In 10 steps to a Converting Social Ads Campaign

Step 1: The brand’s problem statement

Every successful campaign starts with identifying the problem you want to solve. Analyze what’s missing and why your brand isn’t reaching its targets. Is it due to low reach or little traffic to the website? Sometimes, it’s simply about presenting a product/service to the right audience. By clearly defining the problem, you can set focused goals and align your strategy to solve this specific issue. This involves looking at your target audience and how best to reach them, as well as crafting a clear marketing message and strategy.

Step 2: What is the campaign’s message?

The message you want to convey is the core of your campaign. It must be engaging, concise, and relevant to your audience. This ensures your audience can find the product or service and sparks their interest. The message should include key elements like the brand story, major USPs, and what people can expect from the product or service. It’s also crucial to keep the desires and needs of your potential audience in mind when crafting your message because a powerful message will ensure your audience converts.

Step 3: Determine the campaign objective(s)

To ensure you achieve the right goals with your social campaign, it’s vital to use the correct campaign objective. There are various objectives, and we’ll discuss the most commonly used ones here.

Campaign Objective 1 – Brand Awareness

This objective focuses on increasing the awareness of a brand or product. Ads are optimized to be shown to as many people as possible, so the ad messages stick in users’ minds. This helps with the broad distribution of the brand’s story.

Campaign Objective 2 – Reach

This objective tries to show ads to as many people as possible within the target audience. This is particularly useful if the goal is to inform as many people as possible about a specific event, promotion, or announcement.

Campaign Objective 3 – Traffic

This objective focuses on driving visitors to a specific destination, such as a website, app, or specific page. It’s effective for increasing the number of people interacting with your brand.

Campaign Objective 4 – Engagement

This aims to encourage interaction with your ads, such as likes, comments, shares, and link clicks. This is useful if you want your audience to feel more engaged with your content. You can also grow your organic channels by paying extra attention to your social media channels.

Campaign Objective 5 – App Installs

If you have an app, this is a suitable objective to increase the number of downloads and installs.

Campaign Objective 6 – Video Views

This objective is specifically focused on increasing the number of views for your video ads. It’s useful if you want a wide audience to watch your video material. It’s important to use an eye-catching and relevant video here.

Campaign Objective 7 – Conversions

This objective is focused on generating conversions, whether it’s purchases on a website or leads filling out a contact form.

Step 4: Choose the marketing channels and ads

There are various social media channels offering different opportunities to reach your target audience and adjust your advertising strategies. Here are some popular social media channels and the advertising options they typically provide:

Facebook

Photo ads:
Standard image ads displayed in the Facebook feed.

Video ads:
Videos displayed in the feed that play automatically.

Carousel ads:
A series of images or videos users can swipe through.

Slideshow ads:
Image slideshows with moving elements and transitions, similar to a video with different static images.

Collection ads:
A combination of images or videos with a product catalog for shopping ads.

Instant Experience (formerly Canvas):
Interactive, fullscreen experiences that open when users click on the ad.

Dynamic ads:
Ads that automatically show products based on the user’s interests.

Instagram

Photo ads:
Similar to Facebook photo ads, but displayed in the Instagram feed.

Video ads:
Videos in the Instagram feed or as stories.

Carousel ads:
Similar to Facebook carousel ads, but on Instagram.

Story ads:
Short, vertical videos or images shown between users’ stories.

Twitter

Promoted Tweets:
Sponsored tweets displayed in users’ feeds.

Promoted Accounts:
Sponsored accounts recommended to relevant users.

Promoted Trends:
Sponsored trending topics displayed at the top of the trends list.

LinkedIn

Sponsored Content:
Sponsored posts in users’ LinkedIn feed.

Sponsored InMail:
Sponsored messages sent directly to users’ LinkedIn inboxes.

Display ads:
Banners and text ads on the LinkedIn website.

Dynamic ads:
Ads that are automatically adjusted based on the user’s profile information.

Pinterest

Promoted Pins:
Paid pins shown in the Pinterest feed that lead users to a website.

Promoted Videos:
Videos displayed in the Pinterest feed.

Promoted Carousels:
A series of images users can scroll through horizontally.

TikTok

In-feed ads:
Short video ads shown in the TikTok feed.

Branded Hashtag Challenges:
Advertisers can challenge users to create content around a specific hashtag.

Each platform has its own specific advertising options, targeting capabilities, and formats. Advertisers can choose these channels based on their target audience, campaign goals, and the type of content they want to promote.

Step 5: A Stellar Marketing Strategy

A well-thought-out strategy is key to your Social Ads campaign’s success. After the problem statement and message are clear for the campaign, you can begin building a stellar marketing strategy. Choose the right social media channels to reach your audience in the best way. Facebook and Instagram are great for B2C, while LinkedIn is typically used for B2B. The content you use in each campaign is also a crucial part of a good marketing strategy. Video can be a better way to tell a brand story, but beautiful product photography can also drive clicks to the website. Content is an essential part of the marketing strategy.

Next, determine the right budget and distribute it wisely across the various campaigns. You’ll spend more budget on a traffic campaign than on a conversion campaign due to targeting. With a larger budget, you bring in a bigger (cold) audience, and with a smaller budget, you focus on converting the smaller (warm) audience.

Step 6: Create Stunning Ads for the Campaign

Creating attractive ads is a crucial step. When building the marketing strategy, you decide which content best translates your brand story into suitable ads. Key elements like a clear call-to-action button are important to encourage your audience to take action. The goal is to drive your audience to the website to purchase a product or engage a service. Make sure your ads align with your brand and showcase the products or services effectively.

Step 7: Launch the Successful Social Ads Campaign

Once the ads are ready, it’s time to set up the campaign in the respective Business Manager. This can be on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or another platform depending on your chosen channels. Start by setting up the campaign’s basic elements. First, choose the campaign goal and define your target audience. A target audience can be set up based on interests or using various retargeting options. With retargeting, we can re-engage recent website visitors or people who have added a product to their cart. Once the audience is defined, ads can be launched, and the ad text can be written. Then, select the right destination for the campaign, which can be the homepage, a shop page, or a contact form. This depends entirely on the campaign’s objective.

Once the audience, ads, and budget are set, it’s time to publish the campaign. During the campaign, various tests can be conducted on audience, content, and text.

Creating a Business Manager

It all starts with setting up and configuring the Business Manager. A Business Manager is the hub of the channel where the ad account is located, and where you can manage other aspects like billing, audience management, and event tracking.

Setting up the Ad Account

Once the Business Manager is set up, it’s time to create the ad account. You can do this easily via the Business Manager.

1. Log in to the Business Manager

Make sure you have set up a Business Manager before you begin.

2. Create the Ad Account

Once logged in, go to ‘Ad Accounts’. Here, you can view existing accounts or add a new one. To add a new account, click the ‘+ Add’ button and select ‘Ad Account’. Follow the instructions to set up the account.

3. Ad Account Settings

During the setup of the ad account, you’ll configure some basic settings, such as naming the account and selecting the currency for your ad spend.

4. Access and Permissions

After setting up the account, manage access and permissions. Assign team members to the ad account and choose their access level, such as administrator, advertiser, or analyst.

5. Payment Setup

To place ads, you need to set up a payment method. This involves providing credit card details or linking another payment method.

Creating the Campaign

Once all elements are in place, it’s time to create the campaign. Here, you’ll choose the campaign objective, name the campaign, and upload