Digital marketing has changed forever how we do business. With the proliferation of the internet, throughout the late ’90s, marketers, and businesses received another medium in which to reach their customers. Two of the oldest channels paid search gave marketers the opportunity to access customers online.

Paid Search, one of the most mature forms of digital marketing allowed marketers to capitalize on demand but was limited in connecting with people, sharing ideas and nurturing relationships. Too many paid search leads were being turned over to sales as SQL’s when in fact they were still MQL’s.

To bridge the gap, businesses needed to leverage Social Media – for building relationships, listening to the market, promoting content, and influencing buyers even before they’re identified as potential leads. You have to do more than social media; you have to do social marketing. (Marketo) That was advice in the early 2000s. Times have changed, now everyone is leveraging social media, and there is quite a lot of noise out there. You have to do more than social marketing, you have to do paid social. The days of posting on social and expecting all your followers to see your content are over.

Social media advertising is a way to target audiences on specific networks through demographic information so targeted consumers can see your brand in their feeds. (SproutSocial)

Facts about Facebook Organic Reach (2019)

• On avg. our posts only reach approx. 5.5% of our fans.
• Of the 1,500+ stories a person might see whenever they log onto FB, News Feed displays approx 300.
• Visual content prevails, mostly in the form of video content and images outperform all other forms of posts.

To compensate for space, new FB algorithms are designed to show the MOST relevant content. Family photos are more relevant than your new, awesome product.

Engagement is in all be all for Facebook. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s bad because, over the past year, studies have shown divisiveness and outrage are becoming the norm on the platform. My hunch is that since divisive posts create significantly more engagement, this leads to FB’s algorithms to favor such content.

Take a look at the report here.

The good news is that if you build your audience properly, create content that your audience finds engaging, and use Facebook Ads sparingly, you will be able to reach your people thereby creating momentum for your products and services.

2019 Facebook Changes

Facebook has remained steadfast in tailoring the newsfeed to users. In response to the current political climate and to reduce 2018, Facebook, released an algorithm change that further reduced the number of organic posts seen by users NOT identified by algorithms as close friends and family.

Social media requires that business leaders start thinking like small-town shop owners. This means taking the long view and avoiding short-term benchmarks to gauge progress. It means allowing the personality, heart and soul of the people who run all levels of the business to show. Gary Vaynerchuk

Global Paid Social Stats

Planning for Marketing on Social Media

What do you hope to accomplish? This will determine your goals, campaign objectives, ad types, media, and budget. The most common paid social goals are listed below in order from the top funnel to the bottom. The three major goals are brand awareness, engagement, and conversions. The objectives are listed below the goals.

1. Brand Awareness
   1. Increase Visibility
   2. Increase Reach
   3. Drive Awareness
2. Engagement
   1. Building an audience, i.e. page likes or followers
   2. Drive post comments, likes, and shares
   3. Increase Traffic to Website
   4. Video Views
   5. Messenger Conversations
3. Conversion (Direct Response)
   1. Lead Generation
   2. Sales
   3. App Installs
   4. Phone Calls

There are many ad types, including right rail, newsfeed, unpublished page posts, stories, offers, promoted pins, promoted tweets, carousel ads, and many more. These different ad types vary based on different campaign objectives, goals, optimizations, placements, publishers, and channels.

• Native/Newsfeed Ads – Usually appear in the main newsfeed of the social channel as a “native” ad. Native ads are ads that bare similarities to posts within the user’s newsfeed. These ads include promoted tweets, Facebook Newsfeed Ads, and LinkedIn Sponsored Posts. Most social ads can fall under the umbrella of the newsfeed or native ads.
  
  
• Right Column Ads – These ads are some of the oldest ads within the right column of LinkedIn and Facebook and only appear on desktop apps.
  
  
• Carousel Ads – Carousel ads are social’s version of shopping ads, featuring a carousel of images.
  
  
• Video Ads – Video ads are a type of newsfeed ad that features videos.

Social Media Metrics

How will you measure progress? Digital Marketing Metrics used for paid social are the same as most digital marketing metrics, including CPC’s, CTR’s, clicks, impressions, conversions and spend. However key social metrics differentiate social from search or email. These metrics are:

• Reach
• Frequency
• Engagements
• Cost Per Engagement
• Engagement Rate
• Video Views
• Cost Per View
• View Rate

What resources are available to you? What is your budget? Will you need a team? How much time will it take to accomplish your goals? What content, video, blogs, or images are available to you? Is there a consistent supply of content available for usage? Is there someone available on demand for campaign execution.

Social Media Targeting

Who are you trying to reach? Your market will determine your targeting. You need to know who they are, what do they like to do, when they like to do it, where they like to do it, how they like to do it, and most importantly, why they like to do it. Targeting Options Available via Majority of Social Channels:

• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Language
• Demographics
• Interests
• Behaviors
• Keywords

Hot Social Media Platforms for 2020

1. Facebook
   1. Facebook
   2. Instagram
   3. Audience Network
   4. Messenger
2. LinkedIn
3. Twitter
4. Tick-Tok
5. Pinterest
6. Snapchat