Want Success? Set Goals Before Running Your Social Media Ads

One thing I always work closely with my digital marketing clients on is setting strong goals prior to dropping ads.

Often times they want to see more…but more what? I can’t tell you how often I hear: I am posting every day but the same 15 people are liking and commenting on it.

When I ask the question, what have you changed, they have often changed nothing or everything. They don’t really know what is working because they have completely randomized their social media strategy. This type of approach makes pinpointing what is working for your audience really difficult.

Often times small business owners feel good about more likes on a post, but at the end of the day, engagement is just one step of the customer journey. As a business owner, you need to be smart about how you post, how consistent you stay, and engage with those who are engaging with you.

You probably know from experience that one boosted post with lots of engagement is not going to yield lots of new traffic or leads. You would be lucky if the post you boosted for five days yields one new customer. You caught that person at the right time.

But not everyone is primed to buy or click the link. The truth is you need those customers interacting with posts multiple times before they move into the middle of the marketing funnel.

I build monthly goals with my clients. We always start with brand awareness if their social media engagement is pretty low. As we see brand awareness becoming sustained, we might look for link clinks or DM engagement. We are using all of this data as we build to the push to get those curious about our business to become customers or clients.

Wanting an increase in likes or comments is a very different goal from wanting a 10% increase in website visitors or $5,000 more in sales each month. You won’t use the same ad copy. You won’t use the same creative. You will probably get more targeted and instead of visit the website, offer free shipping or a discount on their first purchase. This is all about inclining them to move to the next stage of the funnel.

This investment might feel like too much, but the truth is people need consistency and time to remember your brand or business, have confidence in your brand or business and ultimately invest in your brand or business.

I suggest planning to run ads for a minimum of three months and the investment per month is based on your financial goals.

Yes, you will become that annoying ad that keeps coming up on people’s feeds. Annoying or not, consistency feeds curiousity. Eventually, that scroller will think what is this about if Facebook or Instagram keeps showing me.

Everyone knows Meta is designed to show us what we want to see. Meta advertising is no different and to the benefit of businesses, Meta has some amazing tools to help you target current and prospective clients and customers.

When I worked for Atlantic Records this was the same tactic we used for songs. We knew if we got a song played on the radio many times over, the song would become a hit. If the song became a hit, people would buy the album. If people bought the album, they would likely become fans, who would eventually buy concert tickets and merchandise…and on and on.

I have not invented a new business model, but I know how to get Meta to work effectively for your goals and your business. Are you ready to get started? Schedule a call today!