By Nick Wheywell, Head of Social
When I started in pr and social media, the thought was a brand should only rely on its organic content and social activity to create credibility, and that it shouldn’t have to pay to elevate its status amongst its target audience or its competitors. Paying for that amplification was almost seen as cheating, building a brand should be achieved on the merit of its organic content. Stat!
That’s still the case to some degree today, as a brand needs to see that its organic content is resonating with the audience and that they are creating ‘social currency’ – content the audience deems as valuable and therefore shares with their networks. But a brand can’t rely on organic activity alone. Even if you are a heavyweight in your line of business, other heavyweights are also vying for customers. If a brand wants to stand out in its undoubtedly ever-increasingly noisy market space, paid social needs to be part of its communication strategy. Putting a budget behind your content for paid and organic social media is now seen as standard practice.
You need to spend a lot, don’t you?
The good thing is you don’t have to spend thousands or even hundreds to achieve considerable success on social media. A carefully crafted paid social campaign with a clear and focused strategy can reap many rewards, and help a brand surpass the goals they set. It’s important to note that a paid social campaign is never set in stone, it needs to be flexible, and nimble. By monitoring its progress live, you can manipulate it, including the budget, to ensure it’s performing at the highest level.
Strategising and recommending paid social activity for clients is something our social team does daily. Be it standalone social activity, or as part of an integrated campaign with one or a combination of our other practices (PR, Media, Content, and Creative), it’s a tactic we are increasingly recommending our clients do to help create cut-through. It’s the ideal opportunity to get a product, service, or offering in front of a key audience, in the knowledge that through a targeted approach with a clear call to action, the right eyes are seeing the ad and that you are creating every opportunity for that potential customer to engage the way you want them to (website visit, book a meeting, product information, downloading a whitepaper, etc.).
What happens next?
By analysing the results of a paid social ad campaign, you can glean a lot of beneficial data that must be fed back into their social activity, both organic and paid. Reviewing what worked and what didn’t, what generated the most engagement, and how it has impacted the business, allows a brand to capitalise on the effective optimisation of all assets used, and refine upcoming activity based on these results.
If you’re thinking paid social activity could be an option for you, and are interested in hearing how it could positively impact your business, why not get in touch. Our social team would be very happy to jump on a call with you.
