adapt and thrive in this ever-changing landscape.
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