As another year concludes, many reflect on their achievements, areas for improvement, and unfulfilled aspirations they might pursue in the coming year. This holds particularly true for marketing and advertising endeavors.
This article revisits highly effective Facebook and Instagram campaigns, examining their success factors and, more importantly, distilling six key takeaways for our 2020 planning:
- Generate sales through captivating upper-funnel videos
- Leverage relationship-driven marketing
- Observe major brands to optimize time and resources
- Acquire insights through Instagram Story polls
- Employ humor and engage unconventional demographics
- Achieve success through simplicity Let’s delve in.
1. Boost Sales with Engaging Top-of-Funnel Videos
Driving conversions is a universal goal, but did you know that, according to Motista, customers who feel emotionally connected to a brand deliver significantly more lifetime value? Video advertising excels at forging these connections because humans are inherently wired to respond emotionally to narratives. This emotional resonance fosters a bond with your brand and, when paired with precise targeting, populates your funnel with conversion-prone customers. This year, we collaborated with Pamela Lund of That Pam Chick to support her footwear client’s Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns promoting their customer-centric video series. These videos spotlight real customers sharing personal experiences. For instance, one video features family members running a bakery together, spending long hours on their feet (comfortably in their shoes, naturally), while another highlights a jewelry designer who discovered the brand while seeking comfortable shoes after breaking her foot before a gala. Each customer’s narrative is distinct, yet all the videos embody the client’s community spirit and genuine customer love for their shoes.
We leveraged the distinctive elements of each video, such as the featured customer’s location and profession, to target individuals most likely to connect with each story. Utilizing video views as the campaign objective, we constructed remarketing audiences to re-engage viewers through conversion-optimized campaigns featuring products showcased in each video. Since launching this video brand awareness strategy, the footwear client has witnessed a steady rise in branded, organic, and direct traffic and sales, along with enhanced retargeting outcomes. This strategy’s triumph stems from its relatable portrayal of intriguing individuals, allowing potential customers to envision themselves wearing the shoes without overt sales pressure. These videos prioritize connection and relationship building before any sales pitch, ultimately boosting down-funnel conversion rates.
2. Embrace Relationship-Focused Remarketing
We are passionate about fostering brand-consumer connections. While extending beyond paid social, we’ve found this approach effective for clients like Indow, a custom window insert manufacturer. While they’ve organically nurtured relationships with home product dealers, retailers, TV programs, and publications nationwide, we’ve amplified these efforts on social media. For example, the company was featured on several “This Old House” episodes on PBS. Capitalizing on this, we generated assets, landing pages, posts, videos, and tested branded content to broaden reach and visibility, subsequently remarketing to unconverted audiences. Similar success was achieved with “Old House Journal,” an online publication, through Facebook branded ads, resulting in increased engagement, traffic, and leads.
Personally, I actively engage with HARO, or Help a Reporter Out (HARO), submitting relevant queries for my agency and sharing them with clients and friends who might benefit. Public relations, often underutilized in paid social, can be potent. Clients like Indow have reaped the rewards, gaining publications from HARO submissions. Recently, a HARO connection reached out, featuring Indow in Martha Stewart’s magazine for an online article. Leveraging this, we launched a Facebook campaign, enhancing credibility and reminding remarketing audiences about Indow, ultimately generating leads from a wider, more established audience. Learn about using HARO for backlinks and PR here.
3. Observe Established Brands to Conserve Time and Budget
While not directly campaign-related, observing others’ strategies is crucial. I constantly monitor and explore other brands’ advertising campaigns, finding inspiration and valuable insights, something I encourage our clients to do as well.
You may not have Samsung’s resources, but observing them is beneficial. While we lack access to their performance data and strategy, these campaigns offer valuable learning opportunities. What aspects of the ads resonate with you? What motivates you to take action? Larger brands often possess greater resources, budgets, and market experience, so observing their approaches can save you time and money as you embark on your own campaigns.
4. Extract Valuable Data with Instagram Stories Polls
Seeking to enhance your Instagram Story ad engagement? Integrate polls into your creative. Swarovski and the Country Music Awards (CMA) offer compelling examples:
These polls effectively encourage interaction and provide insights into your audience’s content preferences, enabling you to amplify engagement and leverage collected data for further optimization.
5. Embrace Humor and Target Unconventional Demographics
If humor aligns with your brand, don’t shy away from incorporating it or even experimenting with new target audiences beyond your typical customer base. You might be surprised by the results. Hush Puppies successfully implemented this approach on Facebook and Instagram.
Their ads consistently caught my attention because I’m considerably younger than their usual older demographic. This prompted me to investigate, and to my delight, the ads were genuinely witty and humorous. Hush Puppies got it right: Comfortable shoes aren’t exclusive to grandparents. With the right approach, targeting an unconventional audience can unlock remarkable success, expanding your customer base, boosting engagement rates, and potentially increasing revenue.
6. Achieve Remarkable Results Through Simplicity
Let’s examine Starbucks’ Facebook approach and see how these minimalist principles can be applied to your ads. They maintain a simple yet effective strategy, avoiding unnecessary complexity:
Experiment with concise messaging. Use bullet points to highlight your business processes and customer benefits. Incorporate emojis if brand-appropriate, as they tend to be eye-catching, and leverage video creatives to boost views. Starbucks frequently employs Boomerang-style videos, which, along with subtle movement, naturally capture user attention, something we’ve seen work well for our clients too.
Conclude, Reflect, and Project
As we wrap up this post, year, and decade, reflect on your campaign successes. Which strategies, placements, and ad types will you prioritize in 2020? While effective approaches may persist, continuous testing is crucial as platforms evolve. If you encounter roadblocks, observe other brands’ strategies and explore new avenues for expansion.