Last month I had the amazing opportunity to visit the Dublin Meta office for their peak season summit. It was a great day for learning and networking with agencies and brands who are all gearing up for Q4. As there was a lot of learnings and insights given on the day I’ve chosen to share 4 Key points that stood out to me that will enhance your campaign strategy.

1. GWI Consumer Behaviour 

People are starting to search for Christmas related products earlier and earlier each year. We’ve noticed the same shift in behaviour with client competitors and the search terms relating to advent calendars and Christmas gifting as early as August! While you might think August is too early, this is the perfect time to start filling up your database with emails through Lead Generation campaigns. Create a buzz about your products and even offer early bird discounts to build engagement and increase eventual conversion rates. 

2. Audiences 

According to their GWI research, global consumers are still spending more, especially Gen Z who are planning on purchasing non-essential products this year. It was also stated that there’s a 15% increase in those more likely to make impulse purchases. So what does this mean for us marketers? We should ensure Gen Z is included in our target audience and keep them in mind when making social content. 

While you might have your target audiences planned out, Meta has advised brands to look into audience automation which creates a broader pool to target. Audience automation includes detailed targeting, lookalikes and custom audiences generated through their AI. 

Through their AI tech, the platform to drive greater performance by uncovering new audiences that you might not have considered. Don’t get too attached to the current settings you might have, try something new this month ahead of peak sales for some much needed testing.

3. Campaign Structure

If you’re on the platform a lot you will know about their newest product, Advantage Plus Shopping campaign otherwise known as ASC.  It’s an AI based campaign structure that combines prospecting and existing audiences into one ad set. It aims to drive better results than the traditional campaign set up you might know. They’ve seen a 17% improvement on cost per conversion and a 32% increase on ad spend cost. Furthermore, according to Meta it’s best to use at least 30% of your media budget on this campaign type. 

4. Creative Diversification 

Creative is very important when it comes to ad targeting and diversifying the format, messaging and content type is crucial to getting audiences to engage in a meaningful way.The key is to create content digestible and entertaining while also engaging the community  through content they’d expect to see on your organic channels. 

In the campaign, ensure advantage placements are on so that you can have the best chance of showing up where your customers are. 

Don’t worry if you’re not prepared! We’ve got you covered. Here’s a few strategies that could help you this season. 

1. Creative

We’ve only got a few weeks left until Black Friday and Cyber Monday and if you haven’t already got a plan NOW is the time to do it. Get your creative theme in order, it is great to see consistent content whether it be the colour scheme or text. It’ll make it easier for customers to recognise your ads. Using platforms like Canva can be an easy way to create templates or find templates for the team to use. 

Make sure your content has an edge of urgency and excitement for shoppers to get in early and buy your products. Consumers will already be on the hunt for deals so messaging is 

Key! While the percentage off on products might not always be your choice it’s best to go BIG otherwise it could get lost in the noise of all other promotions such as if the company is doing 70% yours is 20% off, it’s likely to go unnoticed. 

PLT did a fantastic job of hitting those big promotional percentages and excitement with new lines dropping every hour. They even took their own spin on Black Friday and renamed it Pink Friday to run with their brand image.

2.  Make it Fun!

This time of year is full of excitement and festivities, why not make it fun by doing engaging content such as daily offers or spin the wheel for deals. Customers are more likely to purchase content after having engaged with content as brand trust and loyalty was nurtured. 

3. Loyal Customers and Lead Generation Exclusivity

This season is great for gathering up leads by advertising exclusive first access to content before Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales. Make sure to give yourself enough lead time to gather emails and prepare which content you’ll give them first access to. This applies to giving first access to VIP members or your newsletter contacts to sales items or bundles. 

Use your learnings from the last year to advertise on optimum platforms with the right audiences. Now is not the time to be testing out new strategies with large budgets. 

4. Abandoned Carts 

Be sure to keep an eye on your abandoned carts and retarget those customers with pixels from your paid channels or through emails after Cyber Monday or Black Friday. These customers are still likely to convert, just keep building brand trust and use language that emotes a fear of missing out. 

5. Use All Available Platforms

Remember that your consumers can be found on multiple platforms online such as Google, Instagram, TikTok and Meta. Use that to reach as many people as possible using learned data and ad performance from the past year to fully optimise your seasonal campaign. 

Halloween is just around the corner and brands have been busy with their campaigns. Here’s some of the best reasons to campaign during the Halloween season. 

• It helps boost sales
• Increases brand awareness
• Generates leads 
• Engage current customers                

Without further delay, here are some of the best Spooky campaigns of 2022!

1. Heinz 

Compared to their previously carefully curated posts Heinz chose to engage their audiences with media formats seen on TikTok. Specifically for their tomato sauce SKU, where they’ve branded the IG page with a comedic persona called ‘Toby the Veggie Vamp’.

2. Uber Eats

Uber eats is running a partnership with Keke Palmer to set up a movie themed halloween ad. Celebrity endorsed campaigns is known to boost sales when fans are aware of any partnerships. To make things more thematic, Keke has been a star in the Scream Queens television series in the past making this spooky guest appearance more relevant.

3. PLT

While their organic socials are quiet, they’re running an ad reminiscent to the silhouette challenge from last year. 

4. Colourpop

They have some great themed product for halloween, utilising the release of Hocus Pocus 2 and the popularity of Harry Potter this season!

5. NYX

This grid is filled with great Halloween looks and the Mexican celebrations of Day of the Dead. They’ve got some great inspired looks using product shots, and influencer videos. Video messaging includes urgency of a halloween sale and even educational messaging about the culture surrounding the Day of the Dead. This is a great way to engage existing and potential users who can relate or see brand inclusivity in NYX.

6. Revolution Beauty

Makeup Revolution has the most diverse instagram grid, filled with UGC content, licences and product shots. From Clueless, Game of Thrones, Beetlejuice and Coraline products there’s an endless supply of makeup inspiration for those searching for Halloween looks. With themed ideas around Halloween, it’s a great way to engage audiences they might not have reached before!

So you want to start running ads on media platforms, that’s great! There are plenty of platforms you can choose from. From Meta (Facebook) to Google Ads, it can be hard choosing which one best fits your business goals. Here are a few things to consider when making your digital marketing plan. 

1. What are your business goals?

Finding the right platform that matches your business goals and budget is one of the key elements to meeting KPI’s. You’ll want to advertise on platforms that offer you the right promotional features, be it objectives towards purchases, traffic to your website or brand awareness. Some platforms are better at delivering your goals than others depending on your target audience and creative choices. There is of course, the choice of expanding and using multiple platforms as you test and refine your methods. 

2. What is your budget?

Meta is known for its cost per clicks  going as low as 1p and click through rates in the region of 1% (depending on industry). Whereas if we look at  Linkedin’s audiences, these numbers could sit around £5 per link click and 0.55% CTR. You’ll just need to be aware of which platform your audience is more likely to engage with and the targeting options available. Use the forecast tools on each platform as you plan out your audiences to see what you’re likely to achieve. 

Say you have a budget of £1,000 and your target cpc is £0.70, you’re likely to receive 1,428 link clicks on your ads on Meta. This of course comes down to the audience you’ve selected and the relevancy of your ads/creative. 

3. Who is your target audience 

 Almost everyone is online and is using some sort of social media platform and a lot of people use google to search for products and services. Are you planning on searching for people with particular interests that relate to your product or service? Then Meta could be the best place for you to go. Or are you looking to directly target other businesses with your product or service? Then LinkedIn or even Google Ads could be the place for you. 

You’ll also want to think about which platform enhances customer lifetime value and provides opportunities to retarget existing customers. To help with increasing customer lifetime value or customer retention some platforms allow you to upload existing customers and allow you to build lookalike audiences. This can come through testing and evaluating your strategy as time goes on.

4.  Consider the type of content you create

There’s loads of content formats you might be producing but you want to put your best foot forward when advertising. As different platforms host such diverse audiences, you’ll need to cater your content to suit them. If you’re making reels and videos or even using UGC then maybe TikTok, Meta and Instagram is the best place for you to be. Think about your target audience and what story they’re more likely to engage with. 

5. Where are your competitors? 

You should be aware of what platforms your competitors are using to promote their products or services. It’s more than likely that you’ll need to compete against them for bids on your desired target audience. Consider their ad strategy and refine yours to reach your audience in a cost effective way. Meta and Google have great systems in place to view what content competitors’ are putting out there or to view who you’re bidding against for certain search terms. 

May 2022 has seen new features and updates to our most loved social media channels. We’ve curated some of the most interesting new features they’ve added for you to read in our bitesize blog.

TikTok 

TikTok has focused on creating valuable tools for creators, elevating the platform from its social media competitors. With millions of viewers a day, it makes sense for creators to take financial control of their content. 

Earlier this month TikTok announced the launch of its Branded Mission, an “industry-first ad solution that enables advertisers to crowdsource authentic content from creators”. This new tool allows more collaborative relationships between brands and creators in a way that drives value and measurable campaigns for both parties. 

The Branded Mission tool allows companies to brief their concept to a range of creators building an ecosystem of content. With lots of creators and content to choose from, brands are able to reach and communicate with new and old audiences in different ways. It also benefits brands who are not as social media savvy to keep content fresh and on trend. In turn this helps creators get paid for doing what they love!

This changes the way brands manage and interact with creators and could bring those who are not as social media savvy to the forefront. Trends on TikTok come and go, who better to use than the creators of these trends. 

A second feature some of you may have noticed is the Live Subscription. That’s right, you can subscribe to any of your favourite content creators in the next month and support them through monthly subscriptions. Subscribers can get exclusive custom designed emotes and chat directly to creators. It’s also a great way for brands to give exclusive early access on launch products and other bespoke features to make it more personable. 

Meta 

Meta is increasing their tools for businesses to communicate and engage with their customers by introducing a new cloud based version of WhatsApp. Meta also launched recurring notifications on Messenger, to re-engage customers with tailored messaging about special promotions or product drops. We’ve all been there, trying to find new ways of engaging with our existing customers. Well, this brings us one step closer. 

They didn’t stop there either! They’ve added more ad targeting information to its ad library listings to provide more transparency on how their systems are being used. More specifically, how pages are using social issues, political or electoral ads. It encompasses the type of targeting brands use i.e location demographics and interests and how many of those ads they produce on percentage. This will help researchers and marketing experts find key trends or to help build a better brand strategy based on competitor ads.

Instagram

Have you noticed something different about instagram yet? They’re bringing a new visual look with vibrant colours, and a change to its font. 

It’s no surprise that Instagram is heading towards a video based platform as it competes with rival TikTok. This new layout means brands would potentially need to adapt their ads to be more suited towards video or animated content.

A new refreshed look for most companies is needed as time goes on but does the platform still feel like instagram? Check out some of the screenshots below.